Work Department

Corporate/Mergers and Acquisitions

Position

Head of global Financial Institutions Practice and previous head of global M&A practice. Representations include Toronto-Dominion Bank’s TD Ameritrade/The Charles Schwab sale ($26 billion); People’s United’s acquisitions of United Financial, Suffolk, Farmington and Belmont ($2 billion total); IBERIABANK/First Horizon merger ($3.9 billion); WMH/Nationstar Mortgage merger ($3.8 billion); Fifth Third/MB Financial merger ($4.7 billion); Synovus/FCB Financial acquisition ($2.9 billion); KeyCorp/First Niagara acquisition ($4.1 billion); Petrohawk/BHP sale ($15.1 billion); JPMorgan/Bank One merger ($58 billion) and commodities business sale ($3.5 billion); Mellon/BONY merger ($16.8 billion); Toronto-Dominion in $33 billion of U.S. acquisitions; U.S. Treasury $250 billion TARP; Schwab/optionsXpress acquisition ($1 billion). Practice includes financial institutions IPOs, securities offerings.

Career

Partner, 1989.

Education

Duke University (B.A., magna cum laude, 1977); NYU Law School (J.D., 1981), Law Review editor.

Lawyer Rankings

United States > Finance > Financial services regulation

Strengthened by the recruitment in April 2018 of Stephen Cutler from JPMorgan Chase, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP‘s integrated transactional and regulatory team is a one-stop-shop for financial institutions engaged in M&A and capital markets matters. Team head Lee Meyerson is regularly at the forefront of the most significant matters handled by the team and recently advised NewStar Financial on its acquisition by First Eagle and the sale of its portfolio of assets of investment assets to GSO Capital Partners. Meyerson also led the firm’s representation of TCF Financial’s $3.5bn merger with Chemical Financial, the largest bank merger-of-equals transaction in over a decade. As well as working alongside Meyerson, Elizabeth Cooper regularly takes the lead on matters, as demonstrated by her recent work for a Blackstone-led consortium on its $20bn partnership agreement with Thomson Reuters for its Financial and Risk Business. Cooper also receives a significant flow of work on behalf of asset management firms acquiring minority interests in private equity sponsors; she recently advised Rockpoint on the sale of a minority interest to Blackstone Strategic Capital Holding. Recently Acting Comptroller of the Currency, Washington DC-based Keith Noreika has significant gravitas in the industry and, as well as providing useful input on financial services M&A, also provides ongoing standalone regulatory assistance to a plethora of clients, including Morgan Stanley and TCF Financial. Named attorneys are based in New York, unless otherwise indicated.

United States > M&A/corporate and commercial > M&A: large deals ($1bn+)

Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP continues to be recognized for its leading position in bulge-bracket private equity buyouts and this is increasingly matched by its presence in strategic M&A. The firm’s outstanding private equity knowledge and experience is frequently brought into play when representing sellers in contested auctions. Strategic M&A clients are also regularly spawned from private equity exits, where the firm maintains a relationship with the company’s management. The firm is also noted for its standing in domestic and cross-border transactions, especially in the financial services, healthcare, technology and energy sectors; it has a well-established office in Houston that has augmented its reputation in the oil and gas industry. The team is ‘extremely thorough, knowledgeable and very responsive‘. Clients include American Electric Power, Gerdau, Hilton Worldwide, Marathon Oil, Microsoft and Walgreens Boots Alliance. It advised L3 Technologies on its announced $33.5bn combination with Harris Corporation through an all-stock merger of equals transaction. It also advised Blue Buffalo Pet Products on its $8bn sale to General Mills. Moreover, it advised regular client Microsoft on its $7.5bn acquisition of GitHub. Alan Klein, who is recommended for cross-border deals and high-value tech deals especially, and Mario Ponce head the M&A practice, which includes leading financial institutions M&A expert Lee Meyerson, rapidly emerging talent Eric Swedenburg, experienced big-ticket M&A specialist William Curbow and junior partner Anthony Vernace. Brian Stadler is recommended for real estate-related deals and Latin America transactions specialist Todd Crider is ‘an outstanding individual‘.