Obituary of Alexandra D. Korry

WESTPORT, CONN KORRY--Alexandra. The lawyers and staff at Sullivan & Cromwell LLP mourn the tragic loss of our partner and friend Alexandra Korry at age 61. Alexandra died on September 29th following a fearless three-and-a-half year battle with cancer. Alexandra's loving husband, Robin Panovka, and her two adoring daughters, Rebecca and Sarah, were by her side when she passed. Alexandra joined Sullivan & Cromwell after graduating from Duke Law School in 1986, and in 1993 was among the first women elected partner in the Firm's M&A Group. She quickly rose to become one of the leading M&A lawyers in the United States, widely acclaimed for her strategic thinking and negotiating skill and highly respected as a gifted and trusted adviser. One of her clients once quipped that Alexandra was "sharp as a whip and twice as lethal." She was a powerhouse. World renowned companies, such as Microsoft, Philips Electronics, UBS, China Investment Corporation, Boyu Capital, Kodak, CITIC Capital, Fifth Third Bank and Wells Fargo turned to her for transactions that made headlines and reshaped industries. She advised Adelphia Communications on its 363 sale to Time Warner and Comcast in 2006, as well as InBev on its 2008 acquisition of Anheuser Busch. In addition to her remarkable professional accomplishments, Alexandra was dedicated to philanthropy and education. "I think everybody who is privileged enough to be in Big Law has an obligation to give back," she said in a Lawdragon profile of the top 500 lawyers in the United States. She served as chair of the New York State Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and was a member of the Dean's Advisory Council at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard. Over the course of her exceptional career, she also served as a member of the Board of Visitors at Duke Law School, chair of the New York City Bar Association's Committee on Mergers, Acquisitions and Corporate Control Contests, and chair of the Harlem Educational Activities Fund. She was an adjunct professor at Columbia Law School, teaching even as she was fighting cancer. In a tribute to Alexandra, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights noted her outsized impact in advancing civil rights. Under her leadership, the Commission's New York Advisory Committee published a 2014 report that helped end solitary confinement of youth in New York. More recently, her Committee published influential reports on police accountability and educational equity. Born in London, Alexandra spent her childhood in Ethiopia and Chile, where her father was the U.S. Ambassador. She attended Harvard and then the London School of Economics for a masters in international relations. Prior to law school, she did a brief stint as a journalist, working at Newsweek and the Washington Post. Alexandra was a trailblazer even before her legal career began - starting in her undergraduate years when she was the second woman elected Managing Editor of the Harvard Crimson, and continuing through her time at Sullivan & Cromwell. She was a mentor to a generation of younger lawyers, teaching not only legal skills but also how to excel professionally while raising children. Alexandra never stopped working to create opportunities and a supportive culture for women at the Firm and in the legal profession. More than a brilliant lawyer and trusted colleague, she was an empathetic and generous friend, a brave and tenacious leader, and a role model both personally and professionally. She had an unquenchable commitment to her family, partners, colleagues and clients, as well as the law and the world around her. Alexandra will forever live on in the minds of all who were lucky enough to experience her intense intelligence, her unceasing dedication to what is right and just, and her incomparable loyalty and friendship. In her relatively short time, she left an extraordinary mark. We were deeply privileged to have known her and worked with her. She will be long remembered and greatly missed. Her funeral will be held on October 1, 2020 at 1PM in Willowbrook Cemetery, 395 Main Street, Westport. The Abraham Green Funeral Home of Fairfield is directing the arrangements.