Scharf Banks Marmor

What Scharf Banks Marmor does

Scharf Banks Marmor LLC is a women-owned boutique law firm founded in 2002 and headquartered at 30 W Hubbard St, Chicago, IL. The firm delivers sophisticated legal services across ten practice areas, including Complex Litigation & Appeals, Product Liability (anchored by PLI treatise co-editorship), Life Sciences, Intellectual Property & Advertising, Employment Counseling & Litigation, Insurance Coverage, Antitrust, Compliance & Corporate Governance, Pay Equity, and Food and Consumer Products. Its competitive position rests on partner-level talent recruited from AmLaw 100 firms (notably Kirkland & Ellis and Jenner & Block) and Fortune 100 corporate law departments, supplemented by attorneys holding medical degrees, PhDs in social sciences, and patent bar admissions that enable scientific and technical matters typically routed to larger firms.

The firm serves a diversified enterprise client base spanning pharmaceutical and life sciences (Pfizer, Merck, AbbVie), financial services (BMO Bank, Discover, Prudential), food and consumer products (Mondelez, Chobani, Mizkan, OSI Group), hospitality (Hyatt), technology (Yelp, Guidant), and government entities (Cook County, FTC, Competition Bureau of Canada). Service delivery is supported by a proprietary secure cloud-based client document portal providing searchable, organized access to pleadings, case documents, and transcripts across pretrial, trial preparation, and trial phases.

The business model combines traditional hourly billing with alternative fee arrangements (flat fee, sliding scale, partial contingency, results bonuses) structured to incentivize early resolution. The firm operates as a direct-engagement boutique with no traditional marketing, relying on thought leadership publishing, bar association leadership (ABA, NAWL, PLAC, PLI), conference speaking, and referrals. The firm has 11-50 employees, no disclosed funding rounds, no parent company, and operates as an independent partnership.

Name

Scharf Banks Marmor

Legal name

Scharf Banks Marmor LLC

Website

https://scharfbanks.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2002

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Scharf Banks Marmor is a women-owned Chicago boutique law firm serving Fortune 500 enterprises and government entities across litigation, life sciences, employment, IP, and regulatory matters, with partners sourced from leading AmLaw 100 firms.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Boutique Law Firm Services

NAICS

Offices of Lawyers (541110), Offices of Lawyers (54111)

SIC

Services-Legal Services (8111)

akta.pro primary industry

Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A) & Securities Law (BPAHAAAI)

Keywords

• Commercial litigation
• Product liability defense
• Employment law
• Intellectual property law
• Corporate transactions

Headquarters

HQ city

Chicago

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Legal Services - Hourly Billing: Traditional hourly rate billing for legal services with clients who prefer this model. Partners and counsel provide direct legal services.
2. Alternative Fee Arrangements: Alternative fee arrangements including flat fee, sliding scale, partial contingency, and results bonuses. The firm especially likes arrangements that push for early results and has implemented a number of such deals. These arrangements work in both counseling and complex litigation contexts.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

Scharf Banks Marmor is a women-owned boutique law firm providing sophisticated legal counsel and representation across ten practice areas including Antitrust, Complex Litigation & Appeals, Product Liability and Toxic Tort Defense, Employment Counseling & Litigation, Insurance Coverage, Intellectual Property & Advertising, Compliance & Corporate Governance, Business Law, Life Sciences, and Pay Equity. The firm serves Fortune 500 companies, mid-market businesses, and government entities through partner-level attorneys from leading AmLaw 100 firms and Fortune 100 corporate law departments.

Product overview

Scharf Banks Marmor is a women-owned boutique law firm offering a portfolio of 10 legal practice areas rather than a unified software product. Its practice areas include Antitrust, Food and Consumer Products, Business Law (including M&A, compliance, and corporate governance), Insurance Coverage, Complex Litigation & Appeals, Intellectual Property & Advertising, Compliance & Corporate Governance, Life Sciences, Employment Counseling & Litigation, and Pay Equity. The firm also provides a client-facing online matter access portal giving clients secure, searchable access to case documents and transcripts across all matters. The individual practice areas function as distinct service lines, all delivered by a team of experienced attorneys drawing on the firm's shared expertise and resources.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Antitrust
• Food and Consumer Products
• Business Law
• Insurance Coverage
• Complex Litigation & Appeals
• Intellectual Property & Advertising
• Compliance & Corporate Governance
• Life Sciences
• Employment Counseling & Litigation
• Pay Equity

