Daniel A Neff is co-chairman of the executive committee and partner of Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz, which he joined in 1977. He is a corporate and securities lawyer, and focuses on mergers and acquisitions.
During his more than 30 years of experience, Mr Neff has been extensively involved in negotiated as well as hostile acquisitions, and has represented bidders and targets, public and private companies, leveraged acquirers and special committees of directors. He has represented companies in divestitures, cross-border transactions and proxy contests and has counselled managements and boards of directors concerning acquisition matters, conflict transactions, and other significant issues. He lectures frequently on topics relating to his professional interests and was featured in American Lawyer's "Dealmaker of the year" article in 2001 and is listed in the Lawdragon 500 Leading Lawyers of America.
Among other matters, he represented BEA Systems in its sale to Oracle; Rohm and Haas in its pending sale to Dow Chemical; Penn National Gaming in its attempted sale to and settlement with Centerbridge and Fortress Investments; Darden Restaurants in its acquisition of RARE Hospitality International; the private equity buyers in the acquisitions of Aramark Corporation, Kinder Morgan, and Harrah's Entertainment; Unocal Corporation in its merger with Chevron Corporation and its acquisition of Pure Resources; Knight-Ridder, in its merger with the McClatchy Company; Goldman Sachs Capital Partners and Apollo Advisors in their acquisition of Nalco Chemical Company; Western Wireless Corporation in its merger with ALLTEL Corporation and VoiceStream Wireless Corporation in its merger with Deutsche Telekom. He has also represented Kellogg Company in its acquisition of Keebler Foods Company; Litton Industries in its merger with Northrop Grumman Corporation; Orion Power Holdings in its sale to Reliant Resources; Mirage Resorts in its merger with MGM Grand; Vivendi Universal in its acquisitions of US Filter Corporation and Cendant Software Corporation; Transamerica Corporation in its merger with Aegon and its acquisition of Whirlpool Financial Corporation. Other mandates include, representing Newmont Mining Corporation in its acquisitions of Franco-Nevada Mining Corporation, Normandy Mining and Santa Fe Pacific Gold Corporation, Western Atlas in its merger with Baker Hughes, and Vons Companies in its merger with Safeway. He has also represented special board committees of Wausau Insurance, Hayes Wheels International and Enron Oil & Gas Company (now EOG Resources).
Mr Neff graduated magna cum laude from Brown University, and from the Columbia University School of Law, where he was notes and comments editor of the Columbia Law Review.
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