Sullivan & Cromwell has received The American Lawyer’s “Corporate Practice of the Year” award for advising clients on deals involving some of the “most significant developments of this decade.” The award, given every two years, recognizes the Firm’s work for clients on the cutting edge of their industries who turn to us for novel solutions to complex problems. These matters include advising:
- OpenAI in its multiyear, multibillion-dollar partnership with Microsoft. The S&C team confronted unprecedented legal challenges, including structuring a collaboration that would accelerate breakthroughs in AI technology, while serving OpenAI’s mission of democratizing AI and ensuring its safe and ethical deployment.
- FTX Trading in one of the most challenging bankruptcies ever. The bankruptcy judge that approved the reorganization plan lauded it as a “model case for how to deal with a very complex Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceeding.”
- Seagen in its $43 billion acquisition by Pfizer, which will help advance the treatment of cancer by giving Pfizer access to Seagen’s antibody-drug conjugate technology capabilities. The deal marked the largest all-cash pharma takeover in history and the largest all-cash acquisition of a pre-profitability company in any industry.
- Discover in its pending merger with Capital One in a $35.3 billion all-stock transaction.
- Amgen in its $28.5 billion cross-border acquisition of Horizon, which overcame litigation filed by the Federal Trade Commission and six states.
- Credit Suisse in its $3.2 billion merger with UBS, marking the highest profile and arguably most critical bank M&A deal since the 2008 global financial crisis, and the first combination of two globally systemic important financial institutions. Following that deal, S&C advised UBS to help integrate the two banks.
- SoftBank Group as majority shareholder in Arm Holdings’ $5.23 billion offering of American depositary shares on the Nasdaq Global Select Market, the largest IPO of 2023. The transaction valued the British company at $54.5 billion—making Arm the most valuable company to go public in nearly two years.
A distinguishing feature of S&C is that our lawyers continue to be generalists, trained in many facets of corporate law. While this is a long-lost practice at most firms, we believe that broad experience and deep knowledge create the best foundation for the most trusted advisers.