Dealmakers of the Year Winner: Corporate Department, Sills Cummis & Gross

The Sills Cummis & Gross Corporate Department received the New Jersey Law Journal’s Dealmakers of the Year Award at the 2026 New Jersey Legal Awards held on October 29, 2026 in Somerset, New Jersey. This award was one of four awards the Firm and its attorneys received at the Legal Awards banquet.

In connection with the award, the New Jersey Law Journal published a Q&A with Robert Schiappacasse, Co-Chair of the Sills Cummis Corporate Department. In it, he talks about the Department’s work across M&A, financing, and strategic commercial transactions. He also covers how economic conditions and artificial intelligence are shaping deal practice, what it takes to become a trusted transactional lawyer in New Jersey, and how the Firm handles client pricing pressure and the competition for talent. His responses, published in the New Jersey Law Journal on October 30, 2026, appear below.

What are some of the department’s most satisfying successes of 2025, and why?

Our most satisfying success in 2025 wasn’t a single headline deal. It was the breadth, complexity, and volume of the work we handled across corporate, M&A, financing, and strategic commercial agreements for clients ranging from family-owned businesses to publicly traded companies. Again and again, our team was asked to solve difficult problems, and we did.

How have the economy and/or artificial intelligence affected your practice area?

Economic uncertainty continues to make clients cautious about taking on debt and deploying capital, and that requires us to be more creative in how we structure M&A and financing transactions. Our 2025 work shows this. In two sales, we built financing into the deal itself, through seller financing in one and a multimillion-dollar mortgage refinancing in the other, so the assets could be delivered free of encumbrances. While overall deal volume has dipped, deal values and complexity have increased. As for artificial intelligence, we continually adopt new technology to work more efficiently and add value for clients. While technology may make us faster, clients still come to us for our judgment and for the experience of lawyers who understand their business.

Amid a changing market for legal services, what does it take to become a trusted transactional lawyer in New Jersey?

It takes legal expertise, business acumen, and relationship-building to become a trusted transactional lawyer in New Jersey. A client needs to know that their outside counsel is invested in their success. That requires a deep understanding of the client’s industry and where the client fits in that market, so that our advice is timely, practical, and focused on business goals, not just legal needs. Our Department has seen this firsthand. I have represented the Stavola Companies for about two decades as it grew, and when it decided it was time to sell, Sills Cummis served as sole outside counsel on its $1.2 billion sale to Arcosa, with Kirkland & Ellis on the other side. That relationship, like those of many of our clients, works because the client’s business goals drive the legal strategy, not the other way around.

How has the firm handled pressure from clients, such as with rates, and from the hiring market, with competition for talent?

Our pricing model is more favorable for clients than that of the large New York City firms, and as a mid-size firm we give clients direct access to senior attorneys and the ability to move quickly when a situation requires it. That value resonates with clients; we regularly represent them in deals opposite firms like Kirkland & Ellis, DLA Piper, and Latham & Watkins. That work also helps us recruit. Competition for experienced attorneys remains strong, but lawyers are drawn to our collegial culture and to the best of both worlds: large, complex transactions with top-tier firms on the other side, while still offering more of a lifestyle balance.

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