Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP

Corporate and M&A

Partner

Ethan's practice comprises corporate, public company board of directors, M&A and SEC matters.

He has been repeatedly named a “BTI Client Service All-Star” based on the survey of general counsels of the Fortune 1000, including most recently in 2021, a Law360 M&A “MVP,” one of the top four M&A lawyers in North America for 2020 by MergerLinks, and among only 30 “Legends of 2020” by Lawdragon, as well as having been selected, for a number of different assignments, as “Dealmaker of the Year,” “Dealmaker of the Week” and “Dealmaker in the Spotlight” by The American Lawyer and The Deal, and as a recipient of the Burton Award for Legal Achievement for writing on fiduciary duties. He is recognized as one of the country’s leading corporate lawyers in every major guide, including Chambers Global, Chambers USA, Legal 500 US, IFLR1000 and The Lawdragon 500 (the 500 most influential lawyers in the country).

Ethan has helped a number of companies prevail against, manage and work constructively with “activist stockholders,” including in scenarios where these stockholders have board seats, are seeking board seats and do not have board seats. Experience includes responding to Brave Warrior, Corvex, Duquesne, Elliott, Engine, Franklin Mutual, Harbinger, Icahn, JANA, Paulson, Pershing Square, Relational, Starboard and Trian. For this and other work on behalf of clients, he is recognized as a leader in the category of Shareholder Activism: Advice to Boards by Legal 500 US.

Ethan has had essays, op-eds and articles published in The Financial Times, Reuters Breakingviews, MarketWatch, Law360, The Recorder, The Deal, Corporate Board Member, Directors Monthly, ABA Business Law, M&A Lawyer, Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance, Deal Lawyers, The M&A Journal, and Insights.

He has appeared live on CNBC to discuss the vulnerability of recently deSPAC’ed companies to activism, on Bloomberg TV about the 2022, 2021 and 2020 M&A outlook, on The New York Times – Deal Book broadcast about the role of insider stockholders in M&A transactions, and for the Conference Board about M&A risks for boards and management teams arising in connection with internal forecasts and the roles of insiders and non-traditional sponsors, as well as the “Drinks with The Deal” podcast about navigating new developments in M&A.

Recent speaking events include speaker at Bloomberg Invest 2023 (on "The State of Dealmaking"), chair of the 9th Annual Berkeley M&A and The Boardroom Forum (April 2023), panelist at the 35th Annual Tulane Corporate Law Institute (panel on the impact of regulatory developments on M&A) (March 2023), chair of the 8th Annual Berkeley M&A and The Boardroom Forum (April 2022), panelist at the 34st Annual Tulane Corporate Law Institute (panel on the impact of regulatory developments on M&A) (March 2022), 33rd Annual Tulane Corporate Law Institute (panel on Activism and Impact of Covid on M&A) (March 2021), chair of the 7th Annual Berkeley M&A & Governance Forum (March 2021), and panelist at the PLI Hot Topics in M&A Program (panel on How to Navigate Regulatory Risks in M&A) (September 2020).

Previously, he clerked for the Honorable Robert P. Patterson, Jr. of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, served as Counselor to Chief Justice László Sólyom of the Hungarian Constitutional Court, and developed and participated in law reform projects in Eastern Europe under the auspices of the Soros Foundation and, later, Central European University.

Yale Law School

J.D., Book Reviews and Comments Editor, The Yale Law Journal 1989

University of Pennsylvania

B.A. magna cum laude, 1985