Mr David Kappos > Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP > New York, United States > Lawyer Profile

Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP is praised for bringing ‘significant experience that uniquely adds traditional intellectual property and commercial data licensing and privacy to provide full service, experienced counsel on modern issues‘. The firm’s market leading M&A practice invariably leads to a significant amount of corporate transactional support, with deals such as advising CyrusOne on its $15 billion takeover by KKR and Global Infrastructure Partners.  The firm’s capacity for more pure technology transactional matters can be seen in its advice to IBM on its agreement with McDonald’s to accelerate the development and deployment of its Automated Order Taking technology in a deal which involved the acquisition of McD Tech Labs. IP co-head David Kappos  combines well with global co-head George Schoen to form a compelling offering. Corporate partner Keith Hallam is another key name within the team.

Intellectual property is an integral practice area at Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP, with a team of IP practitioners who are adept at handling matters involving patents, trade secrets, copyrights, and trademarks, as well as commercial litigation related to IP matters including antirust claims. In addition to national IP work, the team is capable of advising on global strategy, and benefits from close collaboration with other departments in the firm, including corporate and broader commercial litigation. Keith Hummel  and David Kappos co-chair the practice out of the firm’s New York office, regularly acting on complex patent litigation. In the same office, Sharonmoyee Goswami is integral to the team, as the go-to attorney for Alarm.com and often representing Abiomed.

Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP is well regarded for its expertise at the intersection of technology and finance. The New York-based team offers a strong combination of transactional and regulatory expertise and is regularly used by major banks and fintech companies. The firm is also noted for its ‘understanding of complicated blockchain technology and how to translate this into legal advice‘. Transactional support, including capital markets and M&A is a clear sweet spot for the firm, but the lawyers are also regularly involved in high profile securities related disputes, such as its support to Dfinity in a class action securities litigation concerning its Internet Computer Project master governance tokens. On the corporate side, the firm advised Afterpay on its $29 billion takeover by Block by way of a scheme of arrangement. David Kappos  leads the highly rated team, which includes corporate partner Scott Bennett, who has ‘a superb understanding of blockchain technology‘, and banking regulatory head David Portilla.