John Finley is a Senior Managing Director at Blackstone and the firm’s Chief Legal Officer. Before joining Blackstone, John had been a partner with Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP for 22 years, where he was most recently a member of that law firm's Executive Committee

and Co-Head of Global M&A.

 

John is an Adviser on the American Law Institute’s Restatement of the Law, Corporate Governance project and a member of the Dean’s Advisory Board of Harvard Law School, the Board of Advisors of the Penn Institute for Law and Economics, and the Advisory Board of the Penn Netter Center for Community Partnerships.  He has served on the Board of Advisors of the Knight-Bagehot Fellowship in Economics and Business Journalism at Columbia University, the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights,

and the Jewish Board of Family and Children Services, New York City. He has also served as Chairman of the Annual International Mergers & Acquisitions Conference of the International Bar Association

and on the Committee of Securities Regulation of the New York State Bar Association.

 

John has a BS in Economics, summa cum laude, from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania (1978), a BA in History, summa cum laude, from the College of Arts and Sciences of the University of Pennsylvania (1978), and a JD, cum laude, from Harvard Law School (1981).

Jonathan K. Youngwood is Global Co-Chair of Simpson Thacher & Bartlett’s Litigation Department and is a member of the firm’s Executive Committee. With more than two decades of experience, Jon has represented clients in a wide range of high-profile complex commercial litigation and regulatory matters, including securities, corporate control, antitrust, and ERISA disputes. Jon is also actively involved on pro bono matters, including

a case with SPLC challenging Mississippi’s lifetime voting ban for individuals convicted of certain felonies, and with the ACLU in securing

a landmark consent decree in an unconstitutional policing lawsuit

involving Madison County, Mississippi.

 

He received his JD with honors from the University of Chicago, where he served as Comments Editor of The University of Chicago Law Review, and received his BA with honors from Brown University. He also holds a Master of Public Policy from The University of Chicago. Jon clerked for the Honorable Dennis G. Jacobs of United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Jon serves as President of the Board of Trustees for the Collegiate School, and as a Trustee on the Board of Central Synagogue. He and his wife, Holly, have two sons, Ben and David, and a daughter, Hannah.