S&C was named a Mergers & Acquisitions “Practice Group of the Year” by Law360. In an interview with the publication, Global Head of M&A Melissa Sawyer and Senior M&A Partner Frank Aquila said that diversity of the Firm’s practice—advising on matters from industries including life sciences, energy and utilities, financial institutions and commercial retail—is a key factor to its success in a year that saw a downturn in M&A.
“The cumulative effect of all of that diversification meant that, even in a year that, by all accounts, was pretty slow for M&A, we were able to touch a lot of different parts of the market and stayed extremely busy,” Melissa said. Frank added that the “depth and breadth” and detail-oriented nature of S&C’s practice is what keeps clients working with the group.
The Firm advised Seagen in its $43 billion acquisition by Pfizer, marking the largest all-cash pharma takeover in history, the largest all-cash acquisition of a pre-profitability company in any industry and one of the largest M&A deals announced in 2023. “We were hot and heavy in the midst of negotiations at a time when there were many who thought that the financial markets were falling apart,” Melissa said. “We were able to hold the deal together and move forward, and it ended up being a very successful transaction process from start to finish.”
S&C also advised Amgen in its $27.8 billion acquisition of Horizon Therapeutics, the largest healthcare merger announced in 2022 and Enbridge in its $14 billion pending acquisitions of three utilities providers from Dominion Energy, a deal that will create North America’s largest natural gas utility platform by volume.
S&C was named a “Firm of the Year” for its showing in these awards, tied for the most distinctions with nine practices selected.