Zach Podolsky is a corporate partner at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz. His practice focuses primarily on mergers and acquisitions, securities law matters, takeover defense, corporate governance and shareholder activism. Zach has represented bidders and targets in negotiated as well as hostile acquisitions, and has advised public and private companies, private equity firms, boards of directors and special committees of directors in a broad range of transactions and industries.

Zach received his J.D. in 2011 from Yale Law School and his A.B., summa cum laude, in 2004 from Harvard University, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. Prior to attending law school, Zach was an equity research analyst at Goldman Sachs covering the oil and gas industry. He is also a CFA charterholder. Zach was named a Rising Star by Law360 for 2020, one of the next generation of legal leaders in America by Lawdragon in 2023 and a Dealmaker of the Year by The American Lawyer in 2024.

Selected representations include:

Energy

Upstream / E&P

• Chord Energy in its $11 billion combination with Enerplus
• Diamondback Energy in its $26 billion merger with Endeavor Energy Resources
• APA Corporation in its $4.5 billion acquisition of Callon Petroleum
• Hess Corporation in its $60 billion acquisition by Chevron Corporation
• Special Committee of the Board of Directors of Continental Resources in its acquisition by the Hamm family, its 83% shareholder
• Cimarex Energy in its $17 billion merger of equals with Cabot Oil & Gas to form Coterra Energy
• ConocoPhillips in its $13 billion acquisition of Concho Resources
• Anadarko Petroleum in its $60 billion acquisition by Occidental Petroleum
• Energen in its $9.2 billion acquisition by Diamondback Energy
• EQT in its $6.7 billion acquisition of Rice Energy
• Freeport-McMoRan in its $6.9 billion acquisition of Plains Exploration & Production
• Freeport-McMoRan in its $3.4 billion acquisition of McMoRan Exploration

Midstream / Downstream / MLP

• NuStar Energy in its $7.3 billion acquisition by Sunoco
• Pilot Corporation in the $2.6 billion sale of its remaining interest in Pilot Travel Centers to Berkshire Hathaway
• CenterPoint Energy in the $7 billion merger of its majority owned MLP, Enable Midstream Partners, with Energy Transfer
• EQT in the $2.4 billion merger of its publicly traded MLP subsidiaries EQT Midstream Partners and Rice Midstream Partners
• EQT in its $937 million sale of the incentive distribution rights of Rice Midstream Partners LP to EQT GP Holdings, LP
• Conflicts Committee of the Board of Directors of NuStar GP Holdings in its $780 million acquisition by NuStar Energy and its response to an unsolicited acquisition proposal by Energy Transfer

Gaming, Lodging & Leisure

• PENN Entertainment in numerous transactions, including its exclusive strategic alliance with ESPN for U.S. online sports betting, its acquisition of Score Media and Gaming, its acquisition of Barstool Sports, its $2.8 billion acquisition of Pinnacle Entertainment, its $575 million divestiture of four casinos to Boyd Gaming and the separation of its real estate assets into Gaming and Leisure Properties, the first gaming-focused REIT
• Gaming and Leisure Properties in its $5.1 billion acquisition of Pinnacle Entertainment’s real estate assets
• MacAndrews & Forbes in its $1 billion sale of a 34.9% stake in Scientific Games to institutional investors including Caledonia
• Full House Resorts in its response to an unsolicited acquisition proposal by Z Capital Partners
• Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority in numerous financing and securities transactions
• Special Committee of the Board of Directors of International Speedway Corporation in its $2.0 billion acquisition by NASCAR
• Kroenke Sports & Entertainment in its $265 million acquisition of Outdoor Channel
• Kennedy-Wilson Holdings in its $1.9 billion acquisition of Kennedy Wilson Europe Real Estate Plc

Consumer & Retail

• Altria in numerous transactions, including its joint venture with JT Group for the U.S. marketing and commercialization of heated tobacco stick products, its $12.8 billion investment in JUUL Labs and as SABMiller’s 27% shareholder in SABMiller’s $104 billion acquisition by AB InBev
• Office Depot in its $1 billion acquisition of CompuCom Systems
• Harland Clarke, a subsidiary of MacAndrews & Forbes, in its $1.8 billion acquisition of Valassis Communications and its $630 million acquisition of RetailMeNot
• Flavors Holdings, a subsidiary of MacAndrews & Forbes, in its sale of Merisant Company and MAFCO Worldwide to Act II Global Acquisition Corp.

Industrials

• Special Committee of the Board of Directors of Diversey in its $4.6 billion acquisition by Solenis, a portfolio company of Platinum Equity
• Prysmian Group in its $3 billion acquisition of General Cable and its €500 million rights offering
• Chemours in its divestitures of its Sulfur Products and Clean and Disinfect businesses
• Alcoa in its $1.5 billion acquisition of RTI International Metals and its $3 billion acquisition of Firth Rixson
• Metals USA in its $1.2 billion acquisition by Reliance Steel & Aluminum
• EADS NV in its proposed €35 billion dual-listed company combination with BAE Systems plc
• PowerSecure in its $431 million acquisition by Southern Company

Health Care

• Pfizer in numerous transactions, including its $43 billion acquisition of Seagen, its $5.4 billion acquisition of Global Blood Therapeutics, its $48 billion combination of Upjohn and Mylan to form Viatris and its $11.4 billion acquisition of Array BioPharma
• Encompass Health in its spin-off of Enhabit Home Health & Hospice
• Medline in its sale of a majority interest to Blackstone, Carlyle and Hellman & Friedman
• Abbott Laboratories in its $4.3 billion sale of its vision care business to Johnson & Johnson

Information Technology

• Special Transaction Committee of the Board of DISH Network in its $22 billion combination with EchoStar
• CoreSite in its $10.1 billion acquisition by American Tower
• Tech Data, a portfolio company of Apollo, in its $7.2 billion combination with SYNNEX
• RealPage in its $10.2 billion acquisition by Thoma Bravo
• AOL in its $4.4 billion acquisition by Verizon and its $1.1 billion sale of its patent portfolio to Microsoft
• Hewlett-Packard in its spin-off of Hewlett Packard Enterprise
• Ancestry.com in its $1.6 billion buyout by a Permira-led investment group

Financial Services

• Invesco in its $5.7 billion acquisition of OppenheimerFunds from MassMutual
• Nasdaq in its $705 million acquisition of eVestment
• Hilltop Holdings in its $315 million acquisition of SWS Group
• National Bank Holdings in its initial public offering
• Alleghany Corporation in its $3.4 billion acquisition of Transatlantic Holdings