Quantifiable outcome

• Won over 40 trial and appellate decisions in state and federal courts

Named customers23 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles5 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature3 records

Partnerships

Six partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• DirectWomencoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerStephanie Scharf served for six years on the DirectWomen Board of Directors and now co-chairs the organization's International Boards Committee. DirectWomen is a national organization whose mission is to increase the representation of women lawyers on corporate boards. Since its founding, more than 42% of DirectWomen alumnae have been elected to serve on at least one corporate board.
• National Association of Women Lawyers (NAWL)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerStephanie Scharf served as President of NAWL from 2004-2005 and is a member of the Board of Directors from 2000-2008. She is the Founding Chair of the Committee for Evaluation of Supreme Court Nominees and Founding Chair of the Survey of Retention and Promotion of Women in Law Firms. She founded and conducted the NAWL Annual Survey of Women in Law Firms (2006-2014). She designed programs such as the NAWL General Counsel Institute, the NAWL Supreme Court Committee, and the NAWL Summit for Best Practices for Advancing Women in Law.
• American Bar Association Commission on Women in the ProfessioncoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerStephanie Scharf was Chair of the ABA Commission on Women in the Profession from 2017-2020. She was Special Advisor to the 2015-2016 ABA Presidential Commission on Diversity and Inclusion and co-chaired the ABA Presidential Initiative Achieving Long-Term Careers for Women in the Law.
• Product Liability Advisory Council (PLAC)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerGeorge Sax has served as a sustaining member of PLAC since 2019. PLAC is an invitation-only not-for-profit association of more than 100 companies which manufacture, distribute or supply products and services, as well as select regulatory, litigation and appellate professionals who work to shape the common law of product liability and complex regulation. George is co-chair of the PLAC 2019 Fall Conference.
• SCG LegalminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerSCG Legal is a global network of primarily full-service firms offering legal, regulatory, government relationship and business strategy solutions. Sarah Marmor participated in the SCG Legal 2023 Midyear Meeting Employment law panel in Berlin, Germany. The firm participates in this network for knowledge sharing and potential referrals.
• Practising Law Institute (PLI)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerStephanie Scharf, George Sax, and Sarah Marmor serve as co-editors of the Product Liability Litigation: Current Law, Strategies and Best Practices treatise published by PLI. Partners frequently publish and speak at PLI programs.

Scale indicators2 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Direct peers

• Bartlit Beck Herman Palenchar & Scott: Elite Chicago-based litigation boutique with a similar lean, partner-led model serving Fortune 500 clients in complex commercial disputes, product liability, and appellate work. Comparable in scale, pedigree (largely ex-AmLaw 100), and client profile to SBM.
• Neal Gerber Eisenberg: Chicago-based boutique firm with overlapping practice areas in litigation, employment, intellectual property, and corporate transactions serving middle-market and enterprise clients.
• Schoeman Updike Kaufman & Scharf: Predecessor Chicago firm where SBM's founders (Sarah Marmor, Stephanie Scharf, George Sax) previously practiced as partners before launching SBM in 2002; operates a similar boutique litigation and employment model.
• Much Shelist: Chicago-based boutique firm serving middle-market and emerging-growth clients across corporate, litigation, employment, and IP practices—directly comparable boutique positioning and Chicago base.
• Howard & Howard: Chicago-headquartered boutique firm with full-service practice areas including litigation, IP, and corporate matters; comparable size and client profile to SBM.
• Cassiday Schade LLP: Chicago-based litigation boutique serving insurance, product liability, and commercial dispute clients; similar mid-size boutique structure and overlap in product liability and insurance coverage practices.
• Aronberg Goldgehn Davis & Greenbaum: Chicago boutique firm with comparable practice mix in litigation, employment, real estate, and corporate law serving middle-market and closely-held business clients.

Broad incumbents

• Seyfarth Shaw: Chicago-founded AmLaw firm with nationally recognized employment, litigation, and IP practices; broader geographic footprint and headcount than SBM but overlapping service offerings and Fortune 500 client base.
• Jenner & Block: Chicago-based AmLaw 100 firm where SBM's founders previously practiced; comparable litigation, product liability, and appellate practices with significantly greater scale and geographic reach.
• Sidley Austin: Chicago-founded global AmLaw firm with overlapping practices in complex litigation, product liability, antitrust, IP, and life sciences; competes with SBM for Fortune 500 mandates at substantially greater scale.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles4 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Scharf Banks Marmor