Mergers and Acquisitions

Job of the Week

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Here is the latest Job of the Week, courtesy of ATL’s career partner, Lateral Link. To refresh your recollection:

“Because Lateral Link does no cold-calling and is more efficient than traditional recruiting firms, successful candidates receive $10,000 upon placement.”

Position: M&A Associate (Media)
Description: This highly sought after media and advertising law firm is seeking a mid-level associate with a strong M&A background to work on media and advertising-related deals. Work primarily involves private transactions, but will have the occasional public transaction.
Founded over hundred years ago, this firm is renowned as the top marketing communications law firm in the world, representing four of the largest advertising agency holding companies. The firm is remarkable in the fact that it maintains worldwide leadership in a key field of law with only 100 attorneys, based in a single office in New York City. Having grown from less than 40 attorneys in the 1990s, the firm serves clients in a full range of practice areas, including corporate governance, litigation, M&A, employment practices and executive benefits and compensation, intellectual property, new media, real estate, taxation and estate planning. The firm also enjoys a sterling reputation among not only its major advertising and marketing communications clients, but among its attorneys as well. The firm has a one-to-one partner to associate ratio and is regarded as an unusually rewarding, reinforcing and humane place to work.
Position Requirements: Four to six years of experience. M&A background, top credentials, good personality.
To apply for this position, or to learn about other career opportunities, please visit laterallink.com.
Earlier: Prior Job of the Week listings (scroll down)

Attention Young Legal Deal Makers: Did You Make the Cut?

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Facebook Dealbook Special Section Fall 2007 Above the Law blog.jpgThe excellent DealBook Special Section, in today’s New York Times, has a piece by Andrew Ross Sorkin that the New York deal lawyers among you will love. It’s entitled The Facebook of Wall Street’s Future:

Here is a snapshot of more than 100 people who make up the next generation of deal makers, everyone 40 years old or younger and linked by where they went to college (and chosen based on dozens of interviews). Think of the list as a Facebook of Wall Street’s future.

This is not an exhaustive inventory of all the up-and-comers on Wall Street, where new faces constantly come up with the next clever idea. But it demonstrates the power of certain schools as career starting points.

In terms of law schools — there are lots of business schools on the chart, too — the “certain schools” include Harvard, NYU, Georgetown, and Penn (among others; these four seem to have the most graduates on the map — 6, 6, 4, and 4, respectively).
Correction: Oops, sorry (and thanks to this commenter for pointing out our error). Columbia Law School has 7 featured alums. CLS, holla!
It’s tough to escape “tier-ism,” even when you move from the heart of the legal world to the point where it overlaps with the deal world. But do take note of the large area at the center of the illustration for people with “No Graduate Degrees.”
Some of the names on the map will be familiar to ATL readers. A few shout-outs, after the jump.

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For M&A Lawyers, Is the Premium Party Over?

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DealBook special section merger lawyers AboveTheLaw Above the Law blog.jpgAs some of you have noticed, we have an article in today’s New York Times, in the DealBook Special Section. It’s about fee arrangements in the (highly lucrative) context of mergers-and-acquisitions work. Here’s a teaser:

For some firms, billable hours are just the beginning. As the boom rolled on, law firms specializing in mergers and acquisitions increasingly engaged in premium billing, charging fees in excess of their total hourly billings. Think of it as a tip for good work. Whether a client pays a premium depends upon its satisfaction with the result, the size and complexity of the transaction, and the nature and length of the attorney-client relationship.

But since the credit market began to tighten this summer, an event that brought new deals to a crawl and has upset several old ones, many lawyers have been wondering whether the premium party is over…

And here’s one of the more juicy portions:

One firm, though, has moved beyond billable hours to the flat fee preferred by bankers: Wachtell, Lipton. A former Wachtell lawyer described a typical bill as follows: “There’s a paragraph stating something like, ‘For legal services rendered in connection with Transaction X,’ then a dot leader, then a number followed by six zeros.” He said he worked on some deals where Wachtell was paid more than the bankers.

