“Sidley Austin is the best in the business at activism defence work.”
Chambers USA 2024
Sidley’s Shareholder Activism and Corporate Defense practice is widely recognized as the go-to activism defense practice and ranked No. 1 across all league tables for this kind of work. 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 other contests for corporate control, including related settlements. In the past five years, Sidley has defended more than 150 proxy contest defenses worldwide and approximately 25% of all late-stage proxy contests in the United States, more than any other law firm. Our team has been opposite of all major activists, including Starboard, Elliott, Carl Icahn, ValueAct, JANA Partners, Trian, Third Point, Macellum, Ancora, Sachem Head, Engaged Capital, Saba Capital, and Engine Capital. Due to our knowledge and experience, Sidley is frequently hired as “shareholder activism counsel”, “proxy fight counsel”, or “red team” 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 widespread recognition in such publications, including:
- Chambers USA ranking Sidley Band 1 in New York for “Corporate/M&A: Takeover Defense” since 2022
- The Legal 500 ranking Sidley Tier 1 in the U.S. for “Shareholder Activism – Advice to Boards” since 2022
- The Deal naming Sidley “Activist Defense Law Firm of the Year (Large Cap)” in both 2021 and 2022 (award discontinued thereafter)
Sidley has been ranked No. 1 in all shareholder activism defense league tables since 2020, including:
- Ranked No. 1 in Bloomberg’s Global Activism League Tables for company representations
- Ranked No. 1 in FactSet’s Company Defense League Tables for company representations
- Ranked No. 1 in LSEG’s Global Shareholder Activism Rankings for company representations (formerly Refinitiv/Thomson Reuters)
- Ranked No. 1 in Diligent Market Intelligence’s Activism Advisor Awards for total issuer representations
