Mr Andrew Pitts > Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP > NEW YORK, United States > Lawyer Profile

Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP is highly rated for complex and high-value deals; it does not have the volume of transactions that some of its competitors have. Many of its high-yield debt engagements relate to major acquisition and spin-off transactions. It has an outstanding client list of issuers and bulge-bracket underwriters, with a weighting towards underwriter mandates. Andrew Pitts, William Fogg and Craig Arcella are amongst the leading names in the market, along with Joseph Zavaglia, who has advised on a series of headline deals, including advising initial purchasers and the dealer managers in a series of offerings by CHS/Community Health Systems. Matthew Jones was promoted to partner in January 2021 and Johnny Skumpija joined Sidley Austin LLP in March 2021.

Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP has a hugely impressive client base of international issuers, despite it having just two offices, in New York and London; the firm has a large team of US lawyers in the UK capital. Along with an extensive list of corporate issuer clients, it has also landed engagements from a number of sovereign and supranational entities. Amongst a number of headline deals, it advised AerCap Ireland Capital Designated Activity Company and AerCap Global Aviation Trust in their $21bn registered fixed and floating rate senior notes offering and their $1bn registered senior notes offering. Craig Arcella is co-head of the finance practice and has an outstanding record in investment grade, high‑yield and convertible bond offerings, along with IPOs for international issuers. David Mercado  is another experienced figure in global offerings, especially for European and Latin American issuers; he previously completed a long stint in London. Andrew Pitts, Nicholas Dorsey  and Scott Bennett are also key names.

Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP has maintained its illustrious reputation in the DCM space, advising on a range of registered and Rule 144A/Regulation S debt offerings for prestigious issuers and underwriters. This includes a variety of investment grade, high-yield, convertible and exchangeable debt securities. The core team has worked on a series of headline and high-value debt offerings, including representing the underwriters in the $13bn registered floating rate notes and fixed to floating rate notes offerings by JPMorgan, the largest ever bond sale by any bank. Craig Arcella and Andrew Pitts are leaders in the field, including in investment grade and high-yield debt transactions. William Fogg and Stephen Burns are also senior finance practitioners with an extensive record in the capital markets field, segment Scott Bennett is now an established senior name, and Nicholas Dorsey is amongst the next generation of top practitioners. Johnny Skumpija left the firm in March 2021.

Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP‘s multi-talented capital markets team typically lands a sizeable market share of headline and high-value IPOs and other equity offerings. Despite the team’s relatively small size compared to major competitors, it has an outstanding record in both issuer and underwriter engagements; it advised Robinhood Markets on its $1.9bn IPO. The group operates across multiple sectors and has also landed a number of SPAC IPO mandates. William Fogg and Andrew Pitts are especially prolific advisers on equity offerings, along with Scott Bennett and Nicholas Dorsey . Johnny Skumpija  has joined Sidley Austin LLP.