Sarah Payne

Partner, Sullivan & Cromwell LLP

Sarah Payne is the managing partner of Sullivan & Cromwell’s Palo Alto office and the co-head of the Capital Markets Group and Technology M&A and Finance Group. She has a broad-based corporate practice advising clients on a wide range of transactions, focusing on capital markets, M&A and venture capital and other private investments.

Sarah was recognized as a “Power Player” by Sports Business Journal for her representation of Joe Tsai in his acquisition of the Nets and Barclays Center, as well as the purchase of the WNBA New York Liberty, among others. Her cutting edge work in SoftBank’s $20 billion monetization of its interest in T-Mobile earned “Most Innovative Deal of the Year” from The Deal. Other recent M&A transactions include advising Better HoldCo in its $6.9 billion pending acquisition by SPAC Aurora Acquisition Corp. and Rent-A-Center in its acquisition of Acima Holdings. Recent capital markets work includes advising the underwriters in IPOs by Confluent, Levi Strauss & Co., Unity Software and Weave Communications.

Regularly recognized by a number of leading legal publications, Sarah has been ranked by Chambers USA in Capital Markets: Debt & Equity: California and in Capital Markets: Debt & Equity: Western U.S.; named to the Daily Journal’s “Top Women Lawyers,” a list of the most powerful lawyers in California; recognized for Capital Markets, esp. Technology by Lawdragon 500 Leading Dealmakers; listed as a “Rising Star” in M&A by IFLR1000 and as a “Rising Star in Finance” by Euromoney Legal Media Group.

Sarah is a frequent speaker and author, particularly in the areas of mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance and securities law. She has also been a Lecturer in Law at Stanford Law School, teaching a class on “International Securities Regulation” in Spring 2019.

Sarah received her B.A. from Yale University and her J.D. from UC Berkeley School of Law.

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