Samuel C Butler

Samuel Butler, a Midwesterner who became a top figure of the Wall Street legal world, advising on transformative takeovers and leading city institutions like the New York Public Library, died on Jan. 4. 2025. He was 94. Samuel C. Butler worked at Cravath, Swaine & Moore for 47 years, 18 of those years as presiding partner, and became a go-to adviser on mergers and acquisitions, He tepped down as presiding partner in 1998 and retired in 2003, Mr. Butler acted as the senior outside legal advisor to many companies, including Ashland, Bristol-Myers Squibb, CBS, Cummins, Fund America (now known as White River), Lucent, Olin and Paine Webber. He represented companies in a number of the largest merger and acquisition transactions ever completed, including Squibb in its acquisition by Bristol-Myers, Time in its acquisition of Warner Communications, Cap Cities/ABC in its acquisition by Disney, CBS in its acquisition by Westinghouse, GEICO in its acquisition by Berkshire Hathaway, Conrail in its acquisition by CSX, Salomon Smith Barney in its acquisition by Travelers Group and Paine Webber in its acquisition by UBS. Mr. Butler was counsel to the European Union and the European Investment Bank in their U.S. financial and securities law matters for over 40 years. In addition to his legal work, Mr. Butler was Chairman of the Board of the New York Public Library from 1999 through 2004 and remains a Trustee. He also served as a Trustee of the September 11 Fund, Vassar College, the American Museum of Natural History and the Culver Educational Foundation, as well as a member of the Harvard Board of Overseers from 1982 through 1988 (President of the Board from 1986 through 1988). He has also been a member of the Dean’s Advisory Board of the Harvard Law School since 1997. Mr. Butler was born in Logansport, Indiana. He received an A.B. magna cum laude from Harvard College in 1951, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, and received a Sheldon Traveling Fellowship and an L.L.B. magna cum laude from Harvard Law School in 1954, where he was an Editor of the Law Review and a recipient of a Sears Prize. After clerking for Hon. Sherman Minton of the United States Supreme Court and serving in the U.S. Army, he joined Cravath in 1956, became a partner in 1961 and was the Presiding Partner from 1980 through 1998. In 2004, he became special counsel. In 1952, he married Sally Thackston, whom he had met when he was 16. She died in 2023. He is survived by their three children, Sam, Leigh and Elizabeth; nine grandchildren; and eight great-grandchildren. LL.B. Harvard Law School, 1954; A.B. Harvard College, 1951, Phi Beta Kappa, magna cum laude.