Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz operates out of its one and only office, in New York, but the firm’s prestige is undeniably national, and increasingly international, in scope. “Everyone knows Wachtell, or knows about them, and for very obvious reasons. They are masters at what they do.” The “what they do” is a reference to the firm’s famed M&A dispute practice, which, coupled with its transactional corporate practice, has allowed Wachtell to do nothing short of corner a market. “Wachtell has decided that they want to pivot to doing work that is strictly focused around public company M&A work – that is where you get the premium work.” One peer marvels, “Increasingly, when I look at Wachtell, I am stunned by the growing level of diversity. I’m seeing a lot more international arbitration, which was never considered Wachtell’s forte, but with cross-border deals falling into dispute, [the firm’s services] are more in demand.” The firm has also been particularly active in the bankruptcy space – for which Emil Kleinhaus receives near-universal plaudits – and remains busy in the white collar and investigations area as well, which has historically been the domain of John Savarese, still the firm’s dominant partner in this area.
William Savitt, one of the firm’s most celebrated and universally revered partners (he was perhaps the youngest partner to score a “Hall of Fame” award at the Benchmark Litigation awards in 2022), continues to sustain a record-breaking streak of milestone litigation work, particularly in Delaware. Savitt led a team (which also included
Sarah Eddy, Ryan McLeod and Anitha Reddy) which was engaged by Twitter in June 2022 to enforce its $44 billion merger agreement with Elon Musk. After the Wachtell team secured a steady stream of pre-trial wins, Musk unconditionally reversed course, and the deal closed in October 2022 on its originally agreed terms. “That was the most comprehensive corporate trial of the year,” ventures a peer, “and it ended in complete capitulation for Elon.” Further burnishing his unassailable reputation for courtroom acuity, Savitt, along with Eddy, triumphed on appeal for Boardwalk Pipeline Partners, the defendant in a Delaware corporate dispute that had been soundly beaten at trial in late 2021, with an eye-popping judgment of $700 million logged against it. Savitt and Eddy scored a stunning reversal upon appeal in December 2022, wiping the record-breaking decision off the books entirely. “This was the largest class action ever in Delaware,” asserts a peer. “The Wachtell team were litigating as much against the trial judge as they were the lawyers on the other side. They were able to pick their way through the facts and present a challenging legal argument.” Although younger, both Reddy and Eddy have their own admirers in the litigation community. “These are the future leaders of their fiduciary duty and corporate governance practice,” declares a peer. Reddy has “tremendous ability with clients and is taking on more cases as first chair,” and Eddy “rose to be Chief of Appeals, which is a big deal. She has really emerged as one of Wachtell’s top-flight civil litigators, and she can write great appellate briefs.”
Elaine Golin leads a team representing Cardinal Health in the corporate governance capacity, regarding its litigation exposure resulting from the opioid epidemic, which has threatened many entities in the pharmaceutical distribution industry with bankruptcy. Golin and her team managed a complex derivative and class-action docket and then engineered an unprecedented and innovative global resolution for the entire industry with a coalition of state attorneys general. The settlement promises to put the vast bulk of litigation risk behind the industry, likely saving several companies from bankruptcy, while guaranteeing settlement payments for those affected by the opioid crisis. A peer marvels, “The way they not only won, but shepherded this for the entire sector, was unbelievable!” A team consisting of Savitt, Eddy and
Jonathan Moses – another Wachtell mainstay – represented Brad Pitt in his dispute with Angelina Jolie concerning their rosé wine-producing entity, acting on matters stemming from Europe as well as domestically.
