North America - United States • M&A/corporate and commercial

Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP

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The ‘well-rounded’ practice at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP remains a key player on the M&A market and continues to advise on a wide range of impactful and high-value strategic transactions. The team demonstrates significant expertise in representing clients from across the financial services, tech, and infrastructure spheres, with practice head Eric Swedenburg regularly assisting public and private corporations with a diverse array of mergers, acquisitions and divestitures. The ‘reliable’ Mark Viera focuses on complex dispositions and leveraged buyouts, Lee Meyerson is noted for his expertise in connection with mergers in the financial services industry, and Alan Klein specializes in shareholder activism and corporate governance issues. Mario Ponce specialises in handling negotiated and hostile M&A transactions, and Elizabeth Cooper concentrates on recapitalizations and investments Katy Lukaszewski, who arrived from Sidley Austin LLP in September 2023, handles complex energy and infrastructure-based transactions. All attorneys mentioned are based in New York.

Legal 500 Editorial commentary

Testimonials

Collated independently by Legal 500 research team.

  • ‘The Simpson team around Mark Viera and Eric Swedenburg is made up of excellent attorneys and business partners. The team is well-rounded and has a deep bench and can provide counsel on all aspects of a transaction.’

  • ‘Mark Viera and Eric Swedenburg are reliable business partners. They are incredibly responsive and manage their team effectively.’

Key clients

  • 51job, Inc.
  • Bentley Systems, Incorporated
  • Best Buy Co. Inc.
  • Blue Buffalo
  • BMC Stock Holdings
  • BorgWarner Inc.
  • The Bountiful Company
  • Change Healthcare Inc.
  • Cisco Systems
  • Cooper-Standard Holdings Inc.
  • CSL Behring
  • Dell Technologies
  • Fifth Third Bancorp
  • First Data Corporation
  • Genesee & Wyoming
  • Gerdau S.A.
  • Harsco Corporation
  • Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc.
  • IBERIABANK Corporation
  • Ingersoll Rand, Inc.
  • Johnson Controls International
  • L3 Harris
  • Mars, Inc.
  • Melrose Industries PLC
  • Microsoft Corporation
  • The Mosaic Company
  • NN, Inc.
  • The ODP Corporation
  • Paysafe Group Holdings Limited
  • People’s United Bank
  • PG&E Corporation
  • PPD Inc.
  • Refinitiv
  • RPM International Inc.
  • Sirius XM Radio Inc.
  • SoftBank
  • Sony Music Entertainment
  • SunPower Corp
  • TCF Financial Corporation
  • Teleflex Incorporated
  • The Toronto-Dominion Bank
  • Board of Directors of Twitter, Inc.
  • Versum Materials
  • Vistra Energy Corp.
  • Vivint Smart Home, Inc.
  • Vivint Solar, Inc.
  • Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc.
  • Waste Management, Inc.

Work highlights

  • Represented Microsoft Corporation in its acquisition of Activision Blizzard for $75bn.
  • Represented Cisco Systems in its pending $28bn acquisition of Splunk.
  • Represented Stonepeak in its pending $7.4bn acquisition of Textainer.

Lawyers

Hall of Fame

The lawyers at the very top of the profession, widely known and respected by peers and clients for their longstanding involvement in market-leading work.

Lee Meyerson

Lee Meyerson

Hall of fameSimpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP

Chair of global Financial Institutions Practice and previous head of global M&A practice. Representations include Toronto-Dominion Bank’s First Horizon acquisition ($13.4 billion) and TD Ameritrade/The Charles Schwab sale ($26 billion); U.S. Bancorp/Union Bank acquisition ($8 billion); TCF Financial/Chemical merger ($3.5 billion) and TCF/Huntington merger ($6 billion); ADS/Bread acquisition ($450 million); People’s United’s sale to M&T ($7.4 billion) and multiple regional bank acquisitions ($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.

Leading lawyers

Alan Klein

Alan Klein

Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP

Alan is a Partner in the Firm's M&A Practice and until recently served as Co-Head of the Practice. Represented the board of Twitter in the company’s sale to Elon Musk. Advised Microsoft on many transactions, including its acquisition of Activision as well as LinkedIn, Skype, and many others; ChemChina in its acquisition of Syngenta, the largest acquisition ever by a Chinese company; Tyco in its merger with Johnson Controls, Inc.; and numerous other companies in cutting-edge transactions including Cisco, ADT, Best Buy, Wendy’s and Royal Ahold. He has also advised the boards of public companies including Aetna, Xerox, Yahoo and Baker Hughes, among others, on corporate governance matters.

Mario Ponce

Mario Ponce

Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP

Partner in the Corporate Department. Focuses on negotiated and hostile merger and acquisition transactions, proxy contests, restructurings, joint ventures, corporate governance and shareholder activism. Represents both public and private companies in a variety of industries and advises private equity clients. Counsel to boards of directors and special committees concerning corporate governance, fiduciary duties and other matters. Has significant experience in the energy, industrials, retail and healthcare industries.

Eric Swedenburg

Eric Swedenburg

Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP

Head of Simpson Thacher’s Mergers and Acquisitions Practice and a member of the Executive Committee, Eric Swedenburg represents companies in a wide range of mergers, acquisitions and divestitures, spin-offs, joint ventures and other significant corporate transactions. He also regularly counsels clients on shareholder activism, corporate governance and general corporate and securities law matters. In addition to his significant amount of work with public companies, Eric has extensive experience in advising special committees of boards of directors, private equity firms and financial advisors in both U.S. domestic and cross-border M&A transactions across a number of industry verticals. Some of his transactions have included representing AGCO, Change Healthcare, Dover, Genesee & Wyoming, Ingersoll Rand, K2M, Karuna Therapeutics, La Quinta, Mars, McKesson, SiriusXM, The Mosaic Company, Vodafone Group, Wendy’s and Wyeth. Eric has published various articles on M&A subjects and frequently speaks on M&A, shareholder activism and corporate matters, including as a regular panel participant in the annual Tulane Corporate Law Institute, which is recognized as one of the premier M&A, corporate and securities law conferences in the country.

Practice head

The lawyer(s) leading their teams.

Eric Swedenburg

Other key lawyers

Anthony Vernace, Lee Meyerson, Alan Klein, Mario Ponce, Jakob Rendtorff, Elizabeth Cooper, Atif Azher, Jonathan Corsico, Katy Lukaszewski, Mark Viera