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Interesting selling points

  • Diverse industry expertise, servicing sectors such as financial services, infrastructure, investment management, private equity, and a wide range of additional industries.
  • Prestigious “BigLaw” reputation as one of the major players in the New York legal market, with history going back to 1879.
  • Having opened its Silicon Valley office in 2000, Sullivan & Cormwell has a longstanding track record of advising clients across the technology sector, bringing together lawyers across a variety of practice areas to stand on the cutting edge of the sector’s legal needs.
  • Small training contract intake in the London office, allowing trainees to build close relationships with colleagues and receive personalised mentoring and support throughout the two-year program.
  • Firm-wide orientation program held in New York, fostering connections between trainees and colleagues from across the firm's international network.
  • Notable clients include Belize, Biohaven, Harvard University, Goldman Sachs and Volkswagen.  
  • Commitment to diversity and inclusion demonstrated by the firm establishing its LGBTQ+ Network, its Women’s Initiative Committee, and its Diversity Committee.

We cover these selling points in more detail below, alongside other relevant firm facts and characteristics.

Practice areas / services

Practice areas / services

Sullivan & Cromwell is a full-service law firm, with a broad range of practice areas including:

  • Capital Markets
  • Commercial Real Estate 
  • Corporate Governance
  • Credit & Leveraged Finance
  • Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG)
  • Environmental Transactions
  • Executive Compensation
  • Financial Services
  • Foreign Investments and Trade Regulations
  • Intellectual Property & Technology Transactions
  • Mergers & Acquisitions
  • Project Development & Finance
  • Restructuring
  • Tax
  • Litigation

Chambers and Partners, a leading analyst of the legal market, has awarded Sullivan & Cromwell a ‘Band 3’ ranking for the following department: Capital Markets: Debt and Projects: Mainly International. See here for more information

Key sectors / industries

Sullivan & Cromwell services a broad range of industries, with some of its highest-value clients operating in the following sectors:

In addition, Sullivan & Cromwell services the following industries: Consumer & Retail, Consumer Financial Services, Digital Assets, Energy & Natural Resources, Energy Transition, Healthcare & Life Sciences, Mining & Metals, Oil & Gas, Power & Utilities, Real Estate, Sports & Entertainment, Technology, Media & Telecommunications, and Transportation. 

Work

Sullivan & Cromwell consistently works on high profile, cross-border work. Some examples of its work include: 

  • Harvard University: The firm represented Harvard University in an antitrust lawsuit aimed at reversing the university’s seventy-year policy of only offering need-based aid. The lawsuit was filed against Harvard, the Ivy League, and all of the Ivy League’s member universities. 
  • Goldman Sachs: Sullivan & Cromwell helped Goldman Sachs end a 13-year $13 billion securities class action. 
  • Volkswagen: The firm helped secure a victory for Volkswagen in an antitrust litigation with automotive component parts supplier Prevent Group.
  • Belize: Sullivan & Cromwell advised Belize at every step of a goundbreaking transaction that enabled the Central American nation to restructure $550 million of external commercial debt in order to save capital that will be used to fund ocean and marine life conservation.

Offices / global footprint / expansion

Headquarters: New York, US

Offices: Sullivan & Cromwell has 13 offices around the world, 9 of which are situated outside the US. Its locations include: Beijing, Frankfurt, Melbourne, and Palo Alto.

Insights, internships and other opportunities

Sullivan & Cromwell offers a summer vacation scheme for students interested in gaining direct experience of working at the firm. This two-week placement allows students to shadow a partner or senior lawyer, providing a direct insight into the work of the firm, as well as opportunities to network and mix socially with the firm’s employees. The scheme offers eight to ten places and is open to law students in their penultimate year of study and onwards, and non-law students in their final year of study and onwards.

Training contract

Sullivan & Cromwell offers a four-seat training contract, with each seat lasting six months. The London office usually offers around 6 training contracts per year. Due to the small intake, trainees can expect to establish close relationships with colleagues who provide thorough mentoring and support throughout the two years of training. On the programme, trainees are provided with both an initial induction programme, plus a firm-wide orientation programme. The latter is held in New York, where trainees can meet colleagues from across the firm’s international network. These initial introductions are supplemented on the programme through regular, formal training sessions that aim to deepen trainees’ knowledge of commercial legal practice.

Secondments

Trainees can apply for an international secondment. These usually take place in New York or Hong Kong, although other locations have included Paris, Melbourne, and Washington D.C.

Technology and innovation

Sullivan & Cromwell is committed to utilising technology to provide clients with flexible and innovative legal services, with related initiatives including:

  • Silicon Valley: having opened its Silicon Valley office in 2000, Sullivan & Cormwell has a longstanding track record of advising clients across the technology sector, bringing together lawyers across a variety of practice areas to stand on the cutting edge of the sector’s legal needs.
  • Tech in Focus: as part of the firm’s commitment to providing technology clients with holistic legal service and business advice, Sullivan & Cromwell put together ‘Tech in Focus’, a series of podcasts and publications that cover critical topics relating to the sector.
  • FT Innovative Lawyers: At the 2021 Financial Times Innovative Lawyers North America Awards, Sullivan & Cromwell won the ‘Most Innovative Law Firm in North America’ award, recognising the firm’s leading commitment to innovative legal services.
Corporate social responsibility

Sullivan & Cromwell holds commitment to pro bono work as a core value. With the aims of changing lives and making legal history, the firm has undertaken a range of projects, including:

  • New York Legal Assistance Group: The firm with the New York Legal Assistance Group pursued a class action against the New York City Department of Education and New York State Education Department, seeking remedies for students with disabilities who have been denied access to special education services. 
  • National Homeless Law Center: Sullivan & Cromwell created a comprehensive resource center for the National Homeless Law Center which captured best practices for communities serving the health needs of unhoused people during the COVID-19 pandemic. 
  • Pregnancy Justice and Southern Poverty Law Center: The firm worked with Pregnancy Justice and the Southern Poverty Law Center to file a complaint in the Northern District of Alabama on behalf of Ashley C, an incarcerated woman who was denied medical treatment while pregnant and gave birth in the jail showers. 

Diversity and inclusion

Committed to “fostering a diverse, equitable and inclusive work environment”, Sullivan & Cromwell has adopted policies and a culture designed to value each lawyer’s unique abilities. Some examples of the firm’s initiatives include:

  • LGBTQ+ Network: The firm has established a LGBTQ+ Network which is a social and professional community that promotes the recruitment of LGBTQ+ staff, organises professional, social and education events and facilitates the firm’s involvement in LGBTQ+ pro bono work. 
  • Women’s Initiative Committee (WIC): Sullivan & Cromwell has the WIC which seeks to enhance the experience of female lawyers at the firm by focusing on the retention and advancement of women through networking and mentoring opportunities. 
  • Diversity Committee: The firm’s Diversity Committee is co-chaired by a partner in the litigation department and a partner in the general practice department. The Committee develops, implements and coordinates the firm’s diversity initiatives. 
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