Fogg also represented J.P. Morgan Securities as the underwriter on the $10 billion in stock that J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. issued in connection with its acquisition of Washington Mutual Inc.

The recent flurry of bank deals has also kept Cravath's B. Robbins Kiessling busy. He led the firm's team in representing the board of National City Corp. in agreeing to sell to PNC Financial Services Group Inc. for $5.2 billion. Cravath's James Woolery landed the role thanks to his relationship with Nat City director Paul Ormond, the CEO of HCR Manor Care Inc. Woolery represented Manor Care last year when it sold to Carlyle Group for $6.3 billion.

Kiessling also teamed with Cravath's Philip Boeckman to represent Her Majesty's Treasury, the U.K.'s economics and finance ministry, on the U.S. law aspects of its bailout of Royal Bank of Scotland Group plc, HBOS plc and Lloyds TSB Group plc. Slaughter & May took the lead oar for the government on the deal. The two law firms often refer work to each other. And Kiessling represented the nine banks led by J.P. Morgan that established a $77 billion liquidity facility after the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.

Two other Cravath partners have landed assignments in the financial sector in the past two months. Robert Joffe, the firm's former presiding partner, represented the independent directors of Fannie Mae when it was taken over by the government and those of Merrill Lynch & Co. when it agreed to sell to Bank of America Corp. Joffe started working with the Merrill outside directors when the company booted Stanley O'Neal last year and with their counterparts at Fannie Mae in 2004, when the mortgage lender fired Franklin Raines.

Finally, Faiza Saeed represented the Morgan Stanley board on the company's conversion to a bank holding company and a $9 billion equity investment by Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc.