Thomas M. Cerabino
Chairman
Thomas M. Cerabino is Chairman of the firm, a member of the firm’s Executive Committee and a partner in the Corporate & Financial Services Department. He focuses on mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, and general corporate and securities law matters.
Tom has been the lead corporate lawyer in a number of high-profile transactions on behalf of the firm’s clients. He has represented various public and private companies, private equity funds, and investment banking firms in a wide range of domestic and cross-border transactions, including business combinations, divestitures, leveraged buyouts, joint ventures, public and private offerings of securities, and change-of-control matters. In addition, Tom has advised boards of directors and board committees on a variety of governance and other issues.
Chambers USA (2023) ranks Tom among the leading individuals practicing Corporate/M&A Law in New York.
Experience
- Counsel and a Director of United Neighborhood Houses of New York, Inc., a not-for-profit organization, which is the umbrella organization for the New York City settlement house system.
- Member of the Board of Advisors of The Legal Aid Society.
- Hachette Book Group, a subsidiary of Lagardére SA, in its $240 million acquisition of Workman Publishing
- Zurich Insurance Group and its subsidiary Farmers Group, Inc. in the $3.94 billion acquisition by Farmers Group of MetLife’s property and casualty business
- Zurich in its agreement to sell its U.S. Corporate Life and Pensions (Group Benefits) business to Aflac
- SIX in its partnership agreement with and investment in Omniex, an institutional trading platform provider for digital assets and cryptocurrencies
- Lagardère Travel Retail in its $530 million acquisition of Paradies and $330 million acquisition of Hojeij Branded Foods (HBF)
- Zurich Insurance Group in its acquisition of the individual and group life insurance businesses and the long-term savings operations of EuroAmerica in Chile
- Zurich Insurance Group in its agreement to acquire 19 travel assistance providers in Latin America, positioning its Cover-More Group as the leader in global travel insurance and assistance in the region
- Zurich Insurance Group in the acquisition of Australian insurer QBE in Latin America for $409 million
- Jay Alix, founder of AlixPartners, in the acquisition of an ownership stake in the business from CVC Capital Partners, a transaction valuing AlixPartners at more than $2.5 billion
- The Special Committee of the Board of Directors of National Interstate Corporation in connection with the purchase by its controlling shareholder of the outstanding shares of National Interstate held by its public shareholders
- Zurich Insurance Group in its acquisition of Rural Community Insurance Services (RCIS) from a financial institution for up to $1.05 billion
- Celsia SA in its $840 million acquisition of stakes in seven power plants in Panama and Costa Rica from GDF Suez
- Electronic Data Systems Corp. in its $13.9 billion acquisition by Hewlett-Packard
- Farmers Group in its $1.9 billion acquisition of AIG’s Personal Auto Group
- Zurich Insurance Group Ltd. in its $1.67 billion acquisition of a 51 percent stake in the Central and South American insurance operations of Banco Santander SA
- Colony Capital in the $8.8 billion acquisition of Station Casinos, the $5.5 billion acquisition of Fairmont Hotels & Resorts, and the $1 billion acquisition of the Raffles hotel business
Credentials
Education
St. John's University School of Law, J.D., 1981 Georgetown University School of Foreign Service, BSFS, 1978