Elizabeth A. Cooper is a Partner at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP where she focuses on mergers and acquisitions and other corporate transactions, with an emphasis on transactions for banks and other financial institutions.  Representative M&A transactions in the financial services area on which Ms. Cooper has advised include: Warburg Pincus, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Centerbridge Partners in connection with their agreement to purchase a 25% interest in Banco Santander's US auto finance business for $1 billion; The Charles Schwab Corporation in its approximately $1 billion acquisition of optionsXpress Holdings, Inc.; The Carlyle Group in its investment in Sandler O’Neill + Partners, L.P.; People’s United Financial in its acquisitions of Danvers Bancorp, Smithtown Bancorp Inc., LSB Corporation and Financial Federal Corporation; Oak Hill Capital Partners in its announced investments in SWS Group, Inc. and FNB United Corp.; Corsair Capital as the lead investor in a $380 million capital raise by United Community Banks Inc.; Lehman Brothers in the sale of its North American Investment Bank to Barclays Capital; Washington Mutual in its $7.2 billion equity issuance to TPG and other investors; Wachovia Corporation in its $6.8 billion acquisition of A.G. Edwards; and Mellon Financial Corporation in connection with its $16.8 billion merger with The Bank of New York Company, Inc. Ms. Cooper also represented the U.S. Treasury in connection with structuring and documenting its $250 billion program for purchasing equity in U.S. financial institutions under the TARP and in connection with its equity investments in Citigroup and Bank of America.  She also advised Xerox Corporation in its $6.4 billion acquisition of Affiliated Computer Services, Inc.; Ingersoll-Rand Company Limited in its acquisition of Trane Inc. for approximately $10.1 billion; CBS Corporation in the $1.2 billion sale of its theme park division, Paramount Parks, to Cedar Fair L.P.; Smithfield Foods, Inc. in its acquisition of Premium Standard Farms, Inc. and the Neiman Marcus Group Inc. in the sale of its credit accounts and related assets to HSBC.

Ms. Cooper was recently recognized in Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business 2011 as “widely considered to be a rising star in the group.”

Ms. Cooper joined Simpson Thacher following her graduation from Columbia Law School in 2001, where she was a James Kent Scholar.  She received her A.B., cum laude, in 1997 from Harvard University.  She is admitted to practice in New York and is a member of the Association of the Bar of New York City.

Publications

•	Regulating Systemically Important Financial Companies
•	Financial Stability Oversight Council Releases Proposed Rules and Interpretive Guidance on Designations of Systemically Important Nonbank Financial Companies
•	Regulations Proposed to Implement the Volcker Rule
•	Federal Reserve Issues Regulations for Savings and Loan Holding Companies
•	Reflections on Dodd-Frank: A Look Back and a Look Forward
•	Federal Reserve Proposes Changes to Regulation Z to Implement New “Ability-to-Repay” Requirement for Residential Mortgage Loans
•	U.S. Banking Regulators Order Changes to Policies and Practices of Major Mortgage Servicers
•	Securitization After Dodd-Frank: A Look at the Proposed Risk Retention Rules

Admissions

•	New York 2002

Education

•	Columbia Law School, 2001 J.D. James Kent Scholar
•	Harvard University, 1997 A.B. Cum Laude