Louis L. Goldberg
Co-chair of Mergers & Acquisitions. A 2024 American Lawyer “Dealmaker of the Year.” Advises companies on the most significant M&A transactions and board-level matters.
Louis is co-chair of our Mergers & Acquisitions group. He advises companies around the globe on their most significant public and private M&A transactions and board-level matters. His practice also encompasses a full spectrum of corporate, strategic, defensive and crisis assignments.
Louis advised on the ExxonMobil/Pioneer deal, the largest deal globally in 2023. In 2024, the American Lawyer named Louis a “Dealmaker of the Year” for his work on that combination and listed him among the “lead rainmakers of M&A” in “Which M&A Attorneys Drove the Most Business as Deal Leads?” In 2021, Louis was named among the lawyers advising on the largest deals in the United States by Business Insider.
His clients include Amdocs, BlueVoyant, Bread Financial, Citigroup, Delta Airlines, ExxonMobil, Heineken, Hertz, IHS Markit, Morgan Stanley, Naspers, Ocado, Pandora, Prosus, Ralph Lauren, Sallie Mae, State Street, Syngenta, VATiT, Venture Global and Williams.
Experience
Public Company M&A
- ExxonMobil on its:
- $59.5 billion acquisition of Pioneer
- $41 billion acquisition of XTO Energy
- $4.9 billion acquisition of Denbury
- $81 billion acquisition of Mobil
- IHS Markit on its $44 billion merger with S&P Global
- Williams on its $10.5 billion acquisition of Williams Partners LP
- Syngenta on its $43 billion acquisition by ChemChina
- Prosus on its $1.7 billion acquisition of Despegar.com
- Delta, Knighthead and Certares on the Wheels Up financing and related acquisition of 95% of the equity
- Hertz in its 2024 financing transactions
- Dean Foods on its sale out of bankruptcy
- Bread Financial on the spinoff of Loyalty Ventures
- Markit on its $13 billion merger with IHS
- CVS on its contested acquisitions of Caremark and Longs Drugs
- JPMorgan on its merger with Chase Manhattan Bank
Defense, Activist, Crisis and Governance Roles
- ExxonMobil in its defense against a 2021 activist campaign
- IFF in its defense against activist campaigns by Icahn Capital and Sachem Head
- GeoPark in its defense against an activist campaign by Gerald O’Shaughnessy
- Amdocs in its defense against a short-selling campaign by Spruce Capital
- Syngenta in its successful defense against an unsolicited bid by Monsanto
- Governance clients including ExxonMobil, Williams Companies and Bread Financial
- Citigroup in a series of financial crisis era transactions
- The U.S. national residential mortgage registration system in its restructuring under consent decree imposed by U.S. financial regulators
Private M&A
- Cheney Brothers on its $2.1 billion acquisition by Performance Food Group
- State Street on its terminated $3.5 billion acquisition of Brown Brothers Harriman Investor Services
- Napier Park Global Capital on its sale to First Eagle Investments
- Sallie Mae on its acquisition of Nitro College
- BlueVoyant on its formation, equity financings and acquisition of Conquest Cyber
- Delta Airlines and Spirit Air on the carve-outs of their loyalty businesses
- Williams Companies on its buyout of Caiman Energy II and $1.125 billion sale of assets and equity comprising its Four Corners Area business
- Ocado PLC on its acquisitions of Kindred, Haddington and 6 River Systems
- Orogen on its investments in Brillio, Virtusa, EXL, Fair Square Financial and Westcor Title Insurance
Insights
News
Recognition
American Lawyer – “Dealmaker of the Year,” 2024
Chambers Global – Corporate M&A (International and Cross-Border), USA
Chambers USA – Corporate/M&A, New York
IFLR1000 – M&A, United States, Highly Regarded
MergerLinks – “Top M&A Lawyers in North America,” 2023
Education
- first-class honours
- magna cum laude
Qualifications and admissions
- State of New York