On Thursday, Cravath, Swaine & Moore announced that it had elected Faiza Saeed as its next presiding partner. She'll be the first woman to head the firm since it was founded in 1819.
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Faiza's term as Cravath's 16th presiding partner begins Jan. 1, 2017 when she takes the reins from Allen Parker; until then, she'll serve as deputy presiding partner.
A UC Berkeley and Harvard Law grad, Faiza joined Cravath straight out of law school in '91. She's co-headed its M&A practice since '13, recently working on matters such as advising on Comcast's pending $4.1B acquisition of DreamWorks Animation, Roche's $8.9B acquisition of Intermune, and Berkshire Hathaway's $37B acquisition of Precision Castparts. Other clients have included Time Warner, Morgan Stanley, Yahoo and Starbucks.
Faiza holds a slew of honors, among them being named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum (Davos), one of “Wall Street’s 100 Masters of the New Universe" by the New York Times, and three times a "Dealmaker of the Year" by The American Lawyer.
It's been a notable year for Cravath. In June, the law firm was the market leader in announcing a salary bump for associates (putting first-year salaries at $180k), which it implemented starting July 1. The raise is the first in the legal industry since 2007, and has been followed by many top law firms.
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