THE GENERALISTS - Sullivan & Cromwell

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news In addition, lawyers do not concentrate solely on Latin American work, which they argue differentiates them from other firms operating in the region. Risoleo notes that the benefit of not practising exclusively in Latin America is that they build a greater cultural awareness. “It’s very useful for someone in Latin America to have done work in Europe and the US to make sense of what’s going on,” he explains. Of course there is a core team of sorts; some 30 lawyers do significant work in the region alongside deals elsewhere. For this interview, Latin Lawyer spoke to five of the more prominent partners: Galvis, Soussloff, Risoleo, Christopher Mann and Joseph Neuhaus. Galvis, whose family came over to the US from Colombia when he was 10, is by far the most visible face of the team and practice head, a position he has occupied since he was just a six-year associate. He was called in by John Merow, the chairman at the time, and told he was to run the firm’s Latin American practice. “I said: ‘Great, I didn’t know we had one’,” recalls Galvis. “He said: ‘We do now and you’re in charge. Good luck’.” Galvis recalls the last deal he did before making partner: “A senior associate across the table turned to me and said: ‘You and I spot the issues at the same time, but you get the answers faster’.” His edge was down to him picking up the phone to colleagues back in the office. “We open doors and consult in a very cooperative and collegial way,” he explains. “This firm has a very global, collaborationist approach to work,” says Mann, who puts this culture down to the firm’s home-grown model. “It is striking to lawyers who joined in later years to see our collaboration among partners for any client matter,” he says. Certainly the team has a long history of working together, with Galvis, Risoleo, Mann and Soussloff having begun their careers at Sullivan & Cromwell. (Neuhaus joined as a mid-level associate.) Mann is the newest partner of the five interviewed having joined the firm 22 years ago. The others have been there for 25-plus years, Soussloff for over 30. “We grew up together so we enjoy each other’s company,” says Galvis. Galvis says his being appointed as practice head at such an early point in his career is a good example of the culture at Sullivan & Cromwell, where young lawyers showing promise are given above average responsibility, be it pitching for work or negotiating at the deal table. In the early days, Galvis and Soussloff would take themselves off to Buenos Aires, Santiago or Caracas to capitalise on the opportunities of the time. “There were so many things to do out there, so we went,” says Soussloff. “We didn’t have to ask for or get approval. The firm recognised the opportunity.” Galvis now has firm-wide responsibility as head of recruitment, so what advice would he give to a lawyer wanting a job at Sullivan & Cromwell? It’s not easy; applicants must be highly intelligent and highly qualified. Recent candidates and hires have LLMs from leading law schools and the more prominent partners have JDs. (Between them, the partners in this article have JDs from Harvard, Yale, UPenn and Columbia.) Once in, lawyers receive rigorous training and are developed as generalists from the start, rather than embarking on the more traditionally used method of rotation. Not surprisingly, expectations are very high. This can mean some gruelling working days (although the firm doesn’t report the number of hours associates do or set targets) and a steep learning curve, but on the upside, greater responsibility at an early stage. The firm also trains its lawyers on how to interact with the firms it works with around the world. “Latin American firms have a great amount to add to clients and in delivering the service we provide jointly – we do it best if we do it together,” says Galvis. “We teach that to our associates – to develop relations, and be responsive and respectful.” Sullivan & Cromwell understood the benefits of building relationships with referral firms at an early stage and claims to be the first in the US to have a visiting lawyers programme – the firm has taken on six to eight lawyers First published on the Latin Lawyer website, 1st June 2012 www.latinlawyer.com
news each year since the mid-1950s. The firm says it works with law firms in Latin America on a non-exclusive basis – and the firms it works with in the region have similar freedom. That the partners in Sullivan & Cromwell’s Latin American practice group have been together so long demonstrates cohesiveness and stability. Aside from when capital markets partner Carlos Spinelli-Noseda controversially departed from the firm in 2008, very little has happened to rock the boat. Loyalty and stability are desirable characteristics in today’s biglaw, which is taking a moment to reflect after the rapid exodus from Dewey & LeBoeuf LLP. The demise of Dewey has caused many to question yet again how well the dynamics of law firm remuneration work in today’s world. Dewey is considered as an extreme case, but it comes amid a period of greater self-analysis for corporate law firms post-financial crisis. A recent survey by consulting firm Altman Weil found that law firm leaders in the US believe the symptoms of the downturn – from pricing pressures to the commoditisation of legal work – are here to stay, to which a response is necessary. Sullivan & Cromwell keeps its strategy simple: by providing the best quality of service, it is guaranteed a place on the type of complex work for which clients are prepared to pay. When talking about the competition, Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP – a benchmark for any firm in Latin America and another that favours broad practices in its lawyers – comes up the most, while when discussing culture and strategy, it is Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz LLP, a very profitable, boutique powerhouse. The focus on high-end transactions applies more than ever in Latin America today, thanks to the new players coming into the region and the rise in sophistication of domestic law firms and companies. Of course, moving beyond commoditised work is the strategy of many top-end firms keen to keep their membership of the elite club operating in the region, whose members include Cleary, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP; Shearman & Sterling LLP; Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy LLP; Clifford Chance LLP; Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP; and Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP. Deep roots US law firms with a significant history in Latin America are always keen to point out how they have been there for decades, at the forefront of its economic development. Sullivan & Cromwell can make this claim more than most given the pivotal events in Latin America’s history that turn up on its own timeline, from the creation of the Panama Canal, to the Brady bonds and Telmex’s privatisation. William Nelson Cromwell founded Sullivan & Cromwell with Algernon Sydney Sullivan in 1879 and is remembered for his instrumental role in the construction of the Panama Canal. Before the First World War, the firm acted for European financers of railways in the Americas, including the Panama Railroad Company; the company that first instigated the idea of building a sea level canal across Panama and was later reorganised as the New Panama Canal Company. In 1904, Cromwell helped facilitate the US government’s purchase of the Panama Canal assets, which set the course for the Canal’s completion in 1914. In the 1920s, the firm opened an office in Buenos Aires, and continued to advise French clients on railway projects in Brazil and Central America. Fast forward a few decades to the early 1990s, and Sullivan & Cromwell was working on the sovereign exchange offers that were made possible by the Brady bonds introduced in the late 1980s. In 1990, Telmex went through one of the first privatisations in the region, with Soussloff and Galvis participating. Being present for these milestones guaranteed the firm future success: the Panama Canal Authority subsequently became a client, the exchange offers resulting from the Brady bonds raised the firm’s profile with banks, which earned it a position on sovereign financings – the first major international finance deals to come out of Latin America First published on the Latin Lawyer website, 1st June 2012 www.latinlawyer.com
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THE GENERALISTS - Sullivan & Cromwell

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