Elizabeth A. Cooper is a Partner in Simpson Thacher & Bartlett’s Corporate Department, Co-Head of the Private Equity Mergers and Acquisitions Practice, member of the Executive Committee and Co-Administrative Partner of the Firm. Elizabeth’s diverse practice focuses on mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, investments, recapitalizations and other corporate transactions. Elizabeth has particular expertise in asset management M&A transactions, having represented several leading institutions such as Blackstone, Oaktree Capital, Lexington Partners, Baring Private Equity Asia, among others.
In addition, Elizabeth represented the U.S. Treasury in connection with structuring and documenting its $250 billion program for purchasing equity in U.S. financial institutions under TARP and in connection with its equity investments in Citigroup and Bank of America.
In 2022, The American Lawyer named Elizabeth a “Dealmaker of the Year” for her work advising a consortium led by Blackstone, Carlyle and Hellman & Friedman in the blockbuster majority investment in Medline Industries, Inc., which The American Lawyer noted was “the biggest leveraged buyout since the financial crisis.” Elizabeth was also recognized as a “Dealmaker of the Year” by The American Lawyer in 2019 for her work on Blackstone’s $20 billion partnership with Thomson Reuters for Refinitiv (the former Financial & Risk business). In addition, Elizabeth was named “Private Equity Lawyer of the Year” at The Deal Awards in 2022 and 2018 and named a Law360 “Private Equity MVP” in 2022. In addition, she has been highlighted among the IFLR1000’s Women Leaders (2021 and 2022), named “Best in M&A” by Euromoney’s Women in Business Law Americas Awards 2020, included on The Deal’s inaugural “Women in M&A: The Powerhouse 20” list and recognized by Crain’s as a “Notable Woman in Law” for 2019 and 2023. Chambers USA has recognized Elizabeth as a leading lawyer since 2011 and The Legal 500 United States since 2018, and the former cites clients who rave that she is “fantastic. She is driven, thorough, focused, and good at dealing with everything as it moves forward.”
Elizabeth joined Simpson Thacher following her graduation in 2001 from Columbia Law School, where she was a James Kent Scholar. She received her A.B., cum laude, in 1997 from Harvard University. She is admitted to practice in New York and is a member of the Association of the Bar of New York City.