Gangbusters at Cravath? Firm On Week’s Two Big Deals

[WSJ_law_blog]

If Cravath’s deal lawyers keep up this pace throughout the next year, we might see associate bonuses notch up just a touch from the relatively sober 2009 levels.

The news: If you’ve looked practically anywhere on the Web this morning, you’ve noticed that Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway is set to purchase railroad Burlington Northern for $26 billion, roughly $100 a share. Lawyers from Cravath worked the deal for Burlington Northern; lawyers from Munger Tolles represented Berkshire Hathaway. (That Munger did the deal for the acquirer perhaps isn’t all that surprising — firm founder Charlie Munger has been the vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway for some time now.)

On the week’s other big deal — Stanley Works’ $4.5 billion acquisition of Black & Decker — Hogan & Hartson and Miles & Stockbridge represented Black & Decker, while — guess who? — Cravath and Venable represented Stanley, according to the NYT story.

What else? Well, why not throw this in for good measure: that in the CIT bankruptcy filing — one of the largest in U.S. history — lawyers from Skadden are serving as debtor counsel.

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