Melissa Sawyer

Practice Areas

Mergers & Acquisitions, Corporate Governance, ESG, M&A Financial Advisory, Consumer & Retail, Healthcare & Life Sciences, Cybersecurity, Infrastructure, Private Equity, Privacy

Career

Melissa Sawyer is Global Head of S&C’s M&A Group and is co-head of the Corporate Governance & Activism Practice. In addition to advising clients on public and private M&A transactions, joint ventures and strategic alliances, she also regularly advises clients on corporate governance, activism and takeover defense matters. Melissa’s experience spans multiple industries, including consumer and retail, TMT, technology, industrials and life sciences.

Melissa has been repeatedly recognized as a leading M&A adviser. She is a three-time winner of The American Lawyer’s “Dealmaker of the Year”, was recognized as one of America's Top 200 Lawyers by Forbes and was named a Client Service All-Star by BTI. She was also named to The Deal’s “Women in M&A: The Powerhouse 20” for shaping the industry with her novel approach to transactions and has been recognized as a Law360 MVP, one of Crain’s “Leading Women Lawyers in New York City”, “Dealmaker of the Week” by The American Lawyer and one of Lawdragon’s “500 Leading Dealmakers in America”. Recently she has advised American Equity Investment Life Holding Company, AT&T, Baxter International, Benefitfocus, Cornerstone Building Brands, Kering, Novartis, Seagen, Sotheby’s, Subway, Tiffany & Co. and UnitedHealth.

Melissa serves on the boards of several corporate governance organizations, regularly participates in numerous legal panels and writes for leading legal publications.

Personal

University of Virginia Law School (J.D. 2000); Washington and Lee University (B.A. 1997)