Stephen M. Kotran is a partner in the Mergers and Acquisitions and Financial Institutions Groups at Sullivan & Cromwell LLP. He represents buyers, sellers, special committees of independent directors and financial advisors in connection with mergers and acquisitions transactions, including negotiated and hostile acquisitions of public companies, negotiated sales of private companies, subsidiaries and divisions, private equity transactions, leveraged buy-outs, formation of joint ventures and asset sales.
Mr. Kotran graduated from Harvard College (A.B., 1985) and the University of Virginia Law School (J.D., 1990) where he was an Editor of the Virginia Law Review and a member of the Order of the Coif. From 1985-1986, Mr. Kotran served as a legislative assistant to U.S. Senator Daniel P. Moynihan (D-NY) and from 1990-1991 he served as a judicial clerk to the Hon. Edward R. Becker (U.S. Court of Appeals, Third Circuit). He has been consistently recognized as a leading M&A and private equity lawyer by many widely referenced legal guides, including The Best Lawyers in America, Chambers, IFLR, Lawdragon, New York Super Lawyers, PLC and The US Legal 500. Mr. Kotran is a frequent faculty member on M&A panels for the Practising Law Institute, the New York City Bar Association, the University of Texas School of Law's Annual Mergers and Acquisitions Institute, the Annual Institute on Corporate, Securities and Related Aspects of Mergers and Acquisitions and various other professional organizations and has guest lectured at NYU Law School, the University of Virginia Law School and Stanford University Law School. He is a member of the Advisory Board of the Practical Law Company and co-chair of the Financial Advisors Task Force of the Mergers & Acquisitions Committee of the Business Law Section of the American Bar Association.