Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe is set to announce today that it has recruited to its New York office the head of the business and finance practice at Morgan, Lewis & Bockius.
Howard L. Shecter will join Orrick's mergers and acquisitions group and is expected to take a lead role in expanding the practice in New York.
A veteran deal lawyer, Shecter is representing Playtex Products Inc. in its $2 billion acquisition by Energizer Holdings Inc., a deal that was approved by shareholders Thursday. He is also advising Sierra Health Services Inc. in a pending $2.6 billion sale to UnitedHealth Group.
In 2005, he represented SunGard Data Systems in its $11.3 billion acquisition by a group of private equity firms.
Shecter, 64, had been one of the most senior partners at Philadelphia-based Morgan Lewis, which he joined out of law school in 1968. He served as Morgan Lewis' managing partner from 1979 to 1983 and was chairman of the executive committee in 1985. As head of the firm's 300-lawyer business and finance group, he supervised all corporate practices at the firm.
The expansion of its New York M&A practice has long been a priority for San Francisco-based Orrick. The firm last year pursued a merger with New York's Dewey Ballantine largely to bolster that practice. After those plans fell through, Dewey agreed to merge with New York's LeBoeuf, Lamb, Greene & MacRae and the combined firm begins operating as Dewey & LeBoeuf today.
