With around 5,000 members, the Mergers and Acquisitions Committee is by far the world’s largest forum for M&A lawyers and is the leading forum for ABA members to discuss, debate and learn about the legal issues, best practices and emerging trends relating to domestic and cross-border M&A and related transactions, including with respect to the process of negotiating, documenting and bringing these transactions to market. Founded in the late 1980s, the Committee collaborates with law schools, the judiciary and investment banking, private equity and other professionals and includes practitioners from 49 American states, five Canadian provinces and more than 40 different countries on five continents.
The Committee meets during the Annual and Spring Meetings of the Business Law Section and also hosts an annual standalone meeting. These meetings bring together some of the world’s leading M&A attorneys, investment bankers, PE executives, academics, and others involved in national and international M&A practice and generally at least one member of the Delaware judiciary, providing Committee members with unique opportunities to network.
The Committee sponsors and presents regular educational programs on M&A-related topics including CLE programs, presentations at its committee, subcommittee and task force meetings and webinars, and disseminates details of developments on a more informal basis.
The Committee is also a prolific publisher of publications, including its highly successful model agreements on private company stock purchases, asset purchases and public company mergers, each of which includes extensive commentary and ancillary documents. Other popular publications produced by the Committee include its practice manuals, its groundbreaking and world-famous Market Trends surveys, real time alerts regarding breaking M&A developments, its Directory on technologies used in M&A, and its periodic newsletter, Deal Points.
Most Committee activities are conducted through various Subcommittees, Task Forces and Working Groups. See below to learn more about the activities of these groups and to join them.