2022 DIVERSITY DATABASE UNDERWRITER Sullivan & Cromwell LLP

A BigLaw powerhouse, Sullivan & Cromwell has followed—if not created—the blueprint for legal success: It has grown internationally and in response to the increasing cross-border M&A, restructuring, and finance transactional demands of the biggest corporate clients in the world. 

Kind of a Big Deal

Sullivan & Cromwell has consistently steered the development of many of the world’s corporate titans over the past 130-plus years. The firm founders, Algernon Sydney Sullivan and William Nelson, advised J.P. Morgan—as in the man himself—during the creation of Edison General Electric in 1882 and later guided key players in the formation of U.S. Steel and the financing of the Panama Canal. These lucrative foreign ventures caused the firm to be one of the first to expand internationally. 

Today, S&C boasts 13 offices across eight countries and handles some of the biggest deals and litigation in the world. It is consistently among the top 10 firms in Vault’s General Corporate, M&A, Project Finance, Securities/Capital Markets, and Banking and Financial Services rankings. Its litigation work is just as highly regarded, especially with respect to securities litigation and white collar defense—two other rankings where the firm sits among the top 10.

Generally Speaking

In a world of specialization, S&C is known for its unique “generalist approach.” S&C associates work across subgroups, industries, and geographic locations to get a well-rounded experience. The firm feels its generalist approach makes for better partners, and the vast majority of those partners begin their legal careers with S&C—either directly out of law school or after clerkships or government service—with a very limited number of lateral hires. S&C also sends plenty of its “generalist” lawyers to work in-house at clients or other companies, to government service, and to other careers. 

Associates are also armed with a career plan through which they focus on their skills, gaps in experience, and goals. If associates need additional guidance, they can turn to the firm’s internal career and alumni services office, which offers confidential career counseling whether they intend to stay at the firm or pursue a different career path.

Hitting the Books

S&C attorneys can be sure of one thing: The firm’s training is robust. It offers extensive internal training programs, and through S&C University—an online, on-demand, in-house viewing platform—lawyers can access recordings of these trainings from their computers. But in-house presentations are only the tip of the training iceberg. The firm even has a Moot Courtroom in its New York City office that lawyers can use to prepare for upcoming trials or train. The courtroom can be modified to approximate a trial court, appellate court, or arbitration venue, and boasts technology such as an interactive markup display. Not all training at the firm is practice-based; the firm’s Women’s Leadership Lunch Series offers regular career development programming. Past lunch topics have included crisis management, resilience, strategies for responding to stress, client development, and self-advocacy.

• S&C represents the 102 FTX Chapter 11 debtors as lead counsel in matters relating to its implosion, including conducting a comprehensive internal investigation and responding to multiple global investigations (ongoing).
• S&C is advising OpenAI in its continuing multiyear, multibillion-dollar partnership with Microsoft. (2022)
• S&C is advising California Resources Corporation (“CRC”) in the formation of a joint venture with Brookfield Renewable to create a carbon management partnership dedicated to carbon capture and sequestration; an innovative project that aims to significantly progress the decarbonization of California. (2022)
• S&C prevailed in a jury trial for Columbia University in its patent dispute with NortonLifeLock, winning a $185 million verdict that could be trebled due to the jury’s finding of willful infringement (2022)

• GIR 30 – “Leading Firm for Corporate Investigations,” 2022—Global Investigations Review
• “Most Outstanding Deal of the Year,” (for advising AT&T in the spin-off of its WarnerMedia business to Discovery), 2022—The Deal
• Seven “Practice Group of the Year” awards for Banking, Capital Markets, Fintech, International Arbitration, M&A, Transportation and White Collar, 2022–Law360
• Mansfield Rule 5.0 Certified, 2022—Diversity Lab
• Partner Morgan Ratner appointed as amicus curiae to defend the Eighth Circuit’s judgment in habeas corpus case Jones v. Hendrix (ninth woman of 69+ such appointments made by the Court since 1926), 2022–Supreme Court of the United States