Defining Success
The way to define success in our business is by measuring results: Have our clients achieved their objectives? This not only means getting the deal closed, but also leaving them and their merger partner (or new business) ready to hit the ground running. Success is never about winning every argument at the negotiating table, it is about enabling the client to realize its long-term objectives.
Success is very much a function of preparation. Know your client, know the transaction, know the other side and, most importantly, know and understand what the law and the precedent would dictate. Balance your desire to let the client make all the decisions with your obligation to guide the client through often very difficult circumstances. Do not be afraid to take a position, to make a recommendation.
Finally, you should always be guided by your moral compass. Although we must work to achieve our clients’ objectives, we must do it within the bounds of what the law requires, as well as the demands of our professional responsibility and courtesy.
Morton A. Pierce is a vice-chairman of the Dewey Ballantine LLP and global chairman of the firm’s Corporate Department. Pierce regularly represents acquirors, targets, investment bankers and investors in merger and acquisition transactions and related financings, including NiSource, Inc. in its successful hostile acquisition of Columbia Energy Group, Sony Corporation and Philips in their joint acquisition of Intertrust, Omnicare, Inc. in its successful hostile acquisition of NCS HealthCare, Associated British Foods in its acquisition of selected food businesses of Unilever and The Walt Disney Company in its acquisitions of Fox Family, Infoseek and Capital Cities/ABC, as well as many cross-border transactions. Pierce regularly represents Credit Suisse First Boston, Merrill Lynch, UBS Warburg, Citigroup and other investment banks and counsels clients with respect to fiduciary duties and corporate governance matters, as well as defensive measures and takeover tactics.