Wachtell charged a flat fee when it advised the Bancroft family, which controlled Dow Jones & Company, during the $5 billion bid by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation For its work on the deal, Wachtell first submitted a bill for $10 million.

You can read the full piece here (or here). Feel free to email it liberally to friends and family. Thanks!
When $1,000 an Hour Is Not Enough [Dealbook / NYT]

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The Marty Lipton Fan Blog

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Martin Lipton Marty Lipton Wachtell Lipton WLRK Above the Law blog.jpgWe should have written about this earlier — in fact, weeks earlier, since it has been up since early August. But sometimes things fall through the cracks, emails get caught in our spam filter, etc. Anyway, better late than never.
From a helpful reader:

check out this blog. it’s sort of a one trick pony, but its good for a laugh and is pretty out there. as a wlrk alum, figured you would get a kick out of it. thanks.

We agree — it’s funny and bizarre. From the inaugural post of The Poison Pill:

This blog is devoted to our hero and idol, corporate law phenom Martin Lipton. Mr. Lipton, name partner in the prestigious and venerable firm Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz, has been practicing law since the mid-1960′s after he graduated from NYU law school, and is considered by most in the industry to be the “dean” of the M&A bar. This legendary advocate is most famous in legal circles for inventing the “poison pill,” a takeover defense now used by virtually all public companies to delay and deter hostile tender offers and other solicited acquisitions.

That’s right, you heard me–not only is Mr. Lipton a skilled and accomplished lawyer, he is an inventor as well. We also hear that he is a marvelous ballroom dancer, but have yet to receive confirmation on this point.

You can read the rest of the post over here.
Could this blog turn into the Biglaw equivalent of the Fake Steve Jobs blog, which developed into a sensation of the business world? Stay tuned.
The Poison Pill

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Law Firm Merger Mania: White & Case to Acquire Moore & Van Allen?

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White Case LLP Above the Law blog.JPGHere’s some law firm merger scuttlebutt that’s making the rounds:

Rumor is that White & Case is acquiring Moore & Van Allen, a native Charlotte firm with a national syndicated finance practice. Any truth to this?

We reached out to both firms for comment. A White & Case spokesperson issued this statement:

“We do not respond to inquiries of this kind.”

Should we take that as a “yes”?
If we hear back from Moore & Van Allen, we’ll let you know. If you have any info, please email us. Thanks.

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Law Firm Merger Mania: Dewey LeBoeuf? (You Heard It Here First)

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People in the offices of both Dewey Ballantine and LeBoeuf Lamb have been gossiping about a possible merger between their firms.
Here’s some circumstantial evidence in support of the rumors. If you go to Whois.Net and enter the domain name DeweyLeBoeuf.com, you get this info:
Dewey Ballantine 2 LeBoeuf Lamb Greene MacRae Above the Law blog.jpg
We have a call and an email in to Michael Groll. We’ll let you know if and when we hear back from him.
Update: Might this be a practical joke, as one commenter suggests? Quite possibly. That’s why we’ve reached out to Mr. Groll for comment.
Further Update (4:45 PM): No, this is the real deal. About an hour after our post went up, the WSJ Law Blog chimed in with this write-up: “LeBoeuf Lamb and Dewey Ballantine are in merger talks, with an announcement of a deal expected as early as Monday, according to people familiar with the situation.”
Further Further Update (8/25/07): The New York Times has an article on the merger talks here.
More discussion, plus links, after the jump.

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Law Firm Merger Mania: Locke Liddell + Lord Bissell

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harriet miers.jpgThe latest Biglaw combination brings together more “L”s than you can shake a stick at. From the Texas Lawyer:

Locke Liddell & Sapp, based in Houston and Dallas, and Chicago-based Lord, Bissell & Brook have agreed to merge, and will form a 700-lawyer firm named Locke Lord Bissell & Liddell.

