David. E. Shapiro is a partner in the Corporate Department at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz. David focuses on mergers and acquisitions and complex securities transactions. He has been involved in numerous major corporate merger, acquisition and buyout transactions, strategic defense assignments, hostile bids and proxy contests. He also counsels boards of directors and board committees on corporate governance matters. David was named by The American Lawyer as a Dealmaker of the Year and has been featured in The New York Times’ Facebook of Wall Street’s Future. He is a frequent author and speaker on topics relating to mergers and acquisitions and corporate governance and is the Contributing Editor of Getting the Deal Through: Banking Regulation 2011.

David has represented financial institutions in a wide array of transactions in the past decade. Of the many transactions he has worked on, a select few include:

• Community Bancorp, Inc. in its formation and its acquisition of Cadence Financial Corporation and Superior Bank
• NBH Holdings Corp. in its formation, its acquisition of Hillcrest Bank from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and its acquisition of selected assets of Bank Midwest.
• North American Financial Holdings, Inc. in its investment in TIB Financial Corp, its investment in Capital Bank and its investment in GreenBank
• Alleghany Corp in its pending acquisition of Transatlantic Holdings
• Bank of America N.A. in its joint venture with First Data Corporation
• Bankrate in connection with its sale to an affiliate of Apax Partners
• Cathay General Bancorp in its acquisition of Great Eastern Bank, New Asia Bancorp and United Heritage Bank, as well as several equity offerings
• Cowen Group, Inc. in its merger with Ramius LLC
• GMAC in its conversion to a bank holding company, in a number of successful exchange offers as well as securities issuances
• CIT Group in its conversion to a bank holding company, in successful exchange offers as well as equity issuances

David has also represented a number of media and entertainment companies, including most recently:

• Lions Gate in its acquisition of Summit Entertainment
• CKX in its acquisition by Apollo
• Lions Gate in its successful proxy contest with Carl Icahn

David has also represented a number of REITs and real estate companies, including:

• Tishman Speyer in its acquisition of Archstone-Smith Trust
• Kimco Realty Corporation in its acquisition of Atlantic Realty Trust and in its acquisition of Pan Pacific Retail Properties
• Morgan Stanley Real Estate in its acquisition of Town and Country Trust
• Public Storage in its acquisition of Shurgard Storage Centers

David has also advised on many transactions outside of these sectors, most recently including Smith International, Inc. in its acquisition by Schlumberger Limited, Triumph Group, Inc. in its acquisition of Vought Aircraft Industries, Inc., Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold in its investment in McMoRan Exploration, and Dollar General on its sale to a private equity consortium.

David is a member of the board of The Door, a not-for-profit comprehensive youth services agency and provides regular legal services pro bono to University Settlement, a not-for-profit settlement house located in New York City.

David received a B.S. from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 1990. He completed a J.D., summa cum laude, from the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 1999 where he was awarded the Peter McCall Prize for being first in his class.