People
Sean Skiffington
Biography
Sean has extensive experience representing clients in all aspects of public and private company transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, consortium investments, minority investments and joint ventures, particularly Canada/U.S. cross-border transactions, involving a broad range of sectors, including the asset management, insurance, infrastructure, metals and mining and aerospace and defense sectors, and regularly represents sovereign wealth funds, pension funds and private equity sponsors.
Sean also advises clients on corporate and securities law issues, including securities law compliance and general corporate advisory work.
Sean was the chair of Shearman & Sterling’s Pro Bono Committee beginning in 2023 and currently serves as one of the four global social impact partners at A&O Shearman and as the Chairperson of the A&O Shearman Foundation.
Practice areas
- Corporate and M&A
- M and A JVs and corporate reorganizations
- Private client
- Asset management M and A
- Financial services advisory and regulatory
- Insurance
Sectors
- Financial institutions
- Mining and metals
- Insurance
- Defense
- Semiconductors
Selected experience
- Fairfax Financial Holdings in its pending USD1.65 billion consortium acquisition of NYSE-listed Kennedy-Wilson, its sale of Sigma Companies International, its financing of the acquisition of The Berkley Group by Vacatia, Inc., its USD1.4 billion sale of its pet insurance business to JAB Holding Co., its USD4.9 billion cash and stock acquisition of NYSE-listed Allied World Assurance Company, its proposal to acquire and subsequent investments in BlackBerry Limited, its acquisition of pet insurance provider Hartville Group, Inc. and various other investments and dispositions.
- Macquarie Asset Management in the USD1.8 billion sale of its North American and European public investments funds business to Nomura.
- GlobalFoundries in its acquisition of MIPS and its pending acquisition of the ARC Processor IP Solutions business of Synopsys
- TELUS Corporation in its USD2.9 billion cash and stock take-private of NYSE- and TSX-listed TELUS Digital
- Despegar.com Corp. in its USD1.7 billion take-private acquisition by Prosus N.V.
- The management team of Galway Insurance Holdings, the holding company for EPIC Brokers & Consultants and MAI Capital Management, in its sale to Harvest Partners, and affiliates of Galway in numerous acquisitions, including the acquisitions of New Energy Risk and Reel Media, LLC by Paragon Insurance Holdings, the acquisitions of Evoke Holdings and Halpern Financial by MAI Capital Management and the acquisitions of The Fairly Group; Treloar & Heisel; Dixon Wells; Sitzmann, Morris & Lavis Insurance; and TDC Life by EPIC.
- Mubadala in the expansion of its global partnership with Apollo to support the Apollo Capital Solutions business, its joint venture with Alpha Dhabi to co-invest in global credit opportunities, and in various other investments and transactions, including the acquisition by Mubadala Capital, the wholly owned asset management subsidiary of Mubadala Investment Company, of Canada Cartage from Nautic Partners and the acquisition, together with Fortress management, of Fortress Investment Group from SoftBank Group Corp.
- Stelco in its USD2.5 billion cash and stock acquisition by Cleveland-Cliffs.
- BUSA Acquisition Co. in connection with the acquisition of BankCard USA Merchant Services Inc. from Quisitive Technology Solutions, a Canadian public company.
- Meridiam in connection with its tender offer for NYSE-listed Allego N.V. shares it did not already own.
Education
- BSc (with great distinction), Biochemistry, McGill University, 1999
- LLB, Osgoode Hall Law School of York University, 2003
- MBA (Dean’s Honour List), Schulich School of Business of York University, 2003
Admissions
- New York, 2004
- England & Wales, 2009
- Foreign Legal Consultant, Province of Ontario, Canada, 2026