|  |
Overview · Working Here · Firm History · Office Locations
One of the five oldest law firms in New York State, Cullen and Dykman LLP has been serving the legal needs of its clients since 1850.
A law firm's ability to survive and prosper for an extensive period beyond the professional lives of its founders is a testament to many things. First and foremost is that the attorneys have achieved tremendous success in working together to serve the immediate and long-term interests of their many clients. Cullen and Dykman LLP is a prime example of such a firm. For a century and a half, Cullen and Dykman LLP has represented the best interests of its clients while also contributing significantly toward the improvement of local communities and the quality of justice within the State.
In 1850 Alexander McCue, later a Judge, commenced the practice of law in the City of Brooklyn and some twenty years later joined two other distinguished Brooklyn lawyers to form the firm of McCue, Hall and Cullen. One of those partners, the Honorable Edgar M. Cullen, ascended through the New York judiciary to become the Chief Judge of the State.
Judge Cullen retired from his position as Chief Judge in 1915 and rejoined his former firm and its then senior partner, the Honorable William N. Dykman, who was later to become President of the New York State Bar Association. The firm then practiced law under the name of "Cullen and Dykman."
Just prior to Chief Judge Cullen returning to private practice, the firm moved to its current New York City office on historic Montague Street in Brooklyn Heights, just across the East River from downtown Manhattan. The firm has been at this location for over 90 years.
Cullen and Dykman LLP's Garden City office opened in 1966 to better serve its existing clients and to assist and participate in the business growth that has occurred on Long Island during the last forty years. In that relatively short period, the firm, which has always been the largest and leading law firm in Brooklyn and has a major presence among the leading firms in New York City, has achieved a preeminent position in the profession on Long Island.
In 2003, the firm crossed over the East River into Manhattan and merged with Bleakley Platt Remsem Millham & Curran LLP, a firm that traces its roots back almost as far as Cullen and Dykman LLP. The addition of an office located on Wall Street, along with the experience and exceptional capabilities of the Bleakley Platt attorneys and staff, gives Cullen and Dykman LLP the ability to provide full legal services to clients from the heart of New York's financial district.
The firm takes great pride in its achievements. But more importantly, it takes great satisfaction in the successes of its clients, both individual and corporate, over the last 150 years. The firm and its partners have played major roles in government, in business and in the legal profession in the State, New York City and on Long Island. Beginning with Judge McCue, who in 1867 chaired the committee which selected John Roebling as engineer for the proposed Brooklyn Bridge, through its representation of numerous financial institutions, including predecessors of what are now The Bank of New York and The Chase Manhattan Bank, Cullen and Dykman LLP has been at the forefront of the steady developments in government and commerce.
The firm is very proud of its long relationship with The Brooklyn Union Gas Company, which today is the fourth largest natural gas utility in the U.S. The firm incorporated Brooklyn Union in 1895, and more than a century later assisted Brooklyn Union in the formation of its new holding company KeySpan Energy Corporation and KeySpan's business combination with Long Island Lighting Company.
The firm also takes great pride in the prominent roles of its partners in government and in the profession. Members of the firm have served as Assistant Treasurer of the United States, Justice of the Appellate Division of the State Supreme Court, State Regent and Chief Judge of the State.
Aside from leadership roles in and the presidencies of a number of local bar associations, three of the firm's partners have served as President of the New York State Bar Association.
The small one partner office of Judge McCue, which was opened eight years before Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas squared off to debate, has grown and evolved into a large, modern, successful law firm, dedicated to the interests of its clients, with major offices in Brooklyn, Manhattan and Garden City, New York, Newark, New Jersey and Washington, D.C. We invite you to learn how Cullen and Dykman LLP can assist you with your legal needs.
| | |
|
