One of the iconic lawyers of his generation, the late Joseph Flom made his name by defying convention. At a time when other large law firms eschewed hostile corporate work as ungentlemanly, Flom embraced the nascent practice in the 1960s and pushed it to the forefront.

"Joe probably single-handedly elevated unsolicited M&A work from essentially nothing to a central tool of corporate strategy for mainstream corporate America and globally," says Skadden M&A partner Peter Atkins.