white-shoe

adjective

ˈ(h)wīt-ˈshü 

: 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

While Americans may have little sympathy for the soft hands and power suits of America’s corporate white-shoe law firms, legal experts warn that the stakes are that high. —Henry Gass, Christian Science Monitor, 3 Apr. 2025

But the fund’s failings struck at the heart of New York’s intentions, said Eric Olson, a corporate and finance lawyer at Cleary Gottlieb, a white-shoe firm helping some licensees to develop their businesses pro bono. —Ashley Southall, New York Times, 26 Feb. 2025

Her first job out of Yale Law School was as a prosecutor with the Manhattan district attorney’s office — a different path from many of her classmates who sought high-paying jobs with white-shoe law firms. —Jay Weaver, Miami Herald, 12 Feb. 2025

China, India, the Gulf states, and the larger European countries all hire expensive and highly reputed lobbying and white-shoe law firms to advance their interests in Congress. —Jorge G. CastaÑeda, Foreign Affairs, 4 Feb. 2025

The federal judiciary, particularly at its highest levels, had become increasingly homogeneous in recent decades, populated mostly by white men with careers in prosecutors’ offices and white-shoe law firms. —Henry Gass, The Christian Science Monitor, 20 Dec. 2024

Few companies are as well positioned as Disney — with its Jedi-level brand power and a veritable army of the best white-shoe lawyers money can buy — to stomach such a fight. —Allison Morrow, CNN, 19 Dec. 2024

Bates plays a septuagenarian lawyer who returns to the workforce at a fancy white-shoe New York law firm seemingly out of desperate financial need. —Kelly Lawler, USA TODAY, 5 Dec. 2024

Those include a Supreme Court ruling overturning the Arthur Andersen convictions; the ever-revolving door of DOJ lawyers going to white-shoe law firms; and more prosecutors who fear losing cases. —Leo Schwartz, Fortune, 16 Oct. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1957, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for white-shoe

• accrue
• ado
• ainu
• aircrew
• airscrew
• anew
• askew
• baboo
• babu
• bamboo
• beaucoup
• bijou