Erik R. Tavzel is a partner in Cravath’s Corporate Department. His practice covers a variety of areas, including board representations, mergers and acquisitions and general corporate matters.
A substantial portion of Mr. Tavzel’s practice involves representing financial institutions, or their boards of directors, in connection with significant corporate transactions. He has represented Lazard in connection with a number of recent M&A transactions, including Lazard’s acquisitions of Goldsmith Agio Helms and Lazard Asset Management, as well as various securities offerings by Lazard, including equity and debt offerings. Mr. Tavzel also represents Lazard and other investment banks in connection with advisory assignments involving banks and other financial institutions, including the sale of Bear Stearns to JPMorgan and Lehman Brothers’ exploration of strategic alternatives. His other recent financial industry assignments include representing the boards of directors of Morgan Stanley and The PMI Group. Mr. Tavzel also has represented underwriters, including Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, in connection with initial public offerings for a number of banks, non-traditional lenders and investment advisors.
Mr. Tavzel also represents foreign public companies in connection with U.S. M&A and securities matters. He has particular experience representing large Canadian public companies, including recent work for Rogers Communications, Biovail Pharmaceuticals and Extendicare. Other international public companies that Mr. Tavzel has recently represented include Novartis and DHT Maritime.
Through his representation of a number of public companies and private equity investors in the alternative energy sector, Mr. Tavzel has developed extensive transactional experience in this rapidly expanding industry. His recent transactions include First Solar’s acquisition of the project development business of OptiSolar, Goldman Sachs’s investments in Iogen and SunEdison, and investments by Hudson Clean Energy in SoloPower and Calisolar.
Mr. Tavzel was cited as being one of the country’s leading practitioners in the capital markets area by Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business from 2007 through 2011; Chambers Global: The World’s Leading Lawyers for Business in 2008 and from 2010 through 2012; and The Legal 500 from 2009 through 2011.
Mr. Tavzel was born in Washington, D.C. He received a S.B. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1993 and a J.D. from the University of Michigan in 1998. Mr. Tavzel joined Cravath in 1998 and became a partner in 2006.
Mr. Tavzel may be reached by phone at 212-474-1796 or by email at etavzel@cravath.com.