Davis Polk & Wardwell corporate partner John Amorosi is representing Morgan Stanley, which is serving as financial adviser to ICE in connection with its bid for NYSE Euronext.
ICE's proposed acquisition of NYSE Euronext follows the announcement earlier this week of several other notable deals in the financial services sector.
Edward Herlihy, cochair of the executive committee at Wachtell, is leading a team from the firm advising struggling Knight Capital on its proposed merger with Getco. Other Wachtell lawyers providing outside counsel to Knight Capital include corporate partner Nicholas Demmo, executive compensation partner Jeannemarie O'Brien, tax partner Joshua Holmes, and restructuring and finance partner Joshua Feltman.
The Am Law Daily reported in August that Wachtell was serving as special counsel to ailing Jersey City, New Jersey–based Knight Capital as the brokerage sought to line up $400 million in financing to stave off insolvency in the wake of a disastrous software trading glitch that cost it about $460 million.
Leonard Amoruso and Andrew Greenstein serve as Knight Capital's general counsel and deputy general counsel, respectively. In August, former Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison partner Matthew Nimetz was named to the board of Knight Capital. The terms of Chicago-based Getco's purchase of Knight Capital value the target at roughly $1.4 billion.
S&C's Cohen, corporate partner John Mead, employee benefits partner Marc Trevino, finance partner John Estes, tax partner Ronald Creamer Jr. and securities partner David Harms are leading a team from the firm advising Getco.
John McCarthy serves as Getco's general counsel. Alex Sadowski is the trading firm's deputy general counsel and global head of compliance.
S&C also snagged a key role this week representing hedge fund manager the Rock Creek Group on its sale of a 35 percent stake to Wells Fargo Asset Management. Whitney Chatterjee, cohead of S&C's alternative investment management group, and financial institutions M&A partner Mark Menting are leading a team from the firm advising the Washington, D.C.–based hedge fund that also includes Cohen and tax and employee benefits partner David Spitzer.
K&L Gates is advising Wells Fargo on the deal, with corporate partner John Allison is leading a team that includes finance partner Brett Durham, tax partners Jared Mobley and Roger Wise, securities partner Marc Mehrespand, investment management partners Kurt Decko and Mark Perlow, employee benefits partner David Pickle, M&A partner J. Norfleet Pruden III, and IP partner Mark Wittow.
