Mark B. Skerry

Mark Skerry is a Partner in Simpson Thacher’s National Security Regulatory Practice. Mark has more than a decade of experience practicing national security law, including having served as an attorney within the Office of the General Counsel of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Mark regularly advises some of the largest private equity asset managers and international corporations on their most sophisticated and high-profile transactions before the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS). Mark has counselled clients and successfully secured CFIUS approvals across a variety of industries considered sensitive to national security, including technology and software, social media platforms, aerospace and defense manufacturing, classified government contracting, semiconductors, telecommunications, airports and seaports, energy infrastructure, financial services, and life sciences, among others. Mark has also successfully negotiated commercially acceptable mitigation on behalf of clients before the Committee, secured CFIUS approval for hostile takeovers, and advised on investigations initiated by the Committee with respect to non-notified transactions. Mark also regularly coordinates worldwide foreign direct investment (FDI) approvals on behalf of clients for significant global transactions that involve national security sensitivities. 

Mark’s recent representations include:

• Melrose Industries PLC in securing CFIUS and other national security regulatory approvals for its unsolicited £8 billion offer to acquire GKN PLC, an automotive, aerospace and defense manufacturing giant
• Refinitiv in connection with CFIUS and worldwide foreign investment approvals relating to its blockbuster $27 billion acquisition by the London Stock Exchange Group plc
• Oaktree Capital Group, LLC in securing necessary regulatory approvals before CFIUS, DDTC, and DCSA in connection with a proposed $4.7 billion merger with Brookfield Asset Management, Inc., resulting in one of the world’s largest asset managers with approximately $475 billion in combined assets under management
• Versum Materials in connection with CFIUS approval of its acquisition by Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany for $6.5 billion, which garnered the “Cross-border Deal of the Year” from The Deal
• Blackstone and a consortium of foreign investors in connection with CFIUS approval of a $3.2 billion purchase of a controlling interest in interstate pipeline operator Tallgrass Energy
• Blackstone, The Carlyle Group and Hellman & Friedman in securing worldwide foreign investment approvals for the private equity consortium’s $34 billion acquisition of a majority interest in medical supplier Medline Industries
• Microsoft in securing worldwide foreign investment approvals for its $19.7 billion acquisition of Nuance Communications

Prior to joining Simpson Thacher, Mark clerked for the Honorable Reggie B. Walton, United States District Judge for the District of Columbia and a former Presiding Judge of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. He received his J.D., magna cum laude, from Case Western Reserve University, where he was elected to the Order of the Coif, and his B.Sc. from Cornell University. He is admitted to practice in the District of Columbia.