Shearman & Sterling Alumni Spotlight

Through the Alumni Spotlight series, you can meet a few of our distinguished alumni to learn how they leveraged their time at the firm to advance their careers and what advice they would give to those looking to have similar success.

Russ Denton General Counsel, Caris Life Sciences

Russ Denton ’18 (Mergers and Acquisitions, 2018–2022, Austin) attended Duke University and Stanford Law School before starting his career as an Associate with Skadden in New York. After deciding New York wasn’t for him, he moved to Austin and made Partner at Andrews Kurth Kenyon. Russ joined Shearman & Sterling as a Partner in 2018 and helped set up the firm’s thriving Austin practice. He left in September 2022 to become General Counsel with Caris Life Sciences, a TechBio company using molecular profiling, artificial intelligence and big data to help doctors treat cancer.

How did you come to work at Shearman & Sterling?

After law school, I went to New York to work in M&A because I thought that was the fastest way to gain the most knowledge, experience and skills. I was an associate at Skadden for about four years and met my wife there. We never thought New York would be home forever, and we ended up moving to Austin in 2012.

At that time, there were not many national firms in Austin, and it was a hard legal market to get into. Fortunately, we both got jobs relatively quickly. I made partner at Andrews Kurth after about four years. In 2018, the group of attorneys I worked with in Austin decided to move to Shearman to take advantage of the better platform. We were the first office in Texas, so it was an exciting time and neat to be part of building something new.

I supported the move to Shearman because of the global footprint, strong M&A and capital markets brand. The platform allowed us to represent all types of companies in the technology ecosystem—from early startups to late-stage companies, private equity and venture funds to serial acquirers.

What is your favorite memory or story from your time at Shearman & Sterling?

Being a part of that Texas opening and meeting all our new partners and other attorneys, not just in Texas but also in New York, on the West Coast, in Washington D.C. and around the world. It is a lot of work to move firms and set up a new office, but it was great to see how many great lawyers there were and how nice people were at Shearman. The number of people I’m still in contact with regularly to this day is pretty amazing.

What skills or capabilities did you gain from your time at the firm that prepared you for future roles?

As General Counsel, I’m dealing with many different subject matters and often in areas that aren’t necessarily in my sandbox. At Caris, we have four lawyers serving in a company with about 1,800 employees, so we all need to be able to quickly move from subject to subject, respond to deadlines and know when to really dig in on a topic.

When I was working as a corporate lawyer doing M&A and venture capital deals with Shearman, a diligence issue or some other matter would always arise. I’d have to dive in quickly, talk to experts, figure out what the possible answer was and try to get a resolution. That skillset has been very helpful for me as a General Counsel dealing with healthcare regulatory, compliance, employment matters and everything else we do day-to-day.

Tell us about your current job. What do you enjoy most about your work?

I like the people a lot, but, aside from the people, I love what Caris does. We’re improving the lives of people who have cancer and trying to find new, individualized therapies for better patient outcomes. When someone says, “What do you do?,” it’s pretty satisfying to tell them that. It’s a great mission to be a part of and one of the reasons the opportunity was so exciting for me.

On a practical level, one of the main differences between Caris and Sherman is that many of the projects that we work on in-house are longer-term projects. When you’re doing an M&A deal or an investment, you’re dealing with a lot of intensity in a relatively short period of time, but then it’s over. In-house at Caris, it’s a much longer cycle. There are still some things that are quick and intense, but in general, it is a much longer time horizon.

What advice would you give to someone looking to have a similar career path?

I think a general corporate law/M&A background is helpful experience for roles like mine. I’ve found that it’s often corporate lawyers who go into General Counsel roles.

It can be hard to decide whether to stay and try to make partner at a law firm, ultimately, it’s up to each individual. I think having a lot of firm experience is helpful. That said, always keep in touch with clients and other people in the industry because that’s often how the best opportunities arise. Stay on the lookout and be willing to be flexible.