Trevor S. Norwitz

Education
- University of Cape Town, B.Bus.Sci 1986
- Oxford University, BA/MA, Jurisprudence 1989
- Columbia Law School, LL.M. 1990
Trevor S. Norwitz
Trevor Norwitz is a partner in the Corporate Department at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz where he focuses primarily on mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance and securities law matters. He has advised a range of public and private entities in a variety of industries in connection with mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, hostile takeover bids and defenses, proxy contests, joint ventures, financing transactions and corporate governance matters.
Selected recent representations by Mr. Norwitz include: S&P Global in its $44 billion merger with IHS Markit (and previously in the separation of McGraw Hill Education, its joint venture with CME Group to form S&P/Dow Jones Indices, and several acquisitions); Whole Foods in its sale to Amazon.com and its response to shareholder activism; Medivation in its sale to Pfizer; Dollar Tree in its contested acquisition of Family Dollar Stores; eBay in connection with a proxy contest by Carl Icahn, and its spinoff of PayPal, Inc.; Creative Artists Agency LLP in connection with its restructuring and sale of a controlling interest to TPG Group; and numerous transactions for AT&T, Ventas, Novartis and Danaher Corporation.
Mr. Norwitz teaches a course in Mergers and Acquisitions at Columbia University School of Law. He is a former chair of the New York City Bar Committee on Mergers and Acquisitions and Corporate Control Contests, is active on committees of the International Bar Association and the American Bar Association, and a member of the American Law Institute, and served as a member of an international advisory group to the South African government on company law reform. A regular speaker and panelist at professional conferences, he has chaired and participated in numerous continuing legal education programs and contributes regularly to professional publications on topics relating to M&A and corporate governance. Mr. Norwitz also chairs the University of Cape Town Fund and Friends of Ikamva Labantu, and serves on the boards of other non-profit organizations, including DirectWomen and the Bernstein Institute of Human Rights at NYU Law School.
Born in Cape Town, South Africa, Mr. Norwitz received his Bachelor of Business Science with first class honors from the University of Cape Town in 1986. On a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford University, he read law at Keble College, graduating with first class honors in 1989, and then completed an LL.M. at Columbia University in 1990. He joined the firm in 1994 and was named partner in 1998.
Select Publications
- Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee Guide,
2023.
- Intellectual Property Issues in M&A Transactions,
2023.
- Preparing for the 2023 Proxy Season in the Era of Universal Proxy,
in Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance, November 14, 2022.
- U.S. chapter,
in Shareholder Activism & Engagement, Lexology: Getting the Deal Through, London (2022 & 2019).
- Expanding on the SEC’s Proposal to Modernize Section 13(d) and (g) Beneficial Ownership Reporting,
in Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance, April 14, 2022.
- 2021's Most Interesting Developments in M&A,
in The International Comparative Legal Guide to: Mergers & Acquisitions, Global Legal Group Ltd., Sixteenth ed. 2022.
- ISS Proposes Benchmark Voting Policy Changes for the 2022 Proxy Season,
in Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance, November 11, 2021.
- SEC Staff Limits Exclusion of “Social Policy” Shareholder Proposals,
in Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance, November 8, 2021 and Columbia Law School’s Blog on Corporations and the Capital Markets, November 9, 2021.
- Market Trends 2020/21: Shareholder Proposals,
in Lexis Practical Guidance Practice Note, May 2021.
- The SEC Should Address the Risk of Activist “Lightning Strikes”,
in Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance, March 15, 2021.
- M&A Lessons from the COVID Crisis,
in The International Comparative Legal Guide to: Mergers & Acquisitions, Global Legal Group Ltd., 15th ed. 2021.
- The ESG/TSR Activist “Pincer Attack”,
in Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance, January 26, 2021.
- DOL Proposes Rules Clarifying When ERISA Fiduciaries Need to Vote Proxies,
in Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance, September 9, 2020.
- DOL Proposes New Rules Regulating ESG Investments,
in Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance, July 7, 2020.
- ISS and Glass Lewis: SEC Adopts Proxy Advisory Reform – Initial Perspectives and Implications,
in Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation, August 8, 2020.
- Market Trends 2019/20: Proxy Enhancements,
in Lexis Practice Advisor, July 2020.
- Market Trends 2019/20: Shareholder Proposals,
in Lexis Practice Advisor, July 2020.