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Your A&O Shearman alumni yearbook

Your A&O Shearman alumni yearbook
Published Date
Dec 16 2025
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Image of Maura O’Sullivan
Maura O’SullivanPartner, New York
Image of Boyan Wells
Boyan WellsCo-Chair, Alumni Network, London
“Working together to bring it together” fairly describes how our legacy firms have embraced the merger through the 18 months that have brought us to the end of 2025—and it’s true. Throughout the firm, there’s a growing sense that we’re delivering on our ambition to make A&O Shearman the truly global, integrated powerhouse that was envisaged when merger talks began almost three years ago.
Banner of alumni co-chairs Boyan Wells and Maura O'Sullivan

This was one of the most significant mergers the legal sector has ever seen, bringing together the best legal traditions of all the major jurisdictions in a global context that have proven highly complementary. Everything points to the integration progressing well, as reflected in comments from our senior leadership team in this edition’s interview with Khalid Garousha, Adam Hakki and Hervé Ekué.

As with any large merger, there’s always more work to do to make it even better. This is as true for the alumni network as it is for the firm. Our members will continue to grow in influence as people recognize the depth of human capital—the knowledge, experience, and connectivity—that the alumni network represents.

We’re delighted to welcome New York partner Maura O’Sullivan as co-chair of the alumni network and extend a big thank you to Antonia Stolper, who retired in May 2025 and joins our global community of more than 30,000 alumni network members.

Bringing all our alumni together is central to our mission and a key reason for holding events around the world. In 2025, we hosted successful reunions across eight cities, beginning in London in September, followed by Amsterdam, Paris, Auckland, Singapore, Brussels, Frankfurt, and Zurich. The final event will take place in New York in February 2026. The numbers tell a great story, with more than 1,200 attendees to date, and counting. These events are designed to open doors for career conversations, expand professional networks, and reconnect with friends and former colleagues.

Feature articles and alumni stories

Turning to this edition of the alumni yearbook, we feature a fascinating story about private capital, its growing influence on the market and how it’s reshaping traditional sources of finance. As you’ll read, A&O Shearman’s teams are exceptionally well placed across key sectors and jurisdictions to advise clients as this dynamic and fast-evolving area of finance continues to grow alongside traditional banking relationships.

In the thick of this story are two of our alumni, Amy Bohannon and Victoria Gillam, who both hold leadership roles at Tikehau Capital. They discuss how their shared experiences at the start of their careers makes working together now feel familiar.

In this edition we also explore the work the firm is doing in Europe to support clients within the European Union (EU), as well as keep non-EU clients abreast of developments that could impact their businesses. For us, it’s an area of considerable potential and continuous investment.

Our alumni also hold remarkable roles across jurisdictions. One of them is Jean Morice, global head of securitized products in the legal department of BNP Paribas.

Artificial intelligence (AI): there’s no avoiding its impact. A&O Shearman was among the earliest adopters of AI in legal services, helping to cement our position as the leading global firm in AI. Our AI group includes dedicated experts in every major jurisdiction, supporting clients across the entirety of the AI value chain. We are the leading global firm for AI advisory work and the market leader in terms of developing proprietary AI products that are overlaid with bespoke legal and commercial insight. Our story looks at how we built this capability, while alumna Cairistiona Simmonds describes how an early foundation in law and technology positioned her for her current role at Bank of America.

Everyone can be proud of the impact we have had through our work with our inspiring global social impact partner, Women for Women International. In September 2025, we began a new two-year partnership with United for Global Mental Health (UnitedGMH), and you can read about this important initiative.

A single thread strung between four needles, holding them up

Creating value through stronger alumni connections

Thanks to everyone who completed the 2025 alumni survey. Your feedback is shaping the alumni network’s program for the years ahead. We will continue to find new ways to harness the energy of our broad membership to enhance the value of the network—for our alumni and for the firm.

The survey showed that engagement with the A&O Shearman alumni network remains strong and positive, with events, newsletters, mentoring, and the alumni yearbook all playing a significant role.

Can you help us strengthen one of our most impactful member benefits: our mentoring program? With a growing alumni community across the U.S., we’re inviting members to step in as mentors and share their expertise. If you’d like to explore what’s involved—from requirements to time investment—our alumni team would be delighted to talk you through the details and help you get started.

It only remains for us to thank our indefatigable ever professional team—Stella Ekkeshis, Jenny Enever, and Cara McKinstry—for their sterling work and support throughout the year, and to wish you all a peaceful, happy, and prosperous 2026.

Introducing our new co-chair, New York partner Maura O'Sullivan

Maura is a native New Yorker who says she’s never had a strong enough reason to leave the metro area, except for attending college in Massachusetts. A summer associate job introduced her to Shearman & Sterling; she started with the firm on graduation from law school and “here I am, 40 years later,” proud to be a small part of the firm’s history.

Her practice today focuses on acquisition financings, leveraged lending, restructurings, debtor-in-possession financings and asset-based finance. She says: “The role models that went ahead of me were amazing—extremely skilled lawyers, knowledgeable, and willing to spend time training young lawyers. I really benefited and wouldn’t be the lawyer I am without them.”

Despite having had opportunities over the years to move on, she believes there is still no better firm. “Our two legacy firms were similar in culture,” she says, “and what’s true for both groups is that colleagues form real relationships. Your day-to-day job is so much more fun if you like the people with whom you’re working. And there’s always been a willingness to help one another.

The magic of A&O Shearman is that one has a global army behind them and if any one of us—be it an alum or a current colleague—needs something, there will always be someone at the firm or from the alumni network who is willing to help. I don’t believe other firms can make the same statement.”

To find out more about mentoring, contact the alumni team. 

Downloads

Alumni Yearbook 2025

pdf7.4 MB