Alumni Yearbook 2024

Embracingchange

WELCOME

A panel of puzzle solvers

Your first A&O Shearman alumni yearbook

It’s been the year of the merger and as you’d expect, the stories in our first A&O Shearman alumni yearbook have plenty to say about it: how it came together; what it means for the firm, our clients, our people, and so on. Our senior leadership team shares its excitement for the future while our project management team describes its involvement in the merger. It makes interesting and insightful reading.

Welcome

Alumni stories

Interview with senior leadership team

DOWNLOAD 2024 yearbook

ARTICLES

Read the full introduction

Uncovering the hidden path to European business solutions

Our latest insights

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Laurie-Anne Ancenys

Counsel

France

Data & AI

Dr Nicolaus Ascherfeld

Partner

Germany

Corporate & M&A

Catherine Di Lorenzo

Partner

Luxembourg

Data & AI

Dr Wolf Bussian

Managing Partner

Germany

Litigation

Hervé Ekué

Managing Partner

Capital markets

Catharina Glugla

Senior Associate

Germany

Data & AI

Jonathan Heeringa

Partner

Netherlands

Capital markets

Sigrid Jansen

Senior Partner

Netherlands

Finance & restructuring

Charles Honée

Partner

Netherlands

Corporate & M&A

Arnold Keizer

Partner

Netherlands

Employment

Antonio Vazquez-Guillen

Partner

Spain

Corporate & M&A

Gauthier van Thuyne

Partner

Belgium

Sustainability

Claire Toumieux

Global Head of Employment

France

Employment

Stefano Sennhauser

Partner

Italy

Finance & restructuring

Tom Schoors

Managing Partner

Belgium

Litigation

Ignacio Ruiz-Camara

Partner

Spain

Finance & restructuring

Arkadiusz Pedzich

Partner

CEE

Finance & restructuring

Patrick Mischo

Office Senior Partner

Luxembourg

Private capital / tax

Joyce Leemrijse

Partner

Netherlands

Corporate & M&A

Romaric Lazerges

Partner

France

Sustainability

Nicole Wolters Ruckert

Counsel

Netherlands

Data & AI

Dr Michael Weiß

Partner

Germany

Corporate & M&A

Full report

ALUMNI YEARBOOK 2024

Decoding the maze of Europe

Mind-bending markets

Crossing borders and blurring lines

Related expertise

Read our global study into the readiness of business for the challenges that lie ahead.

Global business in a changing Europe

Global business

Listen to our webinar highlights

OUR EXPERTS

DISPUTES

Corporate and M&A

Advisory and regulatory

Seeing the big picture:

Finding focus

Antonia Stolper

Of Counsel, Co-Chair of Alumni Network

Co-Chair of Alumni Network

Boyan Wells

“Our alumni network exists for our people to build and maintain meaningful relationships within our global community.”

“Global businesses, including the legal industry, are facing challenges on so many fronts right across the world. But what’s so striking is the scale and pace of change we’re witnessing. It’s unprecedented.”

Partner, Co-Chair of global ExCo and Board, and U.S. Chair

Adam Hakki

Senior Partner

Khalid Garousha

On May 1, 2024, we saw the creation of A&O Shearman, a unique and truly transformative merger placing us at the forefront of global elite law firms. As the year ends, our senior leadership team of Khalid Garousha, Adam Hakki and Hervé Ekué reflects on what lies ahead.

We’re creating a firm like no other

INTERVIEW WITH SENIOR LEADERSHIP TEAM

Managing Partner

Hervé Ekué

Merger a triumph of project management

As project management goes, it doesn’t get much more complicated than guiding two elite law firms through the biggest merger in the legal sector for more than two decades. There was never any doubt that the partners at Allen & Overy and Shearman & Sterling would agree to the merger. The question was what their level of enthusiasm would be for combining two firms of such long and storied heritage.

Cyber issues are seldom out of the news, from ransomware attacks and espionage to non-malicious outages that cause widespread concern. Organizations need to protect themselves against both current and future risks and threats. That’s where our cyber team comes in.

Cybersecurity: The changing threat and risk landscape

Texas is a huge state with a huge economy, and it is now enjoying further strong growth fueled by an influx of domestic companies and foreign investors. And where there is growth, there is opportunity. The importance of the Lone Star state is neatly summarized by Doreen Lilienfeld, co-managing U.S. partner, who says: “We see Texas playing a crucial role in our expansion and strategic aim of offering a global service to our clients.”

One year into A&O Shearman’s global charity partnership with Women for Women International, the support across the firm is helping women survivors of war and igniting their ambitions. A&O Shearman is halfway through its two-year global charity partnership with Women for Women International (WfWI), and tangible results of our involvement are being seen from Iraq to Sudan, Rwanda, Bosnia, Ukraine and beyond.

Texas: big state, bigger potential

Supporting strength in sisterhood

ARTICLES

Australian Emily Barker followed her heart into the law, and then halfway around the world to Amsterdam. She’s a corporate lawyer immersed in environmental sustainability and social justice. It’s fair to say she likes a challenge.

The importance of making an impact

ALUMNI STORIES

James Quisumbing’s career has been anything but straightforward. He’s worked in finance, private practice, tech and for an electronic cigarette company. He explains how his diversity of legal experience led him to Meta. Ambiguity may be anathema to lawyers, but when you’re immersed in the dynamic environment of a global company at the cutting edge of technology, you learn to work with it.

A wild ride on a winding career path

Was criminal law’s gain the baking industry’s loss? Meet Will Hauptman, currently deploying skills learned on a career trajectory from the New York County District Attorney’s Office, via Shearman & Sterling, to Aramco in Saudi Arabia.

From New York to Saudi Arabia: forging a path in criminal law

The alumni network remembers former colleagues and friends who passed away between October 18, 2023 and October 17, 2024.

In memoriam

A chance meeting with a Maasai warrior proved life-changing for Tracey Sawyer. Now she herself, through the charity she founded, is changing lives for communities in Tanzania. When she was growing up in Australia, Tracey Sawyer lived in a world of charity work, volunteering, and helping others. It is perhaps unsurprising that she should have chosen to start a career in law, and to set up and run a humanitarian charity.

Empowering Maasai communities to farm for their future

DOWNLOAD YEARBOOK

Our alumni yearbook is published annually in December. You can click on the link below to download a full PDF of the 2024 yearbook.

A&O Shearman alumni yearbook

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