Latham’s Shareholder Activism & Takeover Defense Practice Earns #1 Global Ranking

Latham & Watkins’ Shareholder Activism & Takeover Defense Practice earned the #1 ranking among law firms globally for defending companies valued at US$1 billion or more that are targets of shareholder activism, according to Bloomberg’s H1 2023 global activism league tables. The top ranking reflects the firm’s prowess representing public company boards and management teams to aggressively repel the most sophisticated activist campaigns.

A sampling of the firm’s activism defense engagements in the first half of 2023 includes representing:

• MindMed in connection with the proxy contest by shareholder FCM seeking control of the board of directors, resulting in the election of all six of MindMed’s nominees to the board. In a significant change from all prior universal proxy contests, broker discretionary authority was retained for the routine auditor proposal with respect to all MindMed shareholders who did not receive proxy materials from the contesting shareholder.

• Abcam plc in defense of a campaign started by the company’s founder and former CEO, Dr. Jonathan Milner, and subsequently joined by Starboard Value, resulting in the company announcing a strategic review and a withdrawal of the campaign. 

• MarketWise in connection with a settlement agreement reached with MarketWise’s founder and former CEO, F. Porter Stansberry.  

• IAA in defense of Ancora Holdings’ and Discerene Group’s campaigns opposing IAA’s US$7.3 billion sale to Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers.