Davis Polk partners Darren Schweiger, Michael Senders and Brian Wolfe were named 2026 “Dealmakers of the Year” by the American Lawyer in connection with their roles advising Sycamore Partners with its $23.7B acquisition of Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA).

The take-private deal closed in August 2025 and was deemed the largest-ever retail leveraged buyout by LSEG. 

The team noted that the degree of difficulty was heightened by the need to separate WBA’s businesses into five separate operating companies and find a financing structure that could support their independent operations.

Michael said the job was in-depth and involved advisory work, tax structuring, finance matters and more, and that there was a strong, concerted team effort to ensure they made it past the finishing line.

Brian classified the deal as “complex,” noting the time it took to work through the financing aspects and the terms of the transaction, as well as the terms of the contingent consideration. The deal took about six months between initial signing and closing. 

“It’s obviously a large, complicated transaction into a very well-known public company with a lot of history. You’re talking about the largest (leveraged buyout) ever. The third largest healthcare LBO ever in the U.S.,” Brian said.

Darren added, “There were tons of moving pieces. There were numerous different, separate financings. We were splitting the company into multiple pieces in connection with the closings, so into totally separate portfolio companies from Sycamore’s perspective…This was a 24/7 experience for us for, call it, three or four months, where it felt like every day we were sort of solving issues that popped up.”

American Lawyer’s 2026 “Dealmakers of the Year” were announced on March 24, 2026.

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