BRIAN FAHRNEY is the chair of Sidley’s Executive Committee, a member of the firm’s Management Committee, and previously served as a global co-leader of the M&A and Private Equity group.
Brian has represented both acquirors and sellers in a wide variety of public and private merger and acquisition transactions, including complex carve-outs, take privates, cross-border transactions, spinoffs, and leveraged acquisitions. He has been a trusted advisor to numerous public companies in their strategic transactions, capital raising activities, and SEC disclosure matters. He advises companies and their boards of directors on their fiduciary duties, activism defense, and sensitive SEC and corporate governance matters. His longtime clients have included General Electric Company, McDonald’s Corporation, Synchrony Financial, Churchill Downs, Western & Southern, Glencore plc, Arthur J. Gallagher, Aflac, ServiceMaster, Northwestern Mutual, and Cabela’s.
Brian has frequently received accolades for his exceptional legal work. He has been recognized for Corporate/M&A in Illinois by Chambers USA (2016–2025), which has noted that clients describe him as “an extremely impressive attorney…highly responsive and provides great advice” (2022) and “thoughtful on challenging deals with a lot of sensitive commercial issues…a big-picture thinker who never loses sight of the goal” (2021). In 2015, he was named a Law360 “MVP”, one of only 11 M&A lawyers named for that year. In addition, Brian was recognized as “Dealmaker of the Week” by The American Lawyer in 2010.
Brian was the 2024 Chair of the Ray Garrett Jr. Corporate and Securities Law Institute at the Northwestern Pritzker School of Law, where he is also a member of the Law Board. He is on the Board of Advisors of the University of Pennsylvania Institute for Law and Economics. He is a member of the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago, the Association of Life Insurance Counsel, and the Chicago Counsel on Global Relations. Brian was formerly on the board of Directors of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Metropolitan Chicago. He was an adjunct professor of Law at the University of Notre Dame Law School, where he taught mergers and acquisitions.
Brian was a certified public accountant and served as associate articles editor of the Northwestern University Law Review.