The Impact on Shareholder Value of Top Defense Counsel in Mergers and Acquisitions Litigation

42 Pages Posted: 3 May 2016 Last revised: 25 May 2017

See all articles by C. N. V. Krishnan

C. N. V. Krishnan

Case Western Reserve University - Department of Banking & Finance

Steven Davidoff Solomon

University of California, Berkeley - School of Law; European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI)

Randall S. Thomas

Vanderbilt University - Owen Graduate School of Management; Vanderbilt University - Law School

Date Written: May 25, 2017

Abstract

Defense litigation counsel are retained by target firm management to defend them in mergers and acquisition (M&A) litigation. We use hand collected data from a ten-year period (2003-2012) to examine whether the choice of defense litigation counsel affects the outcome of M&A litigation and shareholder value. We construct league tables for defense litigation firms and identify the top 10 defense litigation firms. Comparing these firms with all other defense litigation firms, we find that top defense litigation counsel are involved in a significantly higher proportion of cash deals, non-same-industry deals (implying a lower possibility of antitrust-related concerns), and friendlier deals, all of which are associated with smaller initial takeover premium proposals. We find evidence that, controlling for endogeneity, top defense litigation counsel negotiate cheaper and faster settlements than other defense litigation counsel thereby protecting low premium deals from more serious challenges. We also show that top defense litigation counsel are more effective in multijurisdictional litigation cases, again obtaining cheaper and faster settlements in low premium deals, which we theorize shows that they are better able to handle the complexity and strategy that accompany these lawsuits.

Keywords: M&A litigation, Shareholder class action lawsuits, Top defense litigation counsel, Multijurisdictional litigation, Takeover premium, Disclosure settlements, Consideration settlements, Lawsuit activity, Endogeneity controls

JEL Classification: G34, K22

Suggested Citation

Krishnan, C. N. V. and Davidoff Solomon, Steven and Thomas, Randall S. and Thomas, Randall S., The Impact on Shareholder Value of Top Defense Counsel in Mergers and Acquisitions Litigation (May 25, 2017). UC Berkeley Public Law Research Paper No. 2773594, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2773594 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2773594

C. N. V. Krishnan (Contact Author)

Case Western Reserve University - Department of Banking & Finance ( email )

11119 Bellflower Rd
PBL 363
Cleveland, OH 44106-7235
United States
216-368-2116 (Phone)

HOME PAGE: http://weatherhead.case.edu/faculty/c-n-v-krishnan

Steven Davidoff Solomon

University of California, Berkeley - School of Law ( email )

215 Law Building
Berkeley, CA 94720-7200
United States

European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI) ( email )

c/o the Royal Academies of Belgium
Rue Ducale 1 Hertogsstraat
1000 Brussels
Belgium

Randall S. Thomas

Vanderbilt University - Owen Graduate School of Management

401 21st Avenue South
Nashville, TN 37203
United States

Vanderbilt University - Law School ( email )

131 21st Avenue South
Nashville, TN 37203-1181
United States

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