Mr Stephen Blake > Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP > Palo Alto, United States > Lawyer Profile

The ‘calm, yet authoritative demeanor’ of Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP‘s M&A litigators allows them to secure favorable results for companies, their directors and officers and private equity sponsors in pre-merger suits and post-closing appraisal proceedings and claims for damages. Spearheading the firm’s efforts are Jonathan Youngwood, who represented Paramount Global in defense of a suit brought by Employees’ Retirement System of Rhode Island, which suspected breaches of fiduciary duty in the former’s proposed merger with Skydance Media, and Lynn Neuner, who was able to secure a settlement between Pfizer and former Mylan shareholders in relation to Mylan’s merger with Pfizer’s Upjohn division. Fraud specialist Peter Kazanoff assisted the Special Committee of General Growth Properties in reaching a settlement with shareholders who alleged the Special Committee had breached its fiduciary duties while overseeing the company’s sale to Brookfield Property Partners. Palo Alto’s Stephen Blake merges expertise in M&A and regulatory litigation, and in 2024 represented Microsoft against a claim launched by a stockholder who alleged that Microsoft aided and abetted breaches of fiduciary duty by Activision and certain directors in the companies’ 2023 merger. All lawyers named are New York-based unless otherwise specified.

Leveraging a deep bench of trial and appellate lawyers, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP is well-equipped to represent a myriad financial services entities and blue-chip corporates in big-ticket securities litigation/derivative shareholder matters, in many cases often also involving complex parallel government investigations/enforcements. The scope of the work is broad, including 10b-5 and section 11 cases, as well as M&A litigation and more general corporate governance-related disputes. Vastly experienced team head Jonathan Youngwood is as comfortable acting for large public companies (including within the media and entertainment field) facing down potentially financially ruinous securities fraud class action allegations and on ERISA stock drop litigation, as he is for underwriter banks in the aftermath of IPOs. As well as a vibrant securities litigation and derivative shareholder practice for corporates from a range of industry sectors, Craig Waldman also has tangential expertise regarding litigation arising from strategic and financial sponsor-led transactions. Lynn Neuner, who co-heads the overarching litigation group alongside Youngwood, is also a skilled trial lawyer, with many of her cases falling in the securities litigation ambit. Palo Alto-based Stephen Blake is also a highly proficient securities class action litigator (in relation to conventional public IPOs as well as with regard to SPACs), whose expertise not only covers private litigation but also overlapping SEC regulatory enforcement/investigations. All named practitioners are based in New York unless otherwise indicated.