Steve Kotran is a partner in the Firm’s Mergers & Acquisitions and Financial Services Groups and is a member of the Firm’s FinTech, Healthcare & Life Sciences and Private Equity Practices. Among other current and former leadership positions at the Firm, Mr. Kotran is currently Co-Head of its Global M&A Financial Advisory and Valuation Group and Global Insurance Practice. He represents buyers, sellers, special committees of independent directors and other principals as well as financial advisors in connection with M&A transactions and corporate governance matters in a wide range of industries, including negotiated and hostile acquisitions of public companies, negotiated sales of private companies, subsidiaries and divisions, transactions involving special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs), private equity transactions, leveraged buyouts, formation and dissolution of joint ventures and asset sales. S&C’s Global M&A Financial Advisory and Valuation Group has ranked #1 globally by deal volume in representing financial advisors on M&A transactions since 2015, having advised financial advisors on more than 500 transactions with an aggregate value of more than $2.1 trillion since 2015.
Mr. Kotran has been named for more than 20 years as a leading M&A, private equity and insurance transactional lawyer by numerous directories, including Chambers, IFLR1000, Lawdragon’s 500 Leading Dealmakers in America, Lexology Index (formerly Who’s Who Legal), The Legal 500, The Best Lawyers in America and New York Super Lawyers.
Mr. Kotran taught an M&A transactions course at Columbia Law School for many years. He also has lectured at NYU, Stanford, UPenn, UVA, Fordham and other law schools. He is a frequent speaker on M&A and corporate governance matters at professional programs sponsored by the ABA, the Practical Law Institute and numerous other organizations and he co-founded the Financial Advisory Task Force of the M&A Committee of the ABA.
Mr. Kotran is a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation and a member of the Corporate and M&A Advisory Board of Practical Law, M&A Committee of the ABA, National Council of the American Enterprise Institute, President’s Council of the National Constitution Center, Federalist Society, Harvard Alumni For Free Speech and The Jefferson Council (UVA).
Mr. Kotran graduated from Harvard University (A.B., 1985) and the University of Virginia School of Law (J.D., 1990) where he was an editor of the Virginia Law Review and a member of the Order of the Coif. He clerked for The Honorable Edward R. Becker in the United States Court of Appeals, Third Circuit from 1990-1991 and served as a legislative assistant to U.S. Senator Daniel P. Moynihan (D-NY) from 1985-1986.