Sullivan & Cromwell Poaches Two Tech Dealmakers from Skadden

Sullivan & Cromwell hired two mergers and acquisitions partners in Silicon Valley to bolster its technology practice, the firm said Wednesday.

Mike Ringler and Peter Jones will join from Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, according to a firm statement.

“We want to continue to be the law firm of choice for the biggest M&A and technology-related transactions and litigations,” Robert Giuffra and Scott Miller, co-chairs of Sullivan & Cromwell, said in the statement.

Ringler was a partner at Skadden for nearly five years and at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati for more than two decades. Jones was a lawyer at Skadden for about six years, including the last year as partner. Before that he worked at White & Case and Linklaters.

While at Skadden, the duo helmed deals including advising Ansys in its $35 billion sale to Synopsys, and Splunk in its $30 billion sale to Cisco Systems. They also represented Elon Musk in his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter.

Sullivan & Cromwell, which first opened a California office in Los Angeles 40 years ago, started its Palo Alto office in 2000. The firm has advised on tech deals including OpenAI’s partnership with Microsoft and SoftBank Group’s $5.23 billion IPO of Arm Holdings.