The New York Law Journal has recognized Sullivan & Cromwell Senior Chair Joe Shenker with its “Lifetime Achievement” award. Joe served as the Firm’s Chair from 2010 to 2022, enhancing S&C’s position as one of the world’s premier law firms.
After becoming the youngest partner in S&C’s history in 1986 (at the age of 29), Joe led the Firm’s Global Commercial Real Estate practice for more than 20 years. In the 1980s he pioneered real estate securitization, advising Goldman Sachs on the financing of its headquarters and the securitization and sale of Rockefeller Center to a REIT. Clients regularly turn to him for their most significant and sensitive matters, including Frank McCourt when he sold the Dodgers, the New York Giants and Jets when they built Met Life Stadium, General Growth Properties in its $28 billion merger with Brookfield, Major League Baseball when it sold a stake in its technology services and digital video streaming business to The Walt Disney Company, and prominent families that need legal advice.
As Chair, Joe was an advocate for inclusion and change and was a pioneer in integrating innovative technology into S&C. He also led the creation of the Firm’s Career and Alumni Center, which provides career counseling to S&C lawyers and placement advice to those seeking other opportunities.
Joe serves on the Dean’s Council of Columbia Law School and as Chair Emeritus and a Board Director of The Met Council on Jewish Poverty, America’s largest Jewish charity serving the needy. In 2022, Joe received the “Judge Joseph M. Proskauer Award” from the UJA-Federation of New York for his philanthropic commitment and for organizing law firm leaders in publicly denouncing anti-Semitism following a surge in anti-Semitic attacks.