2024 DIVERSITY DATABASE PREMIUM SPONSOR Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton

Cleary is a leading global law firm with a reputation for groundbreaking work. A dominant player in the international and corporate business world, Cleary has increased both its corporate and litigation capabilities, strengthening and expanding the full suite of resources it offers clients.

Globetrotting Trendsetter

Cleary Gottlieb was founded in 1946 with the simultaneous establishment of offices in New York and Washington, DC. The firm started to expand in 1949 with the opening of its Paris office. Cleary added an office in Brussels in 1960, contributing to its leading role in the burgeoning Eurodollar markets when the European Community came to Belgium a few years later. Cleary has continued to expand strategically; today, the firm operates offices throughout Europe, Asia, South America, and the Middle East.

Advising Worldwide

Cleary makes headlines worldwide with its highly regarded corporate, antitrust, and litigation practices. Cleary represented global healthtech company Medtronic, including its diabetes business, MiniMed, in MiniMed’s $560 million initial public offering and separation from Medtronic; Broadcom in its $87 million acquisition of VMware; T-Mobile in its $146 billion merger with Sprint (securing a victory in an unprecedented lawsuit by a group of state attorneys general attempting to block the merger); and McCormick & Company in its $44.8 billion merger with Unilever PLC’s global food business. The firm counseled Balt SAS and Balt USA on the first resolution of a matter under the DOJ’s new Corporate Enforcement and Voluntary Self Disclosure Policy and in the judicial agreement in the public interest negotiation with the French Parquet National Financier, marking a significant milestone in French anti-corruption enforcement practice. The firm also advised Thales, a French multinational aerospace and defense corporation, in its project to merge its space activities with Airbus and Leonardo, forming a €6.5 billion revenue entity, and it represented Blackstone in connection with the formation of Blackstone Life Sciences VI.

Cleary is also known for its representation of national governments, especially in advising on sovereign debt restructurings and financings. The firm represented Greece in the largest-ever sovereign debt restructuring and largest-ever bond exchange, valued at €206 billion and €31.9 billion, respectively. Cleary has also advised on bond offerings for many sovereigns, including Benin, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Côte d’Ivoire, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Mexico, Mongolia, the Philippines, and Senegal. Notably, Cleary represented the Puerto Rico Public-Private Partnerships Authority in a landmark agreement intended to transform Puerto Rico’s electric sector by providing modern, affordable, resilient, and reliable power to the island.

Welcome Back

Cleary alumni work in corporate C-suites, U.S. attorney’s offices, and government agencies, and lawyers regularly return to the firm following their years of government service. The firm is home to former federal prosecutors, including former U.S. Attorneys for the Eastern District of New York and Western District of Virginia and an acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. It also has former deputy assistant attorneys general from the DOJ’s Antitrust Division; a former director of the FTC’s Bureau of Competition; a former chief of the DOJ’s Foreign Corruption Practices Act Unit, and an attorney who served as former chief litigation counsel of the SEC’s Enforcement Division.

• Cleary represented Disney and 21st Century Fox on matters related to Disney’s acquisition of 21CF, one of the largest and most complex media transactions of all time.
• Cleary represented T-Mobile and Deutsche Telekom in connection with T-Mobile’s merger with Sprint, securing a decisive victory in an unprecedented multistate lawsuit filed in an attempt to block the merger.
• Cleary successfully represented Brazilian state-controlled oil company Petrobras in its historic securities litigation arising out of the widely covered corruption scandal Lava Jato (Operation Carwash).
• Cleary represented Greece in restructuring over €200 billion of government bonds—the largest sovereign debt restructuring in history.

• No. 1 in the Top 25 Global Elite, 2025—Global Competition Review
• Law Firm of the Year in Latin America (for a record 12th time), 2024—LatinFinance
• Top 10 Restructuring Firm, 2024—Global Restructuring Review
• Top 10 Firm on the A-List, 2024—The American Lawyer
• In the Top 15 North America Innovative Law Firm Index, 2024—Financial Times