A significant donation to Law from Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz will support the Law School’s financial aid and student scholarship programs.
“The relationship between Law and Wachtell has been a profoundly meaningful one,” said Law Trustee and Wachtell Partner David A. Katz ’88. “The Law School was transformative for me and for many of my partners. I’m thrilled that this gift will help strengthen this relationship and ensure that future students at the Law School will have similarly remarkable opportunities.”
Founded in 1965, the firm counts four graduates among its name partners: Herbert Wachtell ’54, Martin Lipton ’55, Leonard Rosen ’54, and George Katz ’54. Lipton, Katz, and Rosen had previously worked together at a small firm, Seligson, Morris & Neuberger, where they sometimes referred litigation to Herbert Wachtell. When Seligson, Morris & Neuberger broke up, the four lawyers came together to form their own firm, joined by Jerome Kern ’60 and two young associates who were also Law graduates.
Now the nationally ranked law firm employs nearly 250 lawyers and is a leader in the fields of mergers and acquisitions, strategic investments, takeovers and takeover defense, corporate and securities law, and corporate governance, among other areas. And the firm has not forgotten its Law roots: The founders and other Law alumni at the firm have remained active participants in the life of the Law School. Wachtell provides annual support to the Institute for Corporate Governance & Finance as well as the , in a partnership that focuses on exploring new and more effective ways to foster diversity at law firms.
“My entire legal career has been shaped and enhanced by my professional and personal relationships with my classmates and other graduates of the Law School,” said Lipton. “ Law opened many doors for me. It is a very great pleasure to support the legacy of the Wachtell- Law partnership by contributing to the welfare and the benefit of those who come after us.”
Lipton is a trustee of Law and , having served as chairman of the Law School Board from 1988 to 1998 and chairman of the University Board from 1998 to 2015. In addition to Lipton and David A. Katz, a third member of the firm, Eric Roth ’77, also sits on the Law Board of Trustees. Katz has also taught Mergers and Acquisitions as an adjunct professor at Law, served as a senior professional fellow at the , and co-chairs the Board of Advisors for the Law School’s Institute for Corporate Governance & Finance.
Posted March 19, 2019