Rachel G. Skaistis is a partner in Cravath's litigation department. She focuses her practice on advising boards of directors and management in connection with government and internal investigations, shareholder demands, derivative actions and accounting restatements. Ms. Skaistis represents clients in matters involving the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the False Claims Act, insider trading, accounting and securities fraud and governance issues. She also handles a wide variety of general litigation, arbitration and appellate matters, including employment disputes, securities, bankruptcy and commercial/contract.

Ms. Skaistis is representing a Special Committee of the Board of Twitter, Inc. in connection with a shareholder litigation demand letter. She recently advised a special litigation committee of the Board of Directors of Alphabet Inc. (the parent company of Google) in connection with various shareholder legal proceedings related to past workplace conduct and data privacy issues. Ms. Skaistis has also represented a special committee of the Board of Directors of Prudential Financial; the Audit Committee of the Board of Directors of Campbell Soup; a special committee of the Board of Directors of Cognizant Technology Solutions; special committees of the Board of Directors of MetLife; special committees of the Board of Directors of The Hartford Financial Services Group; a special committee of the Board of Directors of Bank of New York Mellon; and the Board of Directors of General Electric Company and its various committees since 2007 in connection with a variety of matters.

In addition to her special committee work, Ms. Skaistis has a robust litigation practice. Recent matters include:

• Representing Qualcomm and certain of its directors and officers in a consolidated purported shareholder securities class action suit in California federal court filed in the wake of antitrust investigations and litigation concerning the company’s patent licensing and modem chipset businesses. She also represented Qualcomm and certain of its current and former officers in related stockholder derivative litigation in Delaware.   

• Representing Biogen in a qui tam action in Massachusetts federal court alleging violations of the False Claims Act and Anti‑Kickback Statute. In July 2022, the parties reached an agreement in principle, subject to the negotiation of final settlement agreements.

• Representing Novartis Pharmaceuticals in antitrust litigation brought on behalf of putative classes of direct and indirect purchasers, as well as several plaintiffs suing in an individual capacity, alleging an unlawful agreement with another drug manufacturer to delay generic competition for the drug Exforge®.

• Represented Crown Castle International Corp., the nation’s largest provider of communications infrastructure, and certain of its officers and directors in connection with putative securities class action litigation and related stockholder derivative litigation alleging that Crown Castle made false and misleading statements regarding revenue from its cell tower installation services. She also represented Crown Castle in an SEC investigation related to certain of the company’s accounting policies where the SEC staff recently determined not to recommend an enforcement action by the Commission.

In the global investigations space, Ms. Skaistis represented Telia Company in connection with FCPA investigations by the SEC, DOJ and Swedish and Dutch authorities, resulting in one of the largest FCPA resolutions ever. The resolution did not require the company to retain a compliance monitor, implement changes to its compliance program or periodically self-report on its compliance program to the DOJ or SEC.

Many of the other matters that Ms. Skaistis handles are non-public government and internal investigations, including FCPA investigations in North America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East, insider trading investigations and investigations related to workplace misconduct. Ms. Skaistis’s other clients have included:  Credit Suisse, Deloitte & Touche, INEOS, JPMorgan Chase, Novartis and Time Warner/Warner Media.

Multiple publications such as Global Investigations Review, Chambers USA, The Legal 500 US, Benchmark Litigation, Lawdragon and The Best Lawyers in America have recognized Ms. Skaistis for her work in investigations, securities and business litigation, white collar criminal defense and regulatory enforcement. In 2021, she was included in Crain’s New York Business’s list of “Notable Women in Law.”

Ms. Skaistis devotes substantial time to pro bono service. She is one of the liaison partners for Cravath’s relationship with Montefiore Children’s Hospital and Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital, through which the Firm represents patients who need legal services related to their medical care. She also is the liaison partner for Her Justice, an organization that procures pro bono legal services for low‑income women and children. She also serves on the boards of New York Lawyers for the Public Interest (NYLPI) and The After‑School Corporation, on the advisory committee of the National Women’s Law Center and as a member of the New York State Permanent Commission on Access to Justice. 

Ms. Skaistis was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She received a B.A. in 1992 from Yale University. After graduating from Yale, Ms. Skaistis worked as a newspaper reporter in Fort Worth, Texas. In 1997, she received a J.D. cum laude from Cornell, where she was Managing Editor of the Cornell Law Review.

Ms. Skaistis joined Cravath in 1997. In 1999, Ms. Skaistis served as a law clerk to Hon. Shira A. Scheindlin of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. She rejoined Cravath in 2000 and was elected a partner in 2004. Ms. Skaistis is Co-Chair of the Diversity Committee.