What is it like to relinquish a coveted position held over 17 years in a renowned bank for another dignified law firm? Morgan Stanley’s veteran M&A banker Rob Kindler is undergoing this transition for one of Wall Street’s top law firms, Paul Weiss. The largest corporate takeovers for Morgan Stanley’s investment strategies were advised by Rob Kindler, the global chairman of M&A of the investment bank.
Over his 23-year run as a banker, Rob Kindler cemented his name as a formidable force to be reckoned with in the tight-knit world of deal advisory.
Prior to his position at Morgan Stanley, Kindler had begun his career at another white-shoe law firm, Cravath, Swaine & Moore. When he left Cravath to help trigger JPMorgan Chase’s predecessor Chase Manhattan’