S&C has long been known for advising clients on transformative industry-shaping deals. Once again, lawyers in our M&A Practice have been recognized for their achievements for clients as two of our teams were selected for The American Lawyer’s “Dealmakers of the Year” distinction.
Matt Hurd, Melissa Sawyer and Renata Hesse were chosen for advising Seagen in its $43 billion acquisition by Pfizer, the largest-ever all cash acquisition in the biopharmaceutical industry, which will help accelerate the next generation of cancer treatment breakthroughs. Nader Mousavi and Mark Schenkel were selected for advising OpenAI on the third phase of its multiyear, multibillion-dollar partnership with Microsoft, which The American Lawyer described as a deal that “has the potential to help shape the future of everything.”
This marks the 28th time that S&C lawyers have been named “Dealmakers of the Year” by The American Lawyer in the past 26 years, the most of any law firm.
Both deals highlight S&C’s strength in guiding clients through the most complex and innovative transactions. Matt, the Co-Head of S&C’s Healthcare & Life Sciences Group, told the publication that S&C has a history of working with “innovative and successful companies … and this [merger] was a good example of that.” Commenting on the OpenAI deal, Nader, the Co-Head of S&C’s Artificial Intelligence Practice, said: “[W]hile no one had done this before, we were the team who had the experience in technology, joint ventures and licensing, as well as the ability to be both creative and commercial.”
S&C led all law firm advisers in announced and completed global deals in 2023, according to Bloomberg and LSEG. The Firm advised on global announced deals totaling more than $345 billion and on completed global deals totaling more than $431 billion.
In recent years, S&C lawyers have been recognized as “Dealmakers of the Year” for their impactful work advising: