California

Simpson Thacher & Bartlett was founded in 1884 in New York, where it still maintains its headquarters. The New York office is also the firm’s largest, but it has since expanded to 10 offices across three continents. In the United States, it also has offices in Houston, Los Angeles, Palo Alto and Washington DC. 

Focusses / specialisms

The firm is best known for its top tier work in banking, debt and equity capital markets, M&A and private equity.

The firm’s New York office is a market leader in financial and corporate practices and the California offices are market leaders in capital markets. 

In financial services regulatory work the team advises banks and financial institutions in compliance related to acquisitions and equity investments.

The banking practice represents borrowers and lenders in acquisition financing, refinancing, project financing and general corporate financing. The project financing practice is very active in the oil and gas, infrastructure and energy industries.

The capital markets team advises both issuer and underwriters on matters in the debt, equity, derivatives and securitizations practices. In debt capital markets, the team has expertise in investment grade and high yield bond offerings, as well as green bonds, Eurobonds and convertible bonds. The equity capital markets side often works on IPOs, follow on offerings, share offerings, at-the-market programs, secondary offerings, share buybacks and convertible preferred stock offerings. In derivatives, the team is experienced in margin loans, forwards, options, swaps and concurrent bond hedge and warrants. The structured finance and securitization team works on ABS’ and CLOs.

The firm also has a robust investment funds practice that advises clients in fund acquisitions, fund formations, fund financing and investments.

The firm’s M&A practice contains a private equity practice that represents private equity firms in buy and sell side acquisitions, mergers and joint ventures in addition to equity investments. The M&A practice also advises non private equity firms in high value buy and sell side acquisitions, mergers and joint ventures.

Key clients

Key clients for the firm include Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Twenty-First Century Fox, Mars, Credit Suisse, FedEx, HSBC, RBS, Citigroup, BMO Capital Markets, KKR, Alibaba, Barclays, Softbank, Ares Management, Blackstone, Toronto Dominion Bank, Platinum Equity Capital Partners, CVC Capital Partners, First Reserve, PG&E, Microsoft, Dell, AIG Global Investments, MUFG and Energy Capital Partners.

Research period review: 30th edition (2019/2020)

Within the research period the financial services regulatory group acts for banks and financial institutions in acquisition and investment regulatory compliance. 

The banking practice represented slightly more borrowers than lenders. Most of the matters were related to acquisition financing.

In project finance specifically, there was a lot of work in the oil and gas industry.

The debt capital markets practice worked on both high yield and investment grade bond issuances. It notably dealt with several green bonds and Eurobonds.

The equity capital markets saw a lot of IPOs, convertible preferred stock offerings and common stock offerings. The derivatives practice saw a large amount of concurrent bond hedge and warrant transactions and margin loans. Many of these transactions were related to larger acquisitions. The structured and finance and securitization team represented mostly initial purchasers in ABS matters.

The investment funds practice worked on a lot of fund financing and acquisitions.

The M&A practice worked on many multibillion dollar strategic and private equity acquisitions, acting on the buy and sell side.

New York capital markets partner Maripat Alpuche retired during the research period. In the M&A practice, Los Angeles based partners Gregory Klein and Michael Kaplan joined from Irell & Manella. M&A partners William Curbow, Rich Capelouto and Wilson Neely retired. 

Deal highlights: 30th edition (2019/2020)

10X Genomics Nasdaq IPO

Alibaba SEHK IPO

Apple €2 billion dual tranche 0% and 0.5% green bond issue

Blackstone $18.7 billion acquisition of US logistics assets

Charles Schwab $26 billion acquisition of TD Ameritrade 

London Stock Exchange Group $27 billion acquisition of Refinitiv

Refinitiv $6.5 billion term loan B facility

Client feedback: 30th edition (2019/2020)

Banking

“Extraordinary expertise and work ethic.”

Capital markets: debt

“Depth and breadth of knowledge in high stakes areas. Client service.”

“Substantial experience ensures up-to-date on current market practices and concessions.”

Capital markets: derivatives

“Able to explain difficult concepts in a manageable way.”

Capital markets: equity

“Unmatched subject matter/challenge knowledge and expertise, combined with practical business acumen – all delivered in a professional and supportive manner.”

Capital markets: structured finance and securitization

“Very responsive and thorough in understanding out issuance, the securitization market and investor needs/wants.”

Investment funds

“Creative, innovative and experts in the 1940 Act.”

“STB has one of the best private fund practice groups. They have great insight into the broader market.”

M&A

“Premier work product. Responsive and sophisticated representation.”

Private equity

“The firm dependably provides intelligent, efficient and practical legal counsel on extremely complex issues. Their private funds practice particularly has an outstanding sense of how best to incorporate business considerations when providing legal guidance.”