Sullivan & Cromwell boasts a pedigree as one of the most revered legal brands on the global stage. A towering full-service firm, with concentration on the East and West Coasts through its offices in New York, Washington DC and two offices in California – Palo Alto and Los Angeles. While its offerings extend beyond litigation, Sullivan & Cromwell’s dispute-resolution depth and acuity is called into service by some of the firm’s biggest blue-chip clients. “When people talk about law firms to someone who’s not a lawyer, often they will just randomly throw out ‘Sullivan & Cromwell’ as an example because the name carries that much weight, like Coca-Cola or Apple,” marvels one peer. “We should all be so lucky.” Speaking to the firm’s A-list client base, another peer quips, “Goldman Sachs has them on speed-dial. S&C has that premium work on lockdown.”
Supporting this assertion, Sullivan & Cromwell scored a win for this client in August 2023 when the Second Circuit Appeals Court reversed the certification of a class of Goldman Sachs shareholders in a case
dating back to the 2008 financial crisis and alleged conflicts of interests in Goldman Sachs investment vehicles relating to subprime mortgages. Plaintiffs claimed that those alleged conflicts contradicted generic statements made by Goldman Sachs about its corporate principles and conflicts management procedures, which had supposedly inflated the price of Goldman Sachs stock.
Robert Giuffra, a mainstay of the New York office, provided lead counsel. “Bob Giuffra is high-energy and fast, but savvy” observes a peer. “He knows when to try a case and he also knows how and when to pull back. I’ve seen judges get stunned by his courtroom abilities – like, who has this much stamina? So you almost get thrown off guard when you see how measured and reasonable he is. Maybe it’s a tactic – if so, it works.”
In what is perhaps the firm’s most high-profile engagement of the past year, a team led by
James Bromley(and also including Jacob Croke)
is leading efforts at FTX, as Chapter 11 debtor, to investigate the events that led to the company’s embattled crypto entity’s collapse, assist government authorities in their probes and organize hundreds of potential litigations to recover assets. To date, the firm team has helped identify and recover $7.4 billion in liquid assets for FTX and has identified other potential claims that FTX could bring. This appointment is remarkable not only due to the highly scrutinized nature of the client and the claims involved, but also more generally due to the firm’s pronounced elevation in the bankruptcy practice. “Ten years ago, even five years ago, Sullivan & Cromwell was not known for bankruptcy, and they didn’t seem like they wanted to be,” asserts a peer, “but wow, now they are on the bankruptcy map in a big way. After that, I expect there will be more [work for the firm.]”
Sharon Nelles is another multifaceted brand-name New York partner who generates near-unanimous accolades. “Sharon is pretty universally loved, and for good reason,” states one appreciative peer. “Great personality, no ego. Although her demeanor is almost the opposite of Bob Giuffra – she seems so relaxed and easygoing that I think it takes people off guard when they see how ready for the fight she is.” Nelles won the dismissal with prejudice of all claims in a putative securities class action brought against Cronos Group and several of its executives by plaintiffs who alleged that Cronos’s public statements concerning its revenues and accounting compliance were fraudulent.
Anne Marie Ostrager straddles white-collar criminal work and employment defense work. Ostrager represented JPMorgan in obtaining the dismissal, affirmed on appeal, of a lawsuit alleging state securities and common law claims in connection with a syndicated loan arranged by a group of banks led by JPMorgan for Millennium Laboratories. In August 2023, the Second Circuit ruled for the banks across the board, unanimously dismissing plaintiff's state law securities claims, concluding securities laws didn’t apply to the syndicated loan transaction, and in a separate summary order, dismissing all common law claims.
Sullivan & Cromwell has also been making notable advancements in the intellectual property space. Patent star
Garrard Beeney acted with Dustin Guzior in representation of Columbia University in securing a unanimous verdict in its favor in a two-week patent infringement jury trial against NortonLifeLock in the Eastern District of Virginia. Beeney also acted with Marc DeLeeuw in representing Ocado Group. The pair secured a December 2021 trial win before the Chief Administrative Law Judge of the ITC in a patent dispute with its competitor, Autostore. In March 2022, the Commission unanimously affirmed Ocado's victory at trial and terminated the investigation in its entirety. In June 2022, Ocado scored another win against AutoStore, convincing a panel of the Patent Trial and Appeal Board to invalidate three of four claims of AutoStore’s patent that was at issue in the earlier ITC investigation.
Beyond the firm’s blue-ribbon New York financial-institution focus, other offices and practices have been equally robust.
Renata Hesse is the co-head of the firm’s antitrust group, working out of both its DC and Palo Alto offices. Hesse has been especially active the healthcare space as of late. She advised long-time client Amgen in relation to its $27.8 billion acquisition of Horizon Therapeutics, and also advised Seagen on its $43 billion merger with Pfizer.
