Scott Barshay, the 41-year-old Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP partner who serves as IBM Corp.'s primary outside deal counsel in the U.S., has represented the computer giant in more than two dozen mergers and acquisitions over the past decade. Now he's landed the biggest deal in IBM history: Big Blue's purchase on Monday of Canadian business intelligence software maker Cognos Inc. for $5 billion in cash.

Among the other billion-dollar buys Barshay has advised on for IBM are its deal for FileNet Corp. for $1.6 billion and Internet Security Systems for $1.3 billion, both in 2006, and Ascential Software Corp. for $1.1 billion in 2005. He also represented IBM in the sale of its personal computer business to China's Lenovo Group Ltd. for $1.8 billion in 2005.

Barshay is a 1991 graduate of Columbia Law School and an '88 grad of Colgate University. He made partner at Cravath in '99 at the ripe old age of 32 and soon after took over the account of Jones Apparel Group Inc., which he represented through a string of purchases, including that of Nine West Group Inc. for $1.5 billion, Maxwell Shoe Co. for $346 million and Barneys New York Inc. for $400 million. Most recently, he led the team that represented Jones in the August sale of Barneys to Istithmar PJSC for $942 million.

Other deals under his belt include representing Chevron Corp. in its successful takeover battle to acquire Unocal Corp. for $17 billion and representing the board of MCI Inc. in the takeover battles between Verizon Communications and Qwest Communications, which resulted in Verizon acquiring MCI for $8.4 billion. - Mary Kathleen Flynn

See Nov. 12 story on Cognos from Tech Confidential
See 2006 story on FileNet and Internet Security Systems from TheDeal.com See May 2005 story on Ascential Software from TheDeal.com
See March 2005 story on Lenovo Group from TheDeal.com
For more on advisers on the IBM-Cognos deal, see The Wall Street Journal