Michael Benn

Michael S. Benn is a Partner in Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz’s Restructuring and Finance Department. He represents borrowers with respect to all types of financing for mergers and acquisitions, spin-offs and other significant transactions across a wide variety of industries.

Mike received a B.A. summa cum laude and with distinction in all subjects from Cornell University in 2002, where he was a member of Phi Beta Kappa and a Merril Presidential Scholar and completed a J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 2007, where he was a member of the Order of the Coif and an associate editor of the University of Pennsylvania Law Review. He also received an M.A. in theatre studies from Brown University in 2004.

Mike has been named a “Notable Practitioner” by the ILFR1000 and a “Rising Star” in the New York metropolitan area by SuperLawyers and is a member of the Board of Trustees of The Leffell School.

Ventas in restructuring its master lease with Brookdale to address the financial impact of Covid-19 on 120 senior housing communities, Thermo Fisher Scientific’s $11.5 billion acquisition of Qiagen, United Technologies’ separation of its Otis and Carrier businesses (including the issuance by Otis and Carrier of $5.3 billion and $9.25 billion, respectively, of senior unsecured notes), Pfizer’s $48 billion combination of Upjohn with Mylan, AbbVie’s $21 billion acquisition of Pharmacyclics, Johnson Controls’ $16.3 billion combination with Tyco International plc and spinoff of Adient plc, Abbott Laboratories’ $25 billion acquisition of St. Jude Medical and $2.8 billion term loan to finance its acquisition of Alere Inc., Walgreens Boots Alliance’s acquisition of Alliance Boots, Danone S.A.’s acquisition of The WhiteWave Foods Company, Hubbell Incorporated’s acquisition of Meter Readings Holding Group, LLC, Searchlight Capital’s $2 billion acquisition of Mitel Networks, ServiceMaster’s spin-off of frontdoor, inc. and PVH’s $3 billion acquisition of Warnaco.

Mike also frequently represents sellers in financing matters relating to major M&A transactions, including Allergan in its $83 billion acquisition by AbbVie, Celgene in its $98 billion sale to Bristol-Myers Squibb, Thomson Reuters in its strategic partnership with Blackstone for Thomson Reuters Financial and Risk (F&R) business valued at $20 billion and SUPERVALU in its $2.9 billion sale to United Natural Foods.

In the distressed and restructuring space, among other projects, Mike has represented Bausch Health as the stalking horse bidder in Synergy Pharmaceuticals’ §363 sale of substantially all its assets, Education Management in connection with its $1.5 billion out-of-court recapitalization, Credit Suisse, as first-lien administrative and collateral agent, in connection with the contested $1.1 billion §363 sale in bankruptcy of certain assets of Boston Generating to Constellation Energy Group, and ad hoc lender groups in connection with various Chapter 11 cases, including the restructuring of Rotech Healthcare Inc. and Riviera Holdings.

• Cornell University, B.A. 2002, summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, Merrill Presidential Scholar
• Brown University, M.A. 2004
• University of Pennsylvania Law School, J.D. 2007, Order of the Coif (Associate Editor, University of Pennsylvania Law Review)