Sean O’Neal and Jane VanLare Named 2025 ‘Dealmakers of the Year’ by The American Lawyer

Cleary Gottlieb partners Sean O’Neal and Jane VanLare have been named “Dealmakers of the Year” by The American Lawyer for representing crypto lender Genesis Global Capital in its Chapter 11 to restructure $4.9 billion in liabilities.

The publication states how Sean and Jane’s “negotiating talents” led to a groundbreaking agreement involving repayments in both digital currency and cash. The bankruptcy issue concerned whether Genesis would be permitted to distribute cryptocurrency assets in excess of their petition date value to creditors.

What made the deal unique was of the way the final distribution was structured. “We were the first case to be able to distribute digital assets back to creditors rather than having them be satisfied with the dollarized version of their claims, which would have been substantially lower,” Jane said in an interview.

Additionally, a suit filed by New York Attorney General Letitia James’ office alleged Genesis defrauded thousands of investors and hid losses, stemming from its participation in a program jointly operated with crypto exchange Gemini. Sean structured and negotiated the settlement with the New York attorney general’s office to resolve the fraud lawsuit. “We used that lawsuit to get to a settlement that helped us get to, ultimately, a deal with the creditors, and an approach that made our plan confirmable by the bankruptcy judge,” Sean said. “When presented with a surprise, you just have to figure out how to use that surprise for advantage, and that’s what we did.”

Read The American Lawyer’s full profile on Sean and Jane.

Read more about The American Lawyer’s 2025 Dealmakers of the Year.