Hmm, that’s a mouthful — the marketing people might want to rethink things. The alliteration and internal rhyme make the firm name far too “busy.”
Correction: Based on the comments, it appears that we’re wrong about the internal rhyme. But we still think the new firm name is unwieldy.
Some reactions to more substantive aspects of the deal, after the jump.

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Musical Chairs: Wachtell Lipton Snags a Paul Weiss Partner

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Martin Lipton Marty Lipton Wachtell Lipton WLRK Above the Law blog.jpgHere’s some news about an unusual move at our former employer, Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz (at right: founding partner Marty Lipton).
From the American Lawyer (via the WSJ Law Blog):

After losing two partners in recent months, Wachtell Lipton has quietly hired Michael Segal, the former cohead of executive compensation and benefits at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, who will start on Monday.

The move is an unusual one for Wachtell, which has rarely sought out lateral partners. In the firm’s 42-year history, just two other partners have lateraled into the firm. In 1997 antitrust partner Ilene Knable Gotts joined from Foley & Lardner. And in 1977, tax specialist Peter Canellos (now of counsel) joined as a partner from Cravath, Swaine & Moore.

Some random observations:

1. After the recent losses of executive comp partners Adam Chinn (to an investment banking boutique) and Michael Katzke (to a career in social work — good for him), the firm had to make a high-profile hire in this niche. It’s a specialized area that is critical to WLRK’s flagship M&A practice.

2. For many years, Wachtell’s general policy against lateral hiring extended to associates as well. But they’ve been taking on lateral associates with increasing frequency in recent years. So if you’re working at another firm, but like the idea of a 100 percent bonus, send in your résumé.

3. Antitrust queen Ilene Knable Gotts, one of the two lateral partners mentioned above, is a diva with a capital “D.” And she works insane hours, even by Wachtell standards (as do her associates).

In addition, here’s an interesting profile of WLRK founder Marty Lipton, from our friends on the other side of the pond. Good stuff.
In a Rare Move, Wachtell Brings on a Lateral [American Lawyer]
US Top 50/New York: What Marty Says [Legal Week]
Wachtell Lipton Hires a Lateral! [WSJ Law Blog]

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Non-Sequiturs: 02.20.07

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* Filet-O-Fish creator never got a dime off his religion-inspired fish sandwich, yet remains grateful for all he did achieve. That is the spirit of Lent (which starts tomorrow!). [Cincinnati Enquirer]
* No one disses Nike. [The Guardian]
* Inventor of the Electric Slide says Teri Hatcher is doing it all wrong. [MSN Technology via Sivacracy.net]
* Flasher invokes the “These pants always do that” affirmative defense… [IndyStar.com]
* …while Peeping Tom sticks with the less creative “What? This is the women’s bathroom?” defense. [The Milwaukee Channel]
* EMI and Warner Music — on again! [The Daily News]

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Non-Sequiturs: 01.18.07

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* Another high-profile discrimination case, but this time in the world of haute cuisine. Daniel Boulud’s defense? He’s an immigrant himself — we bet the whole “Freedom Fries” anti-French sentiment really hurt. [New York Times]
* A gentleman should not be required to excuse himself for European civility. [AP via Lowering the Bar]
* I have never smoked pot. As long as people dating me or coming to my stand-up gigs are high, the banter will undoubtedly seem witty and the jokes uproarious, and I’d rather be lucid enough to savor such fleeting moments. [TalkLeft]
* My mom once gave me cash to use on an SAT-prep course. I secretly used it on a Gucci dress. But I still got into my first choice college and had 75 hours of free time to, like, hang out at the mall. There’s an analogy in there somewhere. [Denver Post via Mirror of Justice]
* Families blame MySpace for enabling teenage irrationality, sexual perversion and poor parenting. They long for the days they could just plunk their kids in front of the TV without consequence. [Associated Press]
* So you think MTV doesn’t respect its audience? Well, it has just acquired RateMyProfessors, so I guess it’s assuming someone in that demographic actually cares about school and their future and stuff. [TaxProf Blog]

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