Ethan A. Klingsberg

Ethan A. Klingsberg’s practice comprises corporate, public company board of directors, M&A and SEC matters.
   
He has been repeatedly named a “BTI Client Service All-Star” based on the survey of general counsels of the Fortune 1000, and “Most Valuable Practitioner” in M&A, as well as having been selected, for a number of different assignments, as Dealmaker of the Year, Dealmaker of the Week and Dealmaker in the Spotlight by The American Lawyer and The Deal, and as a recipient of the Burton Award for Legal Achievement for writing on fiduciary duties. He is recognized as one of the country’s leading corporate lawyers in every major guide.

Ethan has helped a number of companies prevail against, manage and work constructively with “activist stockholders,” including in scenarios where these stockholders have board seats, are seeking board seats and do not have board seats. Experience includes responding to Brave Warrior, Corvex, Duquesne, Elliott, Franklin Mutual, Harbinger, Icahn, JANA, Paulson, Pershing Square, Relational, Starboard and Trian. For this and other work on behalf of clients, the firm is ranked in Tier 1 for Shareholder Activism: Advice to Boards by The Legal 500 U.S.

Ethan joined the firm in 1994 and became a partner in 2001.

Previously, he clerked for the Honorable Robert P. Patterson, Jr. of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, served as Counselor to Chief Justice László Sólyom of the Hungarian Constitutional Court, and developed and participated in law reform projects in Eastern Europe under the auspices of the Soros Foundation and, later, Central European University.