The Billion-Dollar Deal Maker’s Playbook

According to Forbes, Catherine Dargan serves as global chair of Covington’s Corporate Practice and heads their M&A team, overseeing multibillion-dollar mergers and complex cross-border deals. Over her 25-year career, she’s built a premier practice representing pharmaceutical giants including Merck, Bristol Myers, AbbVie, Gilead, and Novartis. Her recent work includes leading Novartis’ massive $12 billion acquisition of Avidity Biosciences. Dargan has expanded beyond life sciences to handle deals across technology, manufacturing, and gaming sectors. Her approach earned her a spot on Forbes’ inaugural Top M&A Lawyers List, and she expects M&A activity to remain strong despite geopolitical and economic challenges.

Sponsored content — provided for informational and promotional purposes.

The Art of Deal Making in Uncertain Times

Here’s the thing about billion-dollar deals – they’re not just about legal paperwork. Dargan describes the process as solving puzzles that require creativity and resourcefulness. But what really stands out is how she’s navigating today’s volatile environment. Geopolitical instability, tariffs, government shutdowns – these would normally slow deal flow to a crawl. Yet she’s seeing fierce competition for innovative products in medical technology and AI spaces.

Companies are essentially in a race to acquire promising pipelines before their competitors do. That creates this interesting pressure cooker environment where due diligence needs to be both thorough and fast. Dargan positions herself not just as legal counsel but as a trusted advisor who helps clients assess risks in what she frankly calls “an uncertain world.” That shift from pure legal work to strategic partnership seems crucial in today’s market.

Building Enduring Success Across Industries

So how does someone maintain elite status across multiple industries for 25 years? Dargan started in DC with Covington’s strong regulatory practice, which gave her a natural edge in life sciences. But she didn’t stay in that lane. The expansion into technology, manufacturing, and even gaming shows remarkable adaptability. Basically, she mastered the art of being indispensable regardless of the sector.

Her philosophy seems to be about relationships and consistency – doing “the very best work you can on every single deal.” That sounds simple, but in high-stakes M&A where egos and billions collide, maintaining that standard is anything but easy. She also credits Covington’s collaborative culture, which suggests that in this business, no one succeeds alone, no matter how talented they are.

Why This Matters Now

Look, we’re living through some of the most uncertain economic conditions in recent memory. Interest rates are wild, geopolitical tensions are high, and yet Dargan expects M&A to remain brisk. That tells you something about where corporate strategy is heading. Companies aren’t hunkering down – they’re actively seeking growth through acquisition, particularly in innovation-heavy sectors.

What’s fascinating is how the role of M&A lawyers has evolved. They’re not just deal mechanics anymore. They’re risk assessors, strategic advisors, and essentially corporate therapists helping executives navigate complexity. Dargan’s success suggests that the lawyers who thrive in this new environment will be those who can anticipate obstacles and plan actionable solutions, not just react to problems. In many ways, she’s defining what elite legal counsel looks like in the 2020s – and it’s a far cry from the stereotype of stuffy corporate lawyers.