Legal Week reports that Sullivan & Cromwell has formed a stand-alone private equity group as the elite New York firm targets the international buy-out market.
The firm has assigned three partners from its corporate and financial group to focus purely on private equity, including Los Angeles-based Alison Ressler London-based US acquisition finance specialist Richard Morrissey and New York M&A partner Richard Pollack.
Sullivans chairman, Rodgin Cohen, told Legal Week: ‘ We have seen the M&A market starting to come back and private equity has been a key area in that comeback.’
Morrissey added: ‘We have now decided to group [private equity specialists] together so that our clients can better understand the depth and breadth of our practice in this area, both in the US and Europe.’ . . .
The private equity push comes after Sullivans last month topped the 2003 3Q US M&A tables, prising corporate rival Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom off its top spot.
Recent headline instructions for the firm include advising John Hancock Financial Services on its $11bn (£6.9bn) merger with Manulife Financial and representing health giant Anthem in its $16.4bn (£9.6bn) purchase of Wellpoint Health Networks, to form the largest health insurer in the US.”
