George Casey, Global Managing Partner of Shearman & Sterling, chaired a conference moderated by Chief Justice Leo Strine and Penn Law Prof. Larry Hamermesh titled "Comparative Deal Architecture: Are U.S. and European Deals Built the Same Way; Cross-Border Deal Dynamics in a Fragmenting World." 

Organized by the Institute for Law and Economics of the University of Pennsylvania, the conference was scheduled to take place in front of a live audience in Philadelphia. Considering the impact the quickly evolving COVID-19 pandemic has had on everyone's daily lives, the conference went forward as a “panel only” live video broadcast from Shearman & Sterling's offices in New York. The audience joined by video and participated in real time interactively with the panel, asking questions and engaging in the discussion. The event, held on March 17, was "an extraordinary event in extraordinary times," as George described it.

The panel, which also included some of the most experienced cross-border M&A lawyers from international law firms, had an in-depth discussion of the similarities and differences between U.S. and European M&A deal structures, regulatory regimes, board duties and stakeholder interests, as well as current country-specific trends in M&A and geopolitical influences on dealmaking.

The Team