Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz

Corporate

Adam Emmerich is Chair of Wachtell Lipton’s Corporate Department. Adam’s practice has included a broad and varied representation of public and private companies in a wide range of industries throughout the United States and around the world, in mergers and acquisitions, divestitures, spin-offs, joint ventures, financing transactions and securities law matters. Adam also has extensive experience and expertise in corporate governance, shareholder activism, and takeover defense and contested acquisition matters.

After serving as a law clerk to Judge Abner J. Mikva, of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, Adam joined the firm in 1986 and was named partner in 1991. He attended Swarthmore College and The University of Chicago Law School, from which he received his J.D. with honors. While at the University of Chicago, Adam served as topics and comments editor of The University of Chicago Law Review, was elected to the Order of the Coif, and was the recipient of an Olin Fellowship in law and economics.

Adam was named a Dealmaker of the Year by The American Lawyer for his work with T-Mobile USA and Deutsche Telekom in the $146 billion all-stock combination of T-Mobile and Sprint. Adam also led the Wachtell Lipton teams for Covidien plc in its $49.9 billion acquisition by Medtronic and Tim Hortons in its $12.2 billion combination with Burger King Worldwide, which were named by The American Lawyer as Global M&A Deal of the Year: Ireland and Global M&A Deal of the Year: Canada.

Adam is recognized by Lawdragon as one of the 500 leading lawyers in America (including as a Lawdragon Legend of the 500, the truly select lawyers who have been named in Lawdragon’s elite annual guide 10 times), as one of the 500 leading dealmakers in America each year since the category was inaugurated, and as one of the 500 Leading Global Real Estate Lawyers.  

Adam has also been named by Forbes as both one of America’s Top Lawyers and Top M&A lawyers, and as one of the world’s leading lawyers in corporate M&A (both U.S. and international & cross-border, Band 1) and in REITs by Chambers and Partners.

The Lexology Index (formerly Who’s Who Legal) has named Adam a Global Elite Thought Leader in M&A, as lawyer of the year in M&A, and as an expert in Corporate Governance and M&A in the real estate field. Adam has also been recognized as among the Best of the Best USA by Euromoney Institutional Investor’s Expert Guides including as an expert in M&A, in Corporate Governance, and in Banking, Finance and Transactional and a highly regarded leading lawyer by IFLR 1000.

Adam has been recognized as one of the top 10 M&A Lawyers in North America for both 2023 and 2022 by MergerLinks.  Wachtell Lipton was Law360’s Mergers & Acquisitions Group of the Year for 2023.

Adam was also named one of Hollywood’s Top Dealmakers by The Hollywood Reporter in both 2022 and 2017, including for work for long-time client Creative Artists Agency. Adam was named one of the Lawdragon 500 Leading Global Entertainment, Sports & Media Lawyers in 2025, the category’s inaugural edition, and again in 2026.

Adam and Robin Panovka have been profiled by Lawdragon for their work with REITs and real estate M&A, been named 2024 Lawdragon 500 Leading Global Real Estate Lawyers, and selected as Real Estate MVPs by Law360 in 2022 and 2024. Wachtell Lipton’s REIT M&A practice, which Adam and Robin co-chair, was Law360’s group of the year for 2022.

Adam was named one of the Lawdragon 500 Leading Energy Lawyers in 2025.

Adam is a frequent author and speaker on topics relating to mergers and acquisitions and corporate governance, including at MIT’s Sloan Convocation, on India’s CNBC-TV18, at the Cercle Montesquieu in Paris, at the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, and at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Adam is co-chair of the International Institute for the Study of Cross-Border M&A (XBMA), and co-chair of the advisory board of New York University’s NYU SPS Schack Institute of Real Estate REIT Center. Adam is a member of the American Law Institute, the Council on Foreign Relations and the Economic Club of New York. He has served as co-chair of the NYU Real Estate Institute’s Annual Symposium on REITs since its inception. He has been a member of the Corporate Academic Bridge Group of the NYU Pollack Center for Law & Business, and a frequent contributor to the Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation.

Adam is an active member and officer of the International Bar Association (IBA), serving as an officer in the Law Firm Management Committee, and a co-chair of the annual IBA M&A Conference in New York. Adam has been a speaker at IBA conferences around the world, including in Mumbai, Frankfurt, Paris, Rome, Tokyo, Singapore, Miami, Mexico City and Panama, among other places, reflecting his expertise and thought leadership in the international legal community.

Adam serves on the board of the American Friends of Rambam Medical Center (of which he was president for more than a decade) and as president of the Friends of the Israel Antiquities Authority. He was previously co-chair of the Young Lawyers Division of the UJA-Federation in New York, a member of the Visiting Committee of The University of Chicago Law School, and of the board of the American Friends of the Israel Museum, the Lawyers Alliance for New York and the Ramaz School.

• Swarthmore College, B.A. 1981

• University of Chicago Law School, J.D. 1985, with honors. Order of the Coif. Topics and Comments Editor, The University of Chicago Law Review

Adam lives with his wife in Manhattan, where they raised their two daughters and son.