white-shoe
adjective
: of, associated with, or characteristic of the privileged moneyed upper class : upper-crust
a white-shoe law firm
Examples of white-shoe in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
In recent weeks, Baker McKenzie, a white-shoe law firm, axed 700 employees, Salesforce sacked hundreds of workers, and the auditing firm KPMG negotiated lower fees with its own auditor.
—
Annie Lowrey, The Atlantic, 18 Feb. 2026
Wachtell Lipton, the white-shoe Manhattan law firm conducting the investigation, has no deadline from the league to produce its findings.
—Arkansas Online, 15 Feb. 2026
Wachtell Lipton, the white-shoe Manhattan law firm conducting the investigation, has no deadline from the league to produce its findings.
—Benjamin Royer, Oc Register, 14 Feb. 2026
Then-commissioner David Stern, for the first time, hired Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, a prestigious white-shoe law firm a few blocks away from the league office in midtown Manhattan.
—Joe Vardon, New York Times, 13 Feb. 2026
With an undergraduate diploma from Middlebury and a law degree from the University of Virginia, Lorch worked on international deals in Europe and was of counsel at the white-shoe Manhattan law firm Whitman Breed Abbott & Morgan.
—Luke Cyphers, Sportico.com, 17 Oct. 2025
Universities like Harvard and Columbia, white-shoe D.C. law firms, Hollywood corporations like Paramount, and even Trump-supporting tech bros have all faced unprecedented political pressure.
—Peter Kiefer, HollywoodReporter, 21 Aug. 2025
In fact, Nixon left California and moved to the East Coast, taking a job at a white-shoe law firm and using New York City as his political base of operations.
—Mark Z. Barabak, Mercury News, 1 Aug. 2025
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
Annie Lowrey, The Atlantic, 18 Feb. 2026
Wachtell Lipton, the white-shoe Manhattan law firm conducting the investigation, has no deadline from the league to produce its findings.
—Arkansas Online, 15 Feb. 2026
Wachtell Lipton, the white-shoe Manhattan law firm conducting the investigation, has no deadline from the league to produce its findings.
—Benjamin Royer, Oc Register, 14 Feb. 2026
Then-commissioner David Stern, for the first time, hired Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, a prestigious white-shoe law firm a few blocks away from the league office in midtown Manhattan.
—Joe Vardon, New York Times, 13 Feb. 2026
With an undergraduate diploma from Middlebury and a law degree from the University of Virginia, Lorch worked on international deals in Europe and was of counsel at the white-shoe Manhattan law firm Whitman Breed Abbott & Morgan.
—Luke Cyphers, Sportico.com, 17 Oct. 2025
Universities like Harvard and Columbia, white-shoe D.C. law firms, Hollywood corporations like Paramount, and even Trump-supporting tech bros have all faced unprecedented political pressure.
—Peter Kiefer, HollywoodReporter, 21 Aug. 2025
In fact, Nixon left California and moved to the East Coast, taking a job at a white-shoe law firm and using New York City as his political base of operations.
—Mark Z. Barabak, Mercury News, 1 Aug. 2025
Cite this Entry
“White-shoe.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/white-shoe. Accessed 6 Mar. 2026.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
