Biography: Mergers and Acquisitions

Allen Finkelson is a partner in the Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP corporate department, where he focuses on matters related to mergers and acquisitions. His clients have included Bristol-Myers Squibb, Chevron, Clorox, CBS, IBM, Rowan, Sprint Nextel, UAL and the independent directors of Merrill Lynch and Citigroup.

Allen has been involved with a number of significant transactions, including representing Chevron in connection with its competition with CNOOC to acquire Unocal; Patina Oil & Gas in its acquisition by Noble Energy; Grant Prideco in its acquisition by National Oilwell Varco; the Board of MCI in connection with the competing takeover bids from Verizon and Qwest; Sprint in its merger with Nextel; Clorox in its repurchase of its shares from Henkel; CBS in its merger with Viacom; UAL in its proposed acquisition of US Airways and its white squire defence of Air Canada; WorldCom in its merger with MCI; IBM in its unsolicited acquisition of Lotus and its acquisition of numerous other software companies; NTT DoCoMo in restructuring its strategic investment in AT&T Wireless; Dean Witter in its merger with Morgan Stanley; Boeing in its merger with McDonnell Douglas and its acquisition of the aerospace and defence business of Rockwell; and Wells Fargo in its unsolicited acquisition of First Interstate.

Allen was cited as being one of the country's pre-eminent practitioners in the mergers and acquisitions area in Chambers USA: America's Leading Lawyers for Business in 2008 and 2009 and was recently recognised by Legal 500 for his skill in the M&A mega-deals arena. Allen was also named in The Best Lawyers in America in 2009 and 2010 as a leader in mergers and acquisitions law.

Allen was born in New York, New York. He received a BA (magna cum laude) from St Lawrence University in 1968, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, and a JD from Columbia Law School in 1971, where he was an editor of the Columbia Law Review. Allen joined Cravath in 1971 and became a partner in 1977. In 1983, he left to be a managing director in the mergers and acquisitions group at Lehman Brothers, returning to Cravath in 1985. Allen is a member of the board of directors of Range Resources Corporation, a New York Stock Exchange-listed independent oil and gas company.

Other Practice Areas

Allen Finkelson also features in the following practice areas:

• Corporate Governance