George Casey

George Casey is Global Chairman of Corporate of Linklaters LLP, a global law firm with 3,100 lawyers over 31 offices in 21 countries. Prior to joining Linklaters, George was Global Managing Partner of Shearman & Sterling LLP and has served as Global Head of the Mergers & Acquisitions Group and Global Head of Corporate.

George has extensive experience in U.S. domestic and cross-border M&A transactions, venture capital financing, strategic investments and joint venture transactions, representing U.S. and non-U.S. corporate and investment banking clients.

The American Lawyer named him a “Dealmaker of the Year” and “Transatlantic Corporate Dealmaker.” He has been recognized as a leading M&A practitioner by Chambers, Legal 500 and IFLR, and has been named to the Global M&A Network’s “Top 50: Global M&A Lawyers” list. George has been inducted by Legal 500 into the Corporate/M&A “Hall of Fame,” one of only 21 M&A lawyers across the United States who were awarded this recognition, and is included in the Legal 500 US M&A Powerlist. He was named by clients as one of nine M&A “Super All-Stars” in a survey of US M&A lawyers by BTI Consulting.

In addition to teaching at Penn, George is also a regular guest lecturer on US M&A at l’École de Droit de la Sorbonne – Université Paris I. He has also given guest lectures at the University of Michigan and the American University, and in 2023 taught a course on International M&A for legal, business and finance community in Ukraine at the request of the International Chamber of Commerce of Ukraine.

George is a member of the Board of Trustees and Chair of the Audit Committee of the American University of Greece, a member of the Board of Directors of the Center for European Policy Analysis, a Washington DC think tank, a member of the Board of Advisors of the Institute for Law and Economics at Penn, a member of the International Advisory Committee of Revue Trimestrielle de Droit Financier/Corporate Finance and Capital Markets Law Review, Paris, France, a member of the Business Law Partner Advisory Board of Thomson Reuters, and was a speaker on “Change of Control Transactions” at the SEC International Institute for Securities Market Development.

George represents some of the world’s largest companies in their significant public and private M&A transactions. He has represented:

• Liberty Global in its $23.3 billion acquisition of Virgin Media in a stock and cash merger transaction and a related redomestication of the combined group to the UK under a UK public limited company, its $8.2 billion acquisition of Cable & Wireless Communications plc and on the creation of its tracking stock under English law for operations in Latin America and the Caribbean (first tracking stock ever done under English law) and its spin-off of Liberty Latin America, Inc.

• Dow Chemical in its $130 billion business combination and spin-off transactions with DuPont, its $5 billion Reverse Morris Trust transaction with Olin, its negotiations of the $17.4 billion K-Dow joint venture with PIC of Kuwait and in the ensuing arbitration over PIC’s refusal to close in which Dow was awarded and received $2.2 billion in damages and costs; in its $4.8 billion strategic ownership restructuring of Dow Corning; the $1.5 billion sale of its MEGlobal joint venture interest to EQUATE; its $1.67 billion divestiture of Morton Salt to K+S Aktiengesellschaft, $1.63 billion divestiture of Styron to Bain Capital, and in its divestiture of its global polypropylene business to Braskem S.A.

• Anglo American, a UK based global mining company, in its $5.4 billion sale to Mitsubishi of a 24.5% interest in Anglo American Sur, a Chilean copper mining company, and a subsequent settlement of a dispute, $2.8 billion sale of an interest in AA Sur to, and partnership agreements with, CODELCO, a Chilean state owned company, and Mitsui; its $1 billion sale of Moly-Cop (operating in Chile, Peru and Mexico) and AltaSteel of Canada to OneSteel, an Australian steel company; and a $18.7 billion acquisition of De Beers (through a scheme of arrangement under South African law)

• LyondellBasell in its $2.25 billion acquisition of A. Shulman

• GSK in its $5.1 billion acquisition of Tesaro

• Novartis in its $3.9 billion acquisition of Advanced Accelerator Applications S.A., in the $2.5 billion sale of its worldwide medical nutrition business to Nestlé, and in its “white knight” bid for Aventis

• Special Committee of the Board of Directors of Amneal Pharmaceuticals in an acquisition of Kashiv Specialty Pharmaceuticals

• Nokia in the sale of the HERE digital mapping business to a consortium of Audi AG, BMW Group and Daimler AG and in its $8.1 billion acquisition of NAVTEQ, a US public company

• ArcelorMittal in its $1.1 billion sale of a 15% interest in a joint venture comprising ArcelorMittal’s Labrador Trough iron ore mining and infrastructure assets in Canada to a consortium led by POSCO of Korea and China Steel Corporation of Taiwan

• LANXESS AG in its $1.075 billion acquisition of Emerald Kalama Chemical and an acquisition of a business unit of Chemours

• The Board of Directors of Chefs’ Warehouse in its interactions and settlement with an activist shareholder

• Chefs’ Warehouse on its acquisition of Chef Middle East

• Thomson Reuters in its $7.75 billion divestiture of Thomson Learning to Apax and OMERS, its divestitures of BarBri, Prometric and NETg and acquisition of MarkMonitor

• Pechiney, a French public company, in the initially unsolicited and later recommended $6.7 billion public offer for its shares by Alcan (a French and US law transaction)

• Axel Springer, a German media company, in connection with a proposed acquisition of ProSiebenSat.1 Media (a German law transaction)

• Arcelor in its $4.7 billion unsolicited offer for Dofasco in Canada

• AngloGold, a South African company, in its $1.9 billion acquisition of Ashanti, a Ghanaian gold mining company (a Ghanaian law transaction executed through a first scheme of arrangement process in Ghana)

• Instrumentarium, a Finnish public company, in its $2.3 billion acquisition by GE (a Finnish law transaction)

• Bell Canada International and other shareholders in the $1 billion sale of their interest in Hansol M.com to Korea Telecom (a South Korean law transaction)

Select Articles, Book Chapters, Conferences and Interviews:

• Technology M&A Overview and Introduction, Contributing Editor of Chambers’ Technology M&A Guide 2022, 2023 and 2024

• ’Ordinary Course of Business’ During Not-So Ordinary Times, M&A Watch, December 2021

• Recent Shareholder Activism Trends, 2021 Corporate Governance Survey, November 2021

• ‘Mission Critical’ Board Oversight, M&A Watch, November 2021

• Contractual Limits on Liability Only Go So Far in Delaware, Law360, September 2021

• Four Key Areas in M&A and Governance Boards Should Focus on Post Pandemic, the Corporate Board Member Magazine, September 2021

• Delaware Court Rejects Buyer’s Claim of an MAE, Harvard Forum on Corporate Governance, August 2021

• A Wrong Poison Pill,” Corporate Board Member, March 2021

• M&A: Looking Back/Looking Forward: Key Takeaways for Boards from 2020 and Likely Trends for the Coming Year, Corporate Board Member, January 2021

• Governance Amid Crisis, the Corporate Board Member Magazine, First Quarter 2020

• Effects of COVID-19 on Shareholder Activism and M&A: Views from Corporate Boards and the Market, Corporate Board Member, October 2020

• ESG Considerations in M&A, Corporate Board Member, September 2020

• New Regulations Significantly Expand CFIUS Reach, M&A Watch, September 2019

• Caremark Unfrozen: Delaware Supreme Court Revisits Oversight Claims, M&A Watch, July 2019

• How to Get a Big “MAC” in Delaware, M&A Watch, October 2018

• USA: Trends & Developments, Corporate M&A, Chambers Legal Practice Guides, 2013-2022

• Trends in Corporate Governance — lead panel discussion at the Financial Times Outstanding Directors Exchange 2020-2023

• Special Committees of the Board in M&A Transactions — lead panel discussions on when a Board of Directors should consider forming a special committee to review a corporate transaction at the Annual Boardroom Summit 2011-2022

• Q&A interview with Bloomberg on the global M&A market, cross-border transactions and key Delaware case law developments, April 2013

• Current Trends in M&A, —featured in the NYSE Corporate Board Member “The Boardroom Channel Series” 2012 video interview

• Shareholders and Boards of Directors in US Mergers and Acquisitions, chapter in The Mergers & Acquisitions Review, Fifth and Sixth Editions, Law Business Research, 2011, 2012 and 2013.

• Expanding Borders: The SEC’s Proposed Amendments to its Cross-Border M&A Rules Acknowledge the Increasing Global Nature of Dealmaking, THE DEAL, June 2-8, 2008

• Proportionality Between Ownership and Control: Comparative Legal Study (United States), External Study Commissioned by the European Commission (2007).

• US Securities Law Issues in Tender Offers for Foreign Companies that are not ‘Foreign Private Issuers,’ M&A FOCUS, (Winter 2006).

• US Securities Law Issues in Non-US M&A Transactions, CORPFIN WORLDWIDE, (December 2004).

• Using tracking stock to unlock Internet valuations,INTERNET FIN. REV. (2000-2001, a Euromoney publication).