Even as Shearman & Sterling battles through staff cuts, a leadership change and a failed tie-up, its mergers and acquisition practice is thriving.
The New York firm scored 47 deals worth $26.1 billion as principal adviser in the first quarter, ranking 11th among rivals, according to Bloomberg data. Last year the firm ranked 30th in the same period.
“We have consciously really doubled down on our public company M&A focus,” Scott Petepiece, the firm’s M&A practice leader, said in an interview. “We’re very active in the market in terms of what I would characterize as identifying new relationships.”
The practice has been a bright spot in an otherwise difficult start to the year for the firm. Shearman over one month starting Feb. 8 said it was laying off 38 attorneys and professional staff, ending merger talks with Hogan Lovells and moving on from its current leader. Last week, the firm said it announced further cuts to its business services workforce, without specifying a number.
The instability has prompted lawyers to look around. The day Shearman announced an end to merger talks, Morgan Lewis said it hired a 20-lawyer Munich team from the firm. Cahill Gordon & Reindel said less than a week later it hired Shearman’s co-head of the financial restructuring and...
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