Attorneys

r. Lebovitch is primarily responsible for the firm's corporate governance litigation practice, focusing on derivative suits and transactional litigation.  He has served as one of the lead counsel in many of the most significant corporate governance actions in the past five years, including the Pfizer Derivative Litigation, which resulted in a historic $75 million payment, which will be placed in trust for the exclusive use of a new Healthcare Law Regulatory Committee created as part of the settlement and which requires the creation of an unprecedented compliance oversight standard for all highly regulated public companies.  Mr. Lebovitch was a co-lead counsel in a challenge to Xerox's acquisition of ACS, which settled on the eve of trial for a $69 million cash payment to ACS shareholders.  He prosecuted a case of first impression challenge to the legal validity of "Proxy Puts" - contractual provisions that are common in corporate debt agreements and that allegedly undermine shareholders' fundamental voting rights.  In addition, he prosecuted self-interested actions by the CEO of Landry's Restaurants, Inc., resulting in a settlement requiring a nearly 60% increase in the proposed takeover price, as well as a $14.5 million cash fund for Landry's shareholders who sold their shares when the CEO's alleged misconduct became public.  Most recently, Mr. Lebovitch served co-lead trial attorney in the landmark trial challenging the Airgas Products, Inc. board's use of a poison pill. 

Previously, Mr. Lebovitch represented public pension systems seeking to vindicate shareholder voting rights allegedly infringed by Yahoo!, Inc.'s employee severance plan and by unique merger agreement and standstill provisions used in the private equity buyout of Ceridian Corporation.  He obtained up to $57 million for shareholders over a year after the closing of the buyout of Dollar General Stores.  He has also helped obtain for shareholders higher prices and meaningful corporate governance improvements in suits arising from, among other things, the hostile takeover battles over Caremark Rx, Inc., CBOT Holdings, Inc., Longs Drug Stores, Inc., and Anheuser-Busch Companies, Inc., while challenging the Emulex board's allegedly bad faith rejection of a premium takeover offer by Broadcom Corporation, the restructuring transactions of DirecTV, and the inclusion in the Atmel Corporation poison pill of vaguely defined derivative securities. 

Mr. Lebovitch also prosecutes securities litigations, and in that capacity was the lead litigation attorney in In re Merrill Lynch Bondholders Litigation, which settled for $150 million, and is currently a member of the team prosecuting In re Bank of America Securities Litigation.  In recognition for his many achievements, Mr. Lebovitch was named one of Lawdragon's 2011 "500 Leading Lawyers in America."

Mr. Lebovitch is a co-chair of the ABA Business Law Committee' s Subcommittee on Delaware Law, and is member of the Board of Advisors for the Institute for Law and Economics.  He is an author and frequent speaker at industry events and continuing legal education programs on a wide range of corporate governance and securities related issues.  Mr. Lebovitch is  presently publishing an article entitled "Making Order Out of Chaos:  A Proposal To Improve Organization and Coordination in Multi-Jurisdictional Merger-Related Litigation", which can be viewed by clicking here.  His prior publications include "'Novel Issues' or a Return to Core Principles? Analyzing the Common Link Between the Delaware Chancery Court's Recent Rulings in Option Backdating and Transactional Cases" (NYU Journal of Law & Business, Volume 4, Number 2); "Calling a Duck a Duck: Determining the Validity of Deal Protection Provisions in Merger of Equals Transactions" (2001 Columbia Business Law Review 1) and "Practical Refinement" (The Daily Deal, January 2002), each of which discussed evolving developments in the law of directors' fiduciary duties.

Mr. Lebovitch clerked for Vice Chancellor Stephen P. Lamb on the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware, and was a litigation associate at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom in New York, where he represented clients in a variety of corporate governance, commercial and federal securities matters.