Law360 Rising Stars: Eight Sullivan & Cromwell Lawyers Named Rising Stars

Eight Sullivan & Cromwell lawyers across a range of practices have been named Law360 Rising Stars, a distinction for “attorneys under 40 whose legal accomplishments transcend their age. ”The Sullivan & Cromwell lawyers were selected from more than 1,350 submissions.

Mehdi Ansari in Sports & Betting

Co-head of S&C’s Intellectual Property & Technology Transactions Group, Mehdi represents clients in the sports and entertainment sectors as well as in consumer and retail,  healthcare and life sciences, technology, media and telecommunications and financial services. Mehdi advised on DraftKings’ acquisition of Golden Nugget Online Gaming, Major League Baseball’s sale of BAMTech to The Walt Disney Corporation and MSG’s spin-off of MSG Entertainment. Mehdi also led the representation of UBS in acquiring naming rights for the New York Islanders’ new arena.

Learn more about Mehdi’s practice.


Michelle Chen in Banking

Michelle is a partner in S&C’s Financial Services Group, with a broad regulatory and transactional practice. Michelle represented M&T Bank in its $8.3 billion acquisition of People's United Financial this year, and she is representing MUFG in its pending $8 billion sale of its U.S. core regional banking franchise to U.S. Bancorp. Michelle also advised Fiserv on its $22 billion acquisition of First Data in 2019, one of the largest deals in the fintech/payments industry. In addition, she counsels financial institutions on ESG matters, in particular those relating to climate change.

Learn more about Michelle’s practice.


Dustin Guzior in Technology

A litigation partner co-head of S&C’s Intellectual Property & Technology Litigation practice, Dustin focuses his practice on trials and hearings, often involving intellectual property, technology, antitrust or complex commercial disputes. Dustin has played a leading role in many of S&C’s biggest recent technology-related cases, including serving as co-lead counsel for the Ocado Group in successfully defending against patent infringement claims by rival AutoStore before the U.S. International Trade Commission. Dustin also served as co-lead trial counsel for Columbia University in its recent patent trial victory against NortonLifeLock in which the jury awarded Columbia $185 million in base damages, which may be trebled for willful infringement. Dustin is a co-chair of S&C’s LGBTQ+ affinity network and has worked on cases protecting the rights of same-sex couples involving marriage and adoption.

Learn more about Dustin’s practice.


Samantha Hynes in Competition/Antitrust

Samantha is a partner in S&C’s Antitrust Group who works on both transactions and litigation. She has played a key role in obtaining antitrust clearance for multi-billion-dollar M&A deals, including  Praxair’s $90 billion merger of equals with Linde, Amazon’s $13.7 billion acquisition of Whole Foods Market and Amgen’s $13.4 billion acquisition of Celgene’s Otezla drug. Samantha also recently helped deliver a litigation victory to Volkswagen, Audi and Porsche in two antitrust class actions brought in the wake of a highly-publicized European Commission investigation.

Learn more about Samantha’s practice.


Alexa Kranzley in Bankruptcy

Alexa Kranzley is a special counsel in the Firm’s Restructuring Group. She represents companies and creditors in Chapter 11 proceedings and out-of-court corporate and financial restructurings, and private equity and hedge funds in distressed transactions and special situation investments.  Alexa has helped debtors, plan sponsors and proactive creditors navigate some of the largest and most challenging chapter 11 cases in U.S. history, including Garrett Motion, Eastman Kodak and California Resources Corporation.


Learn more about Alexa’s practice.


Julia Malkina in Securities

Julia is co-lead of the Firm’s Securities Litigation practice. She joined the Firm after clerking at the U.S. Supreme Court and D.C. Circuit and serving in the Solicitor General’s Office. Julia has played a key role in some of the most closely watched securities cases in recent years, including Arkansas Teacher Retirement System v. Goldman Sachs Group, Inc., in which the Supreme Court ruled 8-1 in favor of S&C client Goldman Sachs, clarifying the standards for rebutting the “fraud-on-the-market” presumption of class-wide reliance established by the Court in Basic v. Levinson. Julia also played a key role in advising BlockFi Lending in negotiations with the Securities and Exchange Commission and state regulators over interest-bearing cryptocurrency accounts, reaching settlements that clarified important regulatory questions around cryptocurrency lending practices.

Learn more about Julia’s practice.


Jamie McDonald in Compliance

Jamie is a partner in the Firm’s Securities & Commodities Investigations practice and its Commodities, Futures & Derivatives practice. He advises clients on regulatory enforcement matters, white-collar criminal matters and internal investigations, as well as on corporate governance and compliance related to commodities and derivatives laws. Jamie played a lead role advising BlockFi Lending in negotiations with the Securities and Exchange Commission and 47 other regulators over interest-bearing cryptocurrency accounts, reaching settlements that will clarify important regulatory questions around interest-bearing cryptocurrency accounts and cryptocurrency lending platforms. Jamie also served as co-lead counsel advising a special committee convened by the board of directors of Lordstown Motors that conducted an internal investigation into issues raised by the company’s statements about its production plans for its electric trucks, while advising Lordstown in a related government investigation.

Learn more about Jamie’s practice.


Morgan Ratner in Appellate

Morgan is special counsel in the Firm’s Supreme Court and Appellate practice.  Before joining S&C, Morgan served in the Office of the Solicitor General at the U.S. Department of Justice, where she argued before the U.S. Supreme Court eight times by the age of 35, including in important cases involving religious freedom, patent law and securities law. She is representing Goldman Sachs in a high-profile securities case that the Supreme Court reviewed and remanded last year and played a key role on a successful Rule 23(f) petition to obtain an exceedingly rare third discretionary appellate review of class certification.

Learn more about Morgan’s practice.