Adam Emmerich is Co-Chair of Wachtell Lipton’s Corporate Department. Adam’s practice has included a broad and varied representation of public and private companies in a wide range of industries throughout the United States and around the world, in mergers and acquisitions, divestitures, spin-offs, joint ventures, financing transactions and securities law matters. Adam also has extensive experience and expertise in corporate governance, shareholder activism, and takeover defense and contested acquisition matters.
Adam is recognized by Lawdragon as one of the 500 leading lawyers in America (including as a Lawdragon Legend of the 500, the truly select lawyers who have made Lawdragon’s elite annual guide 10 times), as one of the 500 leading dealmakers in America each year since the category was inaugurated, and as one of the 500 Leading Global Real Estate Lawyers.
Lawdragon Honors
After serving as a law clerk to Judge Abner J. Mikva, of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, Adam joined the firm in 1986 and was named partner in 1991. He attended Swarthmore College and The University of Chicago Law School, from which he received his J.D. with honors. While at the University of Chicago, Adam served as topics and comments editor of The University of Chicago Law Review, was elected to the Order of the Coif, and was the recipient of an Olin Fellowship in law and economics.
Adam is a frequent author and speaker on topics relating to mergers and acquisitions and corporate governance, including at MIT’s Sloan Convocation, on India’s CNBC-TV18, at the Cercle Montesquieu in Paris, at the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, and at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Adam is co-chair of the International Institute for the Study of Cross-Border M&A (XBMA), and co-chair of the advisory board of New York University’s NYU SPS Schack Institute of Real Estate REIT Center. Adam is a member of the American Law Institute, the Council on Foreign Relations and the Economic Club of New York. He has served as co-chair of the NYU Real Estate Institute’s Annual Symposium on REITs since its inception. He has been a member of the Corporate Academic Bridge Group of the NYU Pollack Center for Law & Business, and a frequent contributor to the Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation.
Adam is an active member and officer of the International Bar Association (IBA), serving as an officer in the Law Firm Management Committee, and a co-chair of the annual IBA M&A Conference in New York. Adam has been a speaker at IBA conferences around the world, including in Mumbai, Frankfurt, Paris, Rome, Tokyo, Singapore, Miami, Mexico City and Panama, among other places, reflecting his expertise and thought leadership in the international legal community.
Adam serves on the board of the American Friends of Rambam Medical Center (of which he was president for more than a decade) and as president of the Friends of the Israel Antiquities Authority. He was previously co-chair of the Young Lawyers Division of the UJA-Federation in New York, a member of the Visiting Committee of The University of Chicago Law School, and of the board of the American Friends of the Israel Museum, the Lawyers Alliance for New York and the Ramaz School.
Adam lives with his wife in Manhattan, where they raised their two daughters and son.
