Alumni Spotlight

An Interview with Bruce Czachor '87

Bruce Czachor ’87 is a partner at Sherman & Sterling L.L.P., who practices in their capital markets and mergers and acquisitions groups. Mr. Czachor attributes his success to keeping an open mind and taking the long view when deciding his career path. He encourages student to do the same in making decisions about their careers.

Unsure of which career path to pursue after college, Mr. Czachor took a job at Chase Manhattan Bank’s Manager Training Program to help him decide whether he wanted to pursue a J.D. or M.B.A. At Chase he realized that he would be happier if he went back to get a J.D., and thereafter he enrolled at New York Law School.

At New York Law School, Mr. Czachor always knew he wanted to go into corporate law, but he kept an open mind. After taking several courses with Professor Karen Gross’ on bankruptcy and other corporate topics, he became convinced that bankruptcy was the right choice. Despite his belief that he would concentrate on bankruptcy and corporate law, at the urging of Professor Schoendbrod, he applied for a clerkship, and he was offered a position with the Honorable John Reilly at the D.C. Court of Appeals. He enjoyed his tenure as a clerk, particularly the opportunity to improve his writing and research skills, as well as living in D.C. These improved research and writing skills, developed from researching issues and drafting bench briefs and opinions for his judge as well as the appellate panels, served him well when he entered the corporate world at Shearman & Sterling. He quickly developed a reputation for drafting clear and concise memoranda in a timely fashion. Mr. Czachor believes that he would not have developed these skills if he did not take a long-term perspective when deciding to pursue the clerkship opportunity. Despite knowing that he would focus his career on a corporate practice, he embraced the clerkship opportunity and postponed beginning his career in the private sector (not to mention postponing the salary). In addition to adopting a long term perspective to career planning, Mr. Czachor recommends that all students take as many courses as possible to improve their writing skills, since this is a common deficiency among new associates.

After his clerkship, Mr. Czachor accepted a position at Shearman & Sterling in New York. He chose Shearman & Sterling over other big law firms primarily because of the people. He liked the people that he met and felt comfortable being there. He began, as he wished, in the firm’s Bankruptcy and Reorganization group. During his three and a half year tenure in that group, Mr. Czachor was exposed to a wide variety of matters in addition to bankruptcy and workouts, including mergers and acquisitions and bank finance. In his fourth year, Mr. Czachor rotated to the firm’s Capital Markets practice. Shortly thereafter, he was asked to relocate to help grow the firm’s practice in Toronto. He took the opportunity and moved to Toronto in 1994, becoming a partner in 1997 after successfully expanding the practice and reputation of the firm. Then, in 2000, he was asked to relocate again, this time to California to open Shearman & Sterling’s Silicon Valley office. He helped build the office from the ground up, literally overseeing construction while recruiting a team of lawyers with expertise in Capital Markets, M&A, Tax, Compensation & Benefits and Intellectual Property. The Silicon Valley office worked in tandem with Shearman & Sterling’s office in San Francisco, which was established in 1979, to offer clients a full array of legal services.

Following the success of the Silicon Valley office, Mr. Czachor’s skills called him back to New York in 2005, where he is a partner in the Capital Markets practice group and responsible for several of his firm’s major financial institution clients.

A great irony of Mr. Czachor’s success in his Capital Markets practice is that he disliked (in fact, hated) his securities law course at NYLS. When he began his career at Shearman & Sterling he was certain that he would always practice in the area of bankruptcy and reorganization and never even consider becoming a securities lawyer. However, he kept an open mind, embraced his broad experiences in different areas and eventually became a leading practioner in the capital markets. He is convinced that his broad exposure to different areas of the law has contributed significantly to his success.

Mr. Czachor’s advice is clear: (1) early in your career seek a broad experience—avoid specializing too early; (2) use your summers to get a broad experience; (3) keep an open mind to all types of assignments; (4) do not be afraid to make a mistake, it’s part of the learning process; and (5) ask questions, since law schools are not equipped to teach you the realities of corporate work in the private sector.

Since returning to New York, Mr. Czachor has been active in the NYLS community by becoming heavily involved in recruiting. In addition to other things, he has brought Shearman & Sterling back to NYLS for On-Campus recruitment. Students are lucky to have such an accomplished and caring alumnus to assist them in their career path.