Michael J. Schobel is a partner in Wachtell Lipton’s Executive Compensation and Benefits Department. He focuses on executive compensation and employee benefits matters, principally in connection with mergers and acquisitions and other business transactions. Mr. Schobel also advises public and private companies on the design, implementation and administration of equity and cash compensation arrangements, the negotiation of executive employment agreements and related corporate governance and disclosure matters.

Mr. Schobel was named an MVP in executive compensation and benefits by Law 360 in 2025. He also is recognized as one of the 500 Leading Lawyers in America by Lawdragon. He was ranked as the number-one Employment Lawyer in North America by MergerLinks in 2024 and 2023. He also was named a Rising Star by Law 360  in 2019, recognizing him as one of the country’s top five executive compensation and employee benefits lawyers under 40. He received a B.A. cum laude from the College of William and Mary in 2006. Mr. Schobel completed a J.D. with high honors from Duke University School of Law in 2009 where he was a member of the Order of the Coif and an articles editor of the Duke Law Journal.

Mr. Schobel has represented clients in a broad range of industries, including (among others):

Pharmaceuticals and Biotechnology

• Pfizer in various matters, including its acquisitions of Seagen, Metsera, Global Blood Therapeutics, Array BioPharma and Anacor Pharmaceuticals, its combination of Upjohn with Mylan in a Reverse Morris Trust transaction and its joint venture with GlaxoSmithKline
• Abbott Laboratories in various matters, including its acquisitions of Exact Sciences and St. Jude Medical and the sale of its vision care business to Johnson & Johnson
• Regeneron Pharmaceuticals in various matters, including its acquisition of Checkmate Pharmaceutical
• Perrigo Company in various matters, including its successful defense against a hostile takeover offer by Mylan N.V. and its acquisition of Hera SAS
• Thermo Fisher Scientific in various matters, including its acquisitions of Patheon N.V., FEI Company and Mesa Biotech
• Inari Medical in its acquisition by Stryker Corporation

Energy

• Diamondback Energy in its merger with Endeavor Energy Resources
• Chord Energy in its combination with Enerplus
• ConocoPhillips in its acquisitions of Marathon Oil and Concho Resources
• Energen in its merger with Diamondback Energy
• Sunoco in its sale to Energy Transfer Partners

Banking

• Capital One in various matters, including its acquisition of GE Capital’s Healthcare Finance Business
• Huntington Bancshares in its acquisition of Cadence Bank
• Heartland Financial in its acquisition by UMB Financial
• Independent Bank Group in its acquisition by SouthState
• South State in its merger of equals with CenterState Bank

Finance and Payment Technology

• Global Payments in various matters, including its merger of equals with TSYS, its acquisitions of EVO Payments, ACTIVE Networks and Zego, and its sales of AdvancedMD and its Netspend consumer business and its gaming business
• FIS in the sale of a majority stake in its Worldpay Merchant Solutions business to GTCR
• Nasdaq in various matters, including its acquisition of International Securities Exchange from Deutsche Börse AG
• The McGraw-Hill Companies in various matters, including its joint venture with CME Group and News Corporation
• SoFi Technologies in various matters, including its SPAC merger with Social Capital Hedosophia and its acquisitions of Technisys and Golden Pacfic Bancorp
• Blackhawk Network in its acquisition by Silver Lake and P2 Capital Partners and its acquisition of Tango Card

Private Equity

• Warburg Pincus in various matters, including its acquisitions of ECN Capital, Keystone Agency Partners, TIAA Bank, K2 Insurance Services, Exeter Finance LLC and its sales of Kestra and The Mutual Fund Store
• The Carlyle Group in various matters, including its acquisitions of Duff & Phelps, NSM Insurance Group and CFGI
• TowerBrook Capital Partners in its acquisition of R1 RCM Inc. with CD&R
• Searchlight Capital Partners in various matters, including its acquisition of a majority ownership interest in Honor Capital and minority ownership interest in Gracie Point
• Clearlake Capital in various matters, including the sale of Concert Golf Partners to Bain Capital

Telecommunications

• T-Mobile and Deutsche Telekom in various matters, including the combination of T-Mobile and Sprint
• Charter Communications in various matters, including its mergers with Cox Communications and Time Warner Cable and its acquisitions of Liberty Broadband and Bright House Networks

Manufacturing and Industrials

• Monsanto in various matters, including its acquisition by Bayer Aktiengesellschaft
• Arconic in its acquisition by Apollo Global Management and Irenic Capital Management
• Barnes Group in various matters, including its sale to Apollo Global Management and its acquisition of MB Aerospace
• Masonite International in various matters, including its agreed acquisition by Owens Corning
• The Clorox Company in various matters, including the divestiture of its Better Health Vitamins, Minerals and Supplements (VMS) business to Piping Rock Health Products, LLC

Technology

• National Instruments in its review and evaluation of strategic alternatives, culminating in its acquisition by Emerson
• Uber Technologies in its acquisition of Postmates and its sale of its autonomous vehicle technologies subsidiary
• HP Inc. in its successful defense against the unsolicited exchange offer and associated proxy fight by Xerox
• Motorola Mobility in its acquisition by Google

Media

• CBS in various matters, including its sale of CBS Radio in a Reverse Morris Trust transaction and the initial public offering and spin-off of CBS Outdoor
• TEGNA in various matters, including in its spin-offs of Gannett Co. and Cars.com, its successful defense against a proxy fight by Standard General and its acquisition by Nexstar
• The Free Press in its acquisition by Paramount

Real Estate

• Equity Residential in its $69 billion merger-of-equals with AvalonBay
• Rayonier in its merger of equals with PotlatchDeltic
• Anywhere Real Estate in its combination with Compass, Inc.
• Kimco Realty in its merger with Weingarten and acquisition of RPT Realty
• Cousins Properties in its merger with Parkway Properties and simultaneous spin-off of their combined Houston assets, creating two publicly-traded REITs

Retail, Food and Sports

• Unilever in the $44.8 billion combination of its Foods business with McCormick through a Reverse Morris Trust
• Jetro Restaurant Depot in its $29.1 billion acquisition by Sysco
• Tim Hortons in its combination with Burger King Worldwide
• Dollar Tree in various matters, including its acquisition of Family Dollar
• Kellogg Company in its acquisition of Procter & Gamble’s Pringles business
• PIMCO, Sixth Street Partners and Davidson Kempner in connection with Neiman Marcus’s bankruptcy
• David Rubenstein in his acquisition of a controlling interest in the Baltimore Orioles
• Terry McGuirk and the Atlanta Braves in McGuirk’s proxy and voting agreement with John Malone
• Derek Jeter and his investor group in connection with the acquisition of the Miami Marlins

Mr. Schobel is a member of New York State Bar Association.