Sidley’s Shareholder Activism and Corporate Defense practice is widely recognized as the go-to activism defense practice. Our practice is led by Kai H. E. Liekefett and Derek Zaba, two of the very few lawyers in the world who devote 100% of their time to shareholder activism, proxy fights, hostile takeovers, and related settlements. In the past five years, the Shareholder Activism and Corporate Defense team members have been involved in more than 100 proxy contest defenses for issuers worldwide and approximately 25% of all proxy contests in the U.S., more than any other law firm. Due to our knowledge and experience, Sidley is frequently hired as “shareholder activism counsel” or “proxy fight counsel” by companies and/or their boards to work with primary outside counsel on activism defense matters.
Strong representation on behalf of clients has earned our Shareholder Activism and Corporate Defense practice recognition in such publications as Chambers USA 2022, which ranks Sidley Band 1 in New York for “Corporate/M&A: Takeover Defense,” and The Deal, which named Sidley “Activist Defense Adviser of the Year (Large Cap)” in both 2021 and 2022.
Sidley has been ranked No. 1 in all shareholder activism defense league tables:
- Ranked No. 1 in Bloomberg’s Global Activism League Tables for company-side legal advisers (as recently as H1 2022);
- Ranked No. 1 in FactSet’s Company Defense Advisor League Tables for legal advisers (as recently as H1 2022);
- Ranked No. 1 in Refinitiv’s Global Shareholder Activism Scorecard for company-side legal advisers (as recently as H1 2022); and
- Ranked No. 1 in Activist Insight’s Adviser Awards for Total Issuer Representations (as recently as 2021).
