Wall Street Law Firms Steer Verizon’s $9.6 Billion Frontier Buy

Lawyers from Debevoise & Plimpton, Cravath Swaine & Moore, and Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison guided Verizon Communications Inc.’s $9.59 billion acquisition of rival telecommunication operator Frontier Communications Parent Inc.

Debevoise, longtime outside counsel to Verizon, advised the telecom giant in the acquisition. The deal, announced on Thursday, is designed to expand the company’s high-speed internet business.

Cravath, whose lawyers have previously advised Frontier, represented the company in the deal. Paul Weiss served as legal adviser to the strategic review committee of the board of directors of Frontier.

Michael Diz, co-chair of Debevoise’s M&A group, William Regner, and Katherine Taylor led the firm’s deal team, which also included Jonathan Levitsky. Diz was part of a team that advised Verizon in its $6.25 billion acquisition of Tracfone in 2020, as well as the company’s $3.1 billion acquisition of Straight Path Communications in 2017.

The Debevoise team on the Frontier deal also includes finance partner Ryan Rafferty, employee benefits and executive compensation partner Jonathan Lewis, capital markets partner Steven Slutzky, tax partners Erin Cleary and Lena Smith, intellectual property partner Henry Lebowitz, and antitrust partners Tim Cornell and Ted Hassi.

Cravath’s Robert Townsend III, co-chair of the firm’s global M&A practice, led the team advising Frontier, along with Matthew Jones and fellow co-chair George Schoen. The firm previously guided Frontier in the sale of its Western assets to WaveDivision Capital for nearly $1.4 billion in 2019. It also steered Frontier’s $5.3 billion purchase of Verizon’s rural phone lines in 14 states back in 2009.

The Cravath team advising on the new Verizon deal also includes: partners Joseph Zavaglia and Stephen Kessing on financing matters; partner J. Leonard Teti II on tax matters; partner Amanda Hines Gold on executive compensation and benefits matters; partner Sasha Rosenthal-Larrea on intellectual property matters; partners Noah Joshua Phillips and Jesse M. Weiss on antitrust matters; and partner Matthew Morreale on environmental matters.

The Paul Weiss team advising the Frontier’s strategic review committee of the board of directors included partner Jeffrey D. Marell and counsel Stan Richards. Lawyers from Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom represented PJT Partners as financial adviser to the committee.