Sullivan & Cromwell’s 2025 review is essentially a victory lap: another record year, heavy on big-ticket mandates in M&A, disputes and restructuring, with a clear push on AI, private capital and London growth.
- The firm’s message from its co-chairs Robert J Giuffra and Scott D Miller calls 2025 “another record year”, stressing that it is not chasing scale but “preeminence” in its chosen markets, built around a generalist partner model, deep benches and cross-border work.
- It frames the year against volatile geopolitics, regulatory shifts and a “gradually strengthening” deal environment, especially in M&A and capital markets.
Deals, disputes and AI work
- Dealmaking: Global M&A is put at about USD 4.6 trillion (up 49% year‑on‑year), and S&C claims roles on roughly USD 505 billion of announced M&A, spanning tech, healthcare, consumer and industrials. Mandates include the USD 113 billion xAI–X merger, AT&T’s USD 23 billion spectrum deal with EchoStar, Nippon Steel’s USD 14 billion United States Steel acquisition and Boeing’s USD 8.3 billion Spirit AeroSystems deal.
- Financial services: The firm stresses dominance on “transformational” U.S. bank deals, saying it worked on every one of the six largest U.S. bank transactions, including Discover–Capital One (USD 50.6 billion) and a string of multi‑billion regional bank mergers.
- AI and tech: S&C pitches itself as central to AI infrastructure build‑out, advising OpenAI on its re‑cut Microsoft partnership, an USD 11.9 billion CoreWeave deal and a six‑gigawatt AMD agreement, as well as on alliances with Google Cloud and SoftBank and the Stargate project; it also highlights Broadcom’s 10‑gigawatt custom AI accelerator collaboration with OpenAI.
- Capital markets: It reports USD 454 billion in debt and equity offerings, including record sustainable bonds for the World Bank, sovereign work for Mexico, large bank funding programmes and major equity offerings and IPOs across the U.S., Europe and Asia-Pacific.
- Restructuring: The review leans on leading the FTX Chapter 11 (with creditor recoveries at or above par), SVB Financial’s bankruptcy, and complex sports media and cross‑border restructurings.
Litigation, investigations and arbitration
- The firm points to “precedent‑setting” wins, including a U.S. Supreme Court standing victory for Valero that favours targets of regulation, reversal of the Tesla/Elon Musk equity plan decision in Delaware (described as the largest reversal by dollar value in U.S. corporate law) and elimination of a USD 650 million public‑nuisance judgment against Walgreens in the opioid MDL.
- It flags a successful challenge to FCC net‑neutrality rules for broadband clients, multiple appellate wins for Argentina (including protection of its stake in YPF), and a range of securities defence victories for major financial institutions and corporates.
- In enforcement and white‑collar work, S&C highlights resolving multi‑agency matters for Discover, dismissals for a former FCPA defendant and other securities enforcement matters, and defence of the “world’s largest publicly traded cryptocurrency exchange” against SEC and state claims.
- International arbitration work includes big-ticket mining disputes for First Quantum and CODELCO, with an ICC award in favour of CODELCO and parallel ICSID proceedings.
People, platform and pro bono
- Headcount: S&C says it now has more than 1,000 lawyers across 13 offices, with its largest‑ever associate class (170+ new associates) and a summer intake approaching 210, as it accelerates growth while trying to preserve its culture.
- Laterals and promotions: The firm is investing heavily in London (restructuring, private capital, leveraged finance, tax, high yield and financial services regulation) and has added senior talent in New York and California in activism defence, financial regulation and IP/tech litigation, while promoting nine new partners across Frankfurt, London, Melbourne, New York and Washington, D.C. and announcing new special counsel.
- Offices: New York, London and Washington, D.C. all feature in a bricks‑and‑mortar upgrade, with renovated floors, a moot courtroom in D.C. and expanded London space to house growth.
- Pro bono: The review devotes space to asylum wins, civil-rights and prisoners’ rights work, elder abuse litigation, special‑education impact litigation and a Section 1983 pregnancy‑related excessive‑force case, reinforcing the “community commitment” message.
Who is Sullivan & Cromwell Profile
Sullivan & Cromwell LLP is unquestionably a Power Firm (in the LawFuel lexicon), a New York–headquartered global firm founded in 1879 that has long sat at the top end of Wall Street practice, helping shape modern U.S. corporate and financial law from the early days of U.S. Steel and Edison General Electric through to contemporary mega‑deals.
It now has more than 1,000 lawyers across 13 offices in major financial centres in the U.S., Europe, Asia and Australia, and the firm positions itself as a leader in core areas such as M&A, banking, capital markets, litigation, restructuring, tax and estate planning.
For decades S&C has been one of the most profitable firms in the market, with worldwide revenues above USD 2 billion and profits per equity partner significantly ahead of many Magic Circle rivals. Its history is not without controversy – from its role in early 20th‑century international politics to more recent scrutiny around mandates such as FTX – but it remains a go‑to adviser on high‑stakes corporate work for governments, banks, multinationals and increasingly the big names in AI and tech
