Daniel Neff
Lawdragon 500
Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz
51 West 52nd Street
New York, NY 10019
212-403-1000 (firm)
212-403-2000 (firm fax)
http://www.wlrk.com
Contact
PROFILE
Daniel A. Neff is the co-chairman of the Executive Committee and partner in the law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, which he joined in 1977. He is a corporate and securities lawyer, and has focused on mergers and acquisitions and advice to boards of directors and board committees. During his more than 30 years of practice, Mr. Neff has been extensively involved in negotiated as well as hostile acquisitions, and has represented bidders and targets, public and private companies, private equity firms, leveraged acquirers and special committees of directors. He has represented companies in divestitures, cross-border transactions and proxy contests, and has counseled managements and boards of directors concerning acquisition matters, conflict transactions, corporate governance and other significant issues.
Mr. Neff lectures frequently on topics relating to his professional interests, was featured in American Lawyer's "Dealmaker of the Year" article in 2001 and 2012 and is listed in Chambers Global Guide, Chambers USA Guide, The Best Lawyers in America and Lawdragon's 500 Leading Lawyers of America.
Among other matters, he represented Temple-Inland in its merger with International Paper; El Paso in its merger with Kinder Morgan Inc.; Airgas in defending against a hostile takeover bid by Air Products and Chemicals; Rohm and Haas Company in its sale to Dow Chemical; Unocal Corporation in its merger with Chevron Corporation and its acquisition of Pure Resources; Smith International in its merger with Schlumberger Limited; Mirant Corporation in its merger with RRI Energy; Centex Corporation in its merger with Pulte Homes; BEA Systems in its sale to Oracle Corporation; the private equity buyers in the acquisitions of Kinder Morgan, Aramark Corporation and Harrah’s Entertainment; Knight-Ridder in its merger with McClatchy Company; Transamerica Corporation in its merger with Aegon NV, its acquisition of Whirlpool Financial Corporation and its divestiture of TIG Holdings; Goldman Sachs Capital Partners and Apollo Advisors LP in their acquisition of Nalco Chemical Company; Western Wireless Corporation in its merger with ALLTEL Corporation; VoiceStream Wireless Corporation in its merger with Deutsche Telekom AG; Kellogg Company in its acquisition of Keebler Foods Company and acquisition of Pringles from Procter & Gamble; Litton Industries in its merger with Northrop Grumman Corporation; Orion Power Holdings in its sale to Reliant Resources; Mirage Resorts Incorporated in its merger with MGM Grand; Vivendi Universal SA in its acquisitions of United States Filter Corporation and Cendant Software Corporation; and Newmont Mining Corporation in its acquisitions of Franco-Nevada Mining Corporation, Normandy Mining and Santa Fe Pacific Gold Corporation. He also represented Western Atlas in its merger with Baker Hughes Incorporated, and Vons Companies in its merger with Safeway; and represented special board committees of Wausau Insurance, Hayes Wheels International and Enron Oil & Gas Company (now EOG Resources Inc.)
Mr. Neff graduated magna cum laude from Brown University and from the Columbia University School of Law, where he was notes and comment editor of the Columbia Law Review.
Education
- Brown University, A.B. 1974, magna cum laude
- Columbia Law School, J.D. 1977, (Notes and Comment Editor, Columbia Law Review)
LIBRARY
Recent Publications
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Harvard's Shareholder Rights Project is Still Wrong, in The Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation, November 30, 2012.
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Risk Management and the Board of Directors - An Update for 2012, in The Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation, January 3, 2012.
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Delaware Court Reaffirms the Poison Pill and Directors' Power to Block Inadequate Offers, in The Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation, February 17, 2011.
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Risk Management and the Board of Directors, in Bank and Corporate Governance Law Reporter Volume 45 Number 6, February 2011.
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Risk Management and the Board of Directors, in Bank and Corporate Governance Law Reporter Volume 43 Number 6, February 2010.
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Risk Management and the Board of Directors, in Bank and Corporate Governance Law Reporter Volume 42 Number 2, April 2009.
Q&A
LOCATION
EDITORIAL REVIEW
A dealmaker’s dealmaker, Wachtell’s co-managing partner handled client Temple-Inland’s merger with International Paper, and represented El Paso in the Kinder Morgan merger – just a few of his recent multibillion-dollar deals.
The M&A powerhouse remained busy in the down economy advising clients on some of the biggest and most complicated transactions of the year, including Airgas in the $6B hostile takeover bid by Air Products.
One of Wachtell’s M&A powers represented Smith International in its $3.2B purchase of fellow Houston energy company W-H Energy Service.
This firm co-chair has a hand in all the biggest cross-border transactions, divestures, proxy contests and other megadeals.
Neff handled the acquisitions of Aramark Corp. and Kinder Morgan. Next up: the deal to merge Chevron with Unocal.
An architect of his firm’s M&A glory, he’s worked on SBC’s acquisition of AT&T and Chevron Texaco’s purchase of Unocal.
A corporate and securities lawyer with a specialty in mergers and acquisitions, Daniel Neff has handled some of the most significant corporate transactions in the past decade. Considered an all-star M&A attorney by his peers, Neff also serves as the managing partner of corporate powerhouse Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz. He has represented companies with instant brand name recognition in a variety of multibillion-dollar deals, including divestitures, cross-border transactions, proxy contests, and hostile acquisitions. Neff helped facilitate the sale of Mirage Resorts to MGM Grand for $4.4 billion, as well as a significant cross-border merger involving wireless communications giant VoiceStream to Germany's Deutsche Telekom for $54 billion, and Kellogg's acquisition of Keebler for $4.5 billion. Attorneys say that Neff is part of the "new guard" of M&A attorneys in New York.
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