Profile: Morton A Pierce

Mergers and Acquisitions

Biography: Mergers and Acquisitions

Morton Pierce is chairman of the firm's management and executive committees, global chairman of the firm's corporate department and has been chairman of the firm's mergers and acquisitions group since 1991. The M&A group consists of more than 60 lawyers based in New York, Washington DC, Los Angeles, East Palo Alto, Austin, London, Frankfurt, Milan, Rome and Central Europe.

Mr Pierce has participated in numerous merger and acquisition matters and related financings. He has represented acquirers, targets, investment bankers and investors in numerous acquisitions, including the acquisition of CNET by CBS, the Pixar acquisition by the Walt Disney Company, the MONY Group acquisition by AXA Financial, the Omnicare acquisition of NCS Healthcare, the Fortis acquisition of American Bankers, the Starwood acquisition of ITT, the Walt Disney Company acquisition of Capital Cities/ ABC, the Wells Fargo acquisition of First Interstate Bank and the HCA acquisition of Healthtrust. Mr Pierce also has extensive experience in cross-border merger and acquisition transactions. These include the Zimmer Holdings acquisition of Centerpulse AG; the Burns, Philp acquisition of Goodman Fielder; the merger between Guinness and GrandMet; the Luxottica Group SpA acquisition of the United States Shoe Corporation; the Eridania Béghin-Say SA acquisition of American Maize-Products Company; and the Cable & Wireless acquisition of NYNEX CableComms.

Mr Pierce is an active member of the American Bar Association and has served on its Advisory Committee to the Federal Regulation of Securities Committee and its Task Force on Review of the Federal Securities Laws. He also served as the chairman of the ABA's subcommittee on international securities matters from 1985 to 1991. Also a member of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, Mr Pierce served on its securities law committee and as chairman of its subcommittee on Securities and Exchange Commission enforcement matters. Mr Pierce has authored several articles, and speaks frequently on mergers and acquisitions and securities laws.