Rita O’Neill is a partner in Sullivan & Cromwell’s Los Angeles office and serves as co-head of the Firm’s Global Private Equity Group. She has a broad-based practice that includes advising clients on mergers and acquisitions and securities offerings, and providing general corporate advice on disclosure and governance. She has advised clients in a wide range of industries, including consumer and retail, financial institutions, healthcare and life sciences, industrials, telecommunications and transportation.
Professional Activities and Community Involvement
Rita serves as vice chair of the ABA M&A Committee and co-chair of the ABA Acquisition of Public Companies Subcommittee. She is the former chair of its M&A Market Trends Subcommittee and its Deal Points Study on Carveout Transactions. Rita is a member of S&C’s Women’s Initiative Committee and is the co-founder and co-chair of a national Women in M&A Network (WiMA), a network of senior women dealmakers focused on business generation. She is the immediate past co-chair of the ABA’s Women in M&A Subcommittee, which was formed to promote the recruiting, retention, and promotion of women lawyers in M&A. Rita is co-chair of the Tulane Corporate Law Institute, and regularly participates on panels and guest teaches classes at law schools related to substantive M&A topics, as well as on gender diversity and women in the legal profession. Rita is also an active provider of pro bono legal services with a particular focus on education, foster youth and animal rights. She is a member of the Boston College Law School Dean’s Advisory Board.
