Stephen L. Burns is a corporate partner at Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP in New York City. His practice focuses on representing issuers and investment banking firms in connection with public and private offerings of securities, as well as representing various corporations on general corporate matters, including corporate governance and M&A matters. Steve has served in numerous leadership positions within the firm, including as head of the securities practice, co-head of the finance practice and chair of the strategy committee.
Steve has been repeatedly cited as one of the country’s leading practitioners in capital markets law by, among others, Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business; Chambers Global: The World’s Leading Lawyers for Business; The Legal 500; IFLR1000; and The Best Lawyers in America. Steve was named Best Lawyers’ 2014 New York City “Lawyer of the Year” for Securities/Capital Markets Law. In 2019, he was named a Capital Markets Trailblazer by The National Law Journal.
Steve was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He received a B.B.A. with distinction from the University of Oklahoma in 1987 and a J.D. with honors from the University of Texas School of Law in 1990, where he was named to the Chancellor’s honor society and was an Associate Editor of the Texas Law Review. Steve served for twelve years as a member of the University of Texas Law School Alumni Executive Committee, and he currently serves as a Trustee of the University of Texas Law School Foundation.