At its inaugural Global Legal Awards (September 23), The American Lawyer recognized the $21.6 billion Sprint/SoftBank merger as the "Global M&A Deal of the Year: Grand Prize" and Skadden as lead counsel to Sprint Nextel Corporation. In July, Am Law had selected the transaction — the largest U.S. M&A deal announced in 2012 — as "Global M&A Deal of the Year: U.S." Ten other "Global M&A Deals of the Year" from various countries and regions also were contenders for the grand prize. On behalf of our client, a team of attorneys from our New York, Washington, D.C., Wilmington, Boston, Chicago, Palo Alto and Tokyo offices successfully coordinated the myriad legal, financial, regulatory and investor relations efforts related to the SoftBank transaction, while simultaneously representing Sprint in its $3.8 billion acquisition of the portion of Clearwire Corp. that it did not already own.
Skadden also was recognized by Am Law for its leading role in two additional matters:
- The "Global Dispute of the Year, U.K. Litigation" award for our work in securing a landmark victory for Roman Abramovich in his $6 billion dispute with Boris Berezovsky over alleged interests in the oil company Sibneft and the metals company Rusal. This was the largest case ever in the English Commercial Court and the largest private dispute in the world.
- The "Global M&A Deal of the Year, Russia" award for our role in representing Alfa-Access-Renova (AAR) in the $56 billion sale of TNK-BP, a joint venture between AAR and BP plc, to Rosneft Oil Company. This was the largest M&A transaction in the world in 2012.