Stephen L. Burns is a corporate partner at Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP in New York City, and serves as Chair of the firm’s Strategy Committee. 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 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 from 2007 through 2017; Chambers Global: The World’s Leading Lawyers for Business from 2008 through 2017; The Legal 500 from 2007 through 2014 and in 2016 and 2017; IFLR1000 from 2007 through 2017; and The Best Lawyers in America from 2007 through 2017. Steve was named Best Lawyers’ 2014 New York City “Lawyer of the Year” for Securities/Capital Markets Law. His work was also featured by the Financial Times in its annual FT North America Innovative Lawyers 2014 report.
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.