Shearman & Sterling

Shearman & Sterling LLP
Headquarters	New York City
No. of offices	20
No. of attorneys	900
Major practice areas	General practice
Revenue	$801 million (2009)
Date founded	circa 1873
Company type	LLP
Slogan	Aligned for excellence
Website
www.shearman.com

Shearman & Sterling LLP is a law firm headquartered in New York City with 20 offices located in major financial centers around the world founded in 1873. It is well known for both its litigation and transactional capabilities, especially in International Arbitration, Capital Markets, Finance, and Mergers & Acquisitions. As of 2006, it was the 17th largest law firm in the world as measured by 2006 annual revenue. Shearman & Sterling is considered a white shoe firm, the equivalent of the Magic Circle in the UK. The firm practices public international law, U.S. federal law, New York and California state law, in addition to English, French, German, Italian, European Union, and Hong Kong law.

Contents 1 History 1.1 Wall Street origins 1.2 Postwar global expansion 1.3 Offices 1.4 Closed offices 2 Recognition 3 Pro Bono 4 Recent Notable Mandates 4.1 Americas 4.2 Europe 4.3 Middle East and Africa 4.4 Asia 5 Notable alumni 6 See also 7 References 8 External links

History

Today Shearman & Sterling has grown from its New York Wall Street beginnings with 7 staff members to embrace a worldwide presence of some 1000 attorneys in 20 offices.

Wall Street origins

Shearman & Sterling was founded in 1873 by Thomas Shearman and John William Sterling, who concentrated on litigation and transactional matters respectively. The young firm represented financier Jay Gould, industrialist Henry Ford and cultivated a number of important business ties that would evolve into long-standing client relationships, such as with the Rockefeller family and the predecessor banks to Citigroup and Deutsche Bank.^[1]

Postwar global expansion

The firm experienced international expansion in the post-World War II era under the direction of Boykin C. Wright, a senior partner who joined the firm from Cahill Gordon & Reindel with a group of attorneys, briefly leading the firm to add his name to the letterhead.^[2] The firm's first international office was established in Paris in 1963.

In postwar Germany, Shearman & Sterling assisted German companies such as Siemens and BASF restructure their debts and re-emerge as credible exporters to the United States. The firm was once given the moniker "German & Sterling" for its ability to cultivate long-term client relationships with blue chip German companies. Shearman lawyers assisted Daimler in its listing on the New York Stock Exchange in 1993, the first such listing by German company that prompted other major companies to follow suit.^[3] The firm then represented the German automaker in its purchase and subsequent sale of Chrysler.

The firm is well known for its ability to compete in key legal markets, particularly in Germany where its mergers and acquisitions practice is preeminent and in the United Kingdom, where it fields one of the largest London offices of a non-UK law firm.^[4]

Elsewhere, the firm played an important role in the establishment of state-owned oil & gas companies, including Sonatrach in Algeria and throughout the Middle East. In 1979, Shearman & Sterling lawyers represented Citibank during the intense negotiations that ensued during the Iranian Hostage Crisis, after the US government froze all Iranian assets in US banks.^[5]

Shearman & Sterling has been involved in Latin America for decades. The firm's attorneys helped restructure the debts of many Latin American nations in the 1980s in the Brady transactions. It also won mandates in the privatization of numerous state-owned entities. In 2004, the firm launched an office in São Paulo, Brazil and has since represented Brazilian companies in a number of important transactions.

In East Asia, Shearman & Sterling was one of the first firms to grasp the future strategic importance of the Asia-Pacific region, establishing offices in Hong Kong in 1978, followed by Beijing, Singapore and Shanghai.

Offices

In order of establishment

• New York (1873)
• London (1963)
• Paris (1963)
• Abu Dhabi (1975)
• Hong Kong (1978)
• San Francisco (1978)
• Tokyo (1987)
• Washington, D.C. (1987)
• Toronto (1989)
• Düsseldorf (1991)
• Frankfurt (1991)
• Beijing (1993)
• Singapore (1995)
• Palo Alto (1998) (Moved from Menlo Park in 2011)
• Munich (2001)
• Brussels (2001)
• Rome (2002)
• São Paulo (2004)
• Shanghai (2007)
• Milan (2010)^[6]

Closed offices

• Algiers (1960s)
• Athens (1980s)
• Los Angeles (1985)(closed in 1998)
• Budapest (1991)(closed in 1997)
• Mannheim (2000)(relaunched as boutique in 2008)

Recognition

Shearman & Sterling has attained recognition in a number of legal publications and industry rankings for its work in the United States and internationally across a range of practices areas, including: dispute resolution/litigation, international arbitration, project finance, public international law, capital markets, and mergers and acquisitions.^[7][8][9]

Pro Bono

Shearman & Sterling has an active pro bono practice. Globally, the firm is pro bono counsel to the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) in Arusha, Tanzania. Shearman routinely assists the ICTR through seconding one attorney there per month to work on particular projects. The firm also assists FINCA International, the pioneering microcredit and village banking non-profit organization. Other pro bono initiatives include asylum, Violence Against Women Act petitions, criminal appeals and art law representations. Shearman also represents Guantanamo Bay detainees.

Recent Notable Mandates

Americas

• Advised the Dow Chemical Company in its $18 billion acquisition of specialty chemicals manufacturer Rohm & Haas, the subsequent restructuring of that deal and then the sale of Morton Salt.^[10]
• Counseled Merrill Lynch in its sale to Bank of America for $50 billion.^[11]
• Represented the underwriters in the $8 billion IPO of Banco Santander's Brazilian subsidiary, the largest IPO of 2009.^[12]

Europe

• Ongoing representation of shareholders of Yukos Oil Company in arbitration proceedings against the Russian Federation stemming from the bankruptcy and subsequent nationalization of the Yukos company. The compensation sought by the claimants exceeds $33 billion.^[13]
• Represented Société Générale in its €4.8 billion equity offering, proceeds of which were used to repay the French state for its support during the financial crisis.^[14]
• US, Italian and German law counsel to UniCredit in its €4 billion rights issue in January 2010.^[15]

Middle East and Africa

• Advised ADNOC in its US$10 billion joint venture with ConocoPhillips to develop the Shah gas field in the United Arab Emirates.^[16]
• Represented Qatar's sovereign wealth fund in its purchase of a significant stake in Volkswagen and Porsche for €7 billion.^[17]
• UK Counsel to Barrick Gold in its spin-off of its African mining assets and the subsequent £2.4 billion listing on the London Stock Exchange in February 2010.^[18]

Asia

• Represented underwriters Merrill Lynch, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, China International Capital Corporation, and ICEA Capital Ltd. in connection with the $22 billion initial public offering and dual listing of Industrial & Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and Shanghai Stock Exchange.^[19]
• Advised Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery Company in its acquisition of the Hummer brand from General Motors for an undisclosed sum.^[20] This deal never closed because China's government did not approve the transaction.^[21]
• US Counsel to the underwriters in the $2.35 billion IPO of China Metallurgical Group Corporation in September 2009.^[22]

Notable alumni

• Melody Barnes, former associate and presently senior domestic policy adviser to President Barack Obama.
• Laurens Jan Brinkhorst, Dutch politician, minister and member of the European Parliament.
• Mitch Caplan, former associate (1984–1990) and current CEO of E-Trade.
• Markus U. Diethelm, former international associate (1989–1992), and current general counsel of UBS AG.
• Joseph A. Doyle, former associate (1947–1956) and partner (1956–1979), Assistant Secretary of the Navy (Manpower and Reserve Affairs) in the Carter Administration.
• Philippe Dauman, former associate (1978–1987) and partner (1987–1993), and former CEO of Viacom.
• Mario Mancuso, former Under Secretary of Commerce, senior Pentagon official, and senior member of the administration of George W. Bush
• John McCarthy, former associate (1966–1967), and former Australian ambassador to various countries including Vietnam, Mexico, the United States and Japan.
• Clark T. Randt, Jr., formerly Shearman & Sterling's China Managing Partner served as U.S. Ambassador to China from 2001-2009.
• Bob Woodruff, former associate and ABC News journalist
• Nina Zagat, Co-Founder and Co-Chair of Zagat Survey, was associated with the firm from 1966-1990.

See also

• Law firm
• International Arbitration
• White shoe firm

References

External links

• Official website
• LawPeriscope Profile