Samuel Butler, Lawyer Who Helped Create Corporate Giants, Dies at 94

Samuel Butler, a Midwesterner who became a top figure of the Wall Street legal world, advising on transformative takeovers and leading city institutions like the New York Public Library, died on Jan.4.

He was 94.His death, at home in Manhattan, was confirmed by Naren Daniel, a spokesman for Cravath, Swaine & Moore, the law firm where Mr.Butler worked for 47 years.Over a nearly five-decade career as a lawyer — 18 of those years as presiding partner at Cravath, one of Wall Street’s most elite firms — Mr.

Butler became a go-to adviser on major mergers and acquisitions, helping to create some of today’s corporate giants.He is also credited with helping Cravath, long known as a law firm to blue-chip companies like J.P.Morgan, get a piece of the deals boom that took off in the 1980s.

He advised the drug maker Squibb in its sale to Bristol-Myers in 1989, Time Inc.in its 1990 merger with Warner Communications, CBS in its 1995 sale to the Westinghouse Corporation, Capital Cities/ABC in its 1995 sale to Walt Disney, and Salomon Smith Barney in its 1997 sale to Travelers Group.“When you think about all the big deals that were going on in the ’80s and ’90s, Sam was right there,” Faiza Saeed, Cravath’s current presiding partner, who worked with Mr.

Butler on the Capital Cities deal, said in an interview.Mr.Butler himself played down his mergers credentials.

“I do not regard myself as a classic M.&A.transactional lawyer,” he said in a 2004 town hall meeting at Cravath.

“I would regard myself as a relationship lawyer.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe....