Christopher E. Austin is a partner based in the New York office.
Mr. Austin's practice focuses on public and private merger and acquisition transactions. He also provides advice regarding governance matters and fiduciary duties of officers and directors to corporations and their boards. Mr. Austin is recognized as one of the country's best corporate lawyers by
Chambers Global,
Chambers USA,
IFLR and
The Legal 500, and as one of the leading mergers and acquisitions lawyers in Euromoney's
Guide to the World's Leading Mergers and Acquisitions Lawyers and
The Best Lawyers in America.
Clients advised in recent transactions by Mr. Austin include:
- Nationstar Mortgage in its proposed acquisition of Greenlight Financial Services’ mortgage origination business;
- Asahi Kasei in its acquisition of Zoll Medical;
- The Coca-Cola Company in its acquisition of Great Plains Coca-Cola Bottling Company;
- Sony Corporation in connection with its acquisition of full control of Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications and its acquisition of Gaikai;
- Goldman Sachs in the acquisition of Dwight Asset Management and the sale of Litton Loan Servicing;
- Warburg Pincus and Vestar Capital in their acquisition of Triton Container International;
- 3M in connection with its pending acquisition of Ceradyne, its acquisitions of Cogent and CUNO, and the sale of its Global Branded Pharmaceuticals business;
- Hewlett-Packard in connection with its acquisitions of 3Par, 3Com, EDS, Opsware, Neoware, Knightsbridge and Peregrine Systems;
- US Bancorp in the contribution of the long-only asset management business of FAF Advisors to Nuveen Investment;
- VeriSign in the sale of its authentication business to Symantec;
- JPMorgan Chase in its acquisition of RBS Sempra Commodities' global oil, metals, agricultural, plastics and European energy commodities operations;
- ING in connection with the sale of its U.S. broker-dealer business to Lightyear Capital;
- Hellman & Friedman in its proposed acquisition (together with Bain Capital) of Lehman Brothers' investment management business (including Neuberger Berman) and a number of acquisitions of substantial interests in investment management companies, including Gartmore Investment Management, Delaware International Advisors, Grosvenor Capital Management and Artisan Partners;
- Midland Company in connection with its acquisition by Munich Re AG;
- Cascade Investment, L.L.C. (the personal investment vehicle of Bill Gates) in connection with its proposed buyout (together with Kingdom Hotels International and Isadore Sharp) of Four Seasons Hotels; and
- Capital One Financial in connection with its acquisitions of North Fork Bancorporation and Hibernia Corporation.
Mr. Austin joined the firm in 1983 and became a partner in 1992. From 1993 to 1998, he was resident in the Hong Kong office. Mr. Austin received a J.D. degree from New York University in 1983, where he was senior editor of the Law Review, and an undergraduate degree from Tulane University.
Mr. Austin is a member of the Bar in New York.