It's been the year of the merger and as you'd expect, the stories in our first A&O Shearman alumni yearbook have plenty to say about it: how it came together; what it means for the firm, our clients, our people; and so on. Our senior leadership team shares its excitement for the future, while our project management team describes its involvement in the merger. It makes interesting and insightful reading.
From our point of view, the key outcome has been the huge expansion of our membership to 26,000 current and former colleagues from our two legacy firms. Coupled with our senior leadership's continued investment in our global program, our team is committed to further developing the A&O Shearman alumni network offering.
Building meaningful relationships
Our alumni network exists for our people to build and maintain meaningful relationships within our global community. To help do that, we need to ensure we foster multichannel communications.
LinkedIn is a key channel in our alumni communications strategy. We couldn't merge our two legacy LinkedIn groups due to platform restrictions, so we rebranded the largest one as the A&O Shearman alumni network. Members of the legacy Shearman alumni Linkedin group will need to rejoin to receive the latest news and insights from the firm, alumni news and program activities. We encourage you to take a moment to do this.
In spring 2025, we'll be conducting our first A&O Shearman alumni engagement survey, and we hope you'll be inspired to complete it. The findings of the survey are extremely valuable in helping shape our program and setting priorities for the next few years.
Quite aside from the survey, we'd love to hear your suggestions for ways we can further expand our alumni network and the benefits it provides to you. We know that in-person events are popular, as shown when we welcomed more than 1,200 attendees at our global alumni reunions in nine locations. What else would work for you? Do let us know.
What do we already offer? Visit the alumni network website to access career opportunities, both at A&O Shearman and in the marketplace, our acclaimed mentoring program, upcoming in-person and virtual events, and more. You can also use our member directory if you're looking to expand your professional network or reconnect with old friends.
A network of remarkable people
And speaking of our people, we have many remarkable alumni in our network whose stories ought to be shared—people like James Quisumbing, who explains how his diversity of legal experience led him to Meta, and Will Hauptman, who has forged a career path in criminal law that landed him a role at Aramco.
Many stories like theirs come to our attention when they're nominated by members of the network, so if there's someone you'd like to see featured in the yearbook, do let us know.
That's how we heard about the work that Tracey Sawyer is doing in Tanzania with a charity she set up to help the Maasai people help themselves. Emily Barker, meanwhile, tells us how the alumni network was instrumental in a major move that helped her shape a career as a corporate lawyer immersed in environmental sustainability and social justice.
Elsewhere in this edition, you can read an interview with our global cyber team who help clients handle cyber incidents and manage data risk, from prevention to response; we learn why fast-growing Texas is such an important addition to the firm's geographic reach; and we share an update on the firm's global charity partnership with Women for Women International, which supports women survivors of war.
There's a lot going on, none of which would be possible without the dedication and efforts of our alumni team, our senior global alumni managers Stella Ekkeshis and Jenny Enever in London, and senior alumni assistant Cara McKinstry in Belfast. They continue to do an outstanding job leading the alumni effort, and we're fortunate to have them.
It remains only for us to wish each and every one of you a healthy and peaceful new year, and the hope that we hear from you soon.
Antonia and Boyan
Introducing our co-chairs
We're delighted to welcome Antonia Stolper as co-chair. Few alumni are as qualified for this role: even after 33 years with Shearman & Sterling, 25 of them as partner, Antonia maintains an active practice, albeit part-time, as of counsel in U.S. capital markets and global ECM, with a focus on Latin America. A former member of the executive group and America's managing partner, her interests include promoting the transition to a low-carbon economy, pro bono, and advancing the status of women in law throughout the Americas.
She joins co-chair Boyan Wells, also a former management board member, at legacy A&O, and head of its ICM practice during his 27 years as a partner. Boyan became co-chair of the award-winning alumni network in 2014 and has been instrumental in its development into today's multifaceted program that reinforces the benefits of lifelong membership in a growing global community of peers. As he sees it, the network is the embodiment of the firm's commitment to invest in its people, wherever they are.