The business landscape for public companies involves complex adjacencies, overlapping challenges and a multitude of stakeholders. Lawyers for public companies must bring both deep subject matter focus and a broad-gauge mindset to every engagement. Debevoise is unsurpassed in delivering this level of service to our public company clients and their boards. Our collaborative culture, unique structure and distinctive approach to professional development ensure that we are leaders in our fields, attuned to complexities outside our individual practice areas, and able to deploy the right lawyers for every assignment.

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Named “Practice Group of the Year” in Capital Markets (2022), M&A (2021) and White Collar (2021)

—Law360

The team is very experienced and detail-oriented. They have the subject matter expertise necessary to be successful in this complicated area, but are also flexible and responsive.

—Chambers USA (Capital Markets)

They cover all their bases, and anticipate your needs before you do. Their approach to problem-solving is creative, thorough and elegant.

—Chambers USA (M&A)

Top notch in every way. This is an extremely competent practice and the type of team you hire for your most significant matters.

—Legal 500 (Securities Litigation)

The team is exceptional. Their strengths include strong strategic, analytical thinking and thoughtful execution.

—Chambers USA (Government Investigations)

It is a strong firm with a nice team for data governance, cyber incidents and crisis response.

—Chambers Global (Data Strategy & Security)

The firm has a deep understanding of our business and values. It's full-service and creative and has global presence.

—Chambers Global

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Corporate governance. For companies, boards and board committees, Debevoise lawyers advise on intricate securities and stock exchange requirements, evolving fiduciary principles, litigious stakeholders, and the demands of activist investors including contested M&A deals and proxy fights. Our interdisciplinary team helps shape governance best practices, and works closely with recognized experts in the accounting, consulting and public relations arenas to provide holistic and sophisticated advice to our clients.

Mergers and acquisitions. We advise on and help negotiate and structure mergers, acquisitions, sales, spin-offs and related transactions with public and private counterparties, including private equity funds, that may involve complex pricing, capital markets and tax structures, antitrust and other regulatory risk allocation provisions, data and AI issues, national security reviews, and other issues. If the need arises, we also help clients litigate M&A deals in state and federal courts.

Capital markets transactions and disclosures. Debevoise represents U.S. and non-U.S. issuers in a broad range of equity, debt and structured securities offerings and other corporate and capital restructuring transactions, and on the design and development of innovative securities products.

Crisis response and management. From global and regional military conflicts to cyber breaches to personnel misconduct, public companies face a variety of threats that can require a rapid yet carefully calibrated response. The firm’s strategic counselors from our White Collar, Securities Litigation and Data Strategy & Security (DSS) practices work together as one seamless team to counsel our clients on their most delicate issues, including preventative measures and post-crisis action plans.

Cybersecurity and AI. The firm’s DSS group is on the cutting edge in advising clients on cybersecurity, privacy, artificial intelligence, business continuity, M&A diligence and data governance practices, including interacting with boards, state and federal regulators, employees, customers and other stakeholders. The group also develops and assesses Incident Response Plans, policies, processes, training and resources to reflect the latest cybersecurity, privacy and AI challenges.

Securities and class action litigation. Our litigators bring creative strategies to defending against federal securities litigation, state court M&A and fiduciary duty litigation, and multijurisdictional and multidisciplinary matters involving overlapping civil litigation, federal and state enforcement actions and related legislative inquiries, as well as parallel proceedings in the U.S. and in foreign jurisdictions that involve disparate procedures and legal standards. Debevoise litigators also have substantial experience defending public companies faced with critical nationwide class actions and other forms of multi-party litigation in federal and state civil, criminal and regulatory proceedings, including complex matters with claims centered upon consumer protection, data privacy, common law privacy and regulatory acts such as TCPA, COPPA and UDA.

Government investigations. Respected by enforcement agencies worldwide, our White Collar group defends clients against criminal prosecutions and civil enforcement actions with agencies including the SEC, U.S. Department of Justice, New York Attorney General, UK Serious Fraud Office, and other authorities around the world. The team also counsels clients on preventive measures, compliance programs and the collateral consequences of criminal proceedings.

National security. Our team advises on the full range of matters that implicate U.S. national security, foreign investment regimes and policy considerations and regulation of international commerce. This work involves identifying and mitigating the risks of government national security reviews, including those administered by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. (CFIUS), Team Telecom (an inter-agency government team that advises the Federal Communications Commission on license transfers), and the Department of Defense and Department of Energy related to foreign ownership, control or influence (FOCI). We advise on non-U.S. foreign direct investments reporting and reviews, counsel clients on the compliance and business risks of U.S., U.K., and EU economic and trade sanctions, and advise on anti-money laundering (AML) compliance and enforcement matters.

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