Wachtell has worked with prominent clients including Revlon, Time Warner, and QVC. The firm also ranks highly when compared to other legal advisors, even ones significantly larger. Wachtell has been the legal advisor on seven of the ten largest transactions in the United States of the last eight years, including five of the ten largest in the world. In the past, Wachtell has represented Schering-Plough in a $41 billion acquisition by Merck, the $68 billion pending acquisitions of Wyeth by Pfizer, and the $3.6 billion merger of Delta Air Lines, Inc. with Northwest Airlines Corporation.
As a leading defender of major corporations against shareholder activists, Wachtell has advised many companies including Target, Motorola, Office Depot, Lionsgate, and Convergys. Wachtell is also involved heavily in corporate governance and has represented the New York Stock Exchange, Citigroup, Novartis, and National Australia Bank. Wachtell is also a leading representative in the fields of litigation, restructuring and finance, tax, executive compensation and benefits, antitrust, and real estate.
Wachtell supports their attorneys who do pro bono work, making no distinction between pro bono clients and other clients. Partners at Wachtell have also taught courses at numerous universities including Columbia, Harvard, NYU, Stanford, University of Pennsylvania, and Yale. The partners have taught in fields that include mergers and acquisitions, deal litigation, constitutional law, ethics, advanced criminal procedures, and corporations.
Committed to diversity, Wachtell was one of the original signers to the Association of the Bar of the City of New York's Statement of Goals for Increasing Minority Representation and Retention. Wachtell actively seeks out and recruits diverse and talented lawyers using its Diversity Committee and Manager of Legal Recruiting and Diversity. The firm has set diversity goals according to the Association of the Bar of the City of New York's Statement of Diversity Principles, which includes seeking out diverse graduates.