Blaine “Fin” Fogg, an early mergers and acquisitions lawyer at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom who helped the firm launch its Paris office, died Sunday at age 79.

The cause of death was brain cancer, according to his son William Fogg, a partner at Cravath, Swaine & Moore.

Fin Fogg's partners and son praised him as a lawyer and a person. Will Fogg said he went into law because “I wanted to be like my father.” In his later years, Will said, Fin pushed friends and colleagues to give to charitable causes like Mount Sinai Health System, where he was a trustee for over 30 years, and the Legal Aid Society of New York, where he served as president.

“Some of my partners would ask him to lay off. He wouldn't; he would keep pushing it,” Will said. “He had a slogan; he'd call all the firms, saying, '100 [thousand dollars] is the new 50.'”

Fin Fogg joined Skadden in 1966 as a lateral associate and became one of Joseph Flom's lieutenants during the M&A boom in the 1970s and 1980s. In 1990, he moved to Paris to help the firm gain a foothold there and helped it grow its restructuring business when the economy cooled.

He was one of the “four horsemen”—along with Morris Kramer, Roger Aaron and Peter Atkins—who worked under Flom on some of the biggest hostile takeovers and corporate transactions that built the firm's reputation.

“There wasn't even an M&A field when we started,” said Atkins. “We were just corporate lawyers.”

Atkins said Fogg was particularly close to Sir James Goldsmith, a prominent British tycoon who turned to Skadden for help with complex transactions. He added that Fogg co-authored a book on the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act and said he was well-versed in the notice and regulatory requirements of acquiring big stakes in public companies.

Skadden partner Ann Beth Stebbins and retired partner David Friedman both described learning the ropes from Fogg. Friedman said Fogg taught him about the importance of high-quality work; he recalled one night, early in his time at the firm, that he drafted a 40-page corporate profile on Marathon Oil. The next day, Fogg reviewed it, and told him to pare it back to three or four pages.

“It made me think and taught me a life lesson,” he said. “While you can turn out a real work product, you've got to think about what's important to the client.”

Stebbins said that her first interaction came shortly after she joined the firm in 1994, when the senior associate tasked with leading a drafting session in International Paper's acquisition of Federal Paper Board didn't show up because of bad weather. She said she looked at the front cover of the Form S-4, where Fogg's name was listed, called his office, and asked for “Blaine.”

He rolled up his sleeves, came to the conference room and saved the day, she said, even though it was normally a task for a senior associate or a junior partner. Over the years, she learned a lot more from him.

“He would love to talk about the possibilities, the things maybe you hadn't fleshed out,” Stebbins said. “'Did you go down this path? Did you try this? Did you try that?'”

Nearly everyone who remembered Fogg remembered his love for and skill at golf. Atkins said it was as though he had been playing since three months old. Even after his first brain surgery, when he'd been told that he had a year to live, remembered Will, he jumped at the opportunity to play at Liberty National.

“He didn't have any surrender in him,” Will said.

Fogg is survived by his wife, Diane; his children, William, Matthew and Katherine and their spouses; by his brother Sanford; and by five grandchildren, according to a Cravath spokesman.  A memorial service will be held on July 23, 2019, at 10 a.m. at the Kaufmann Concert Hall at the 92nd Street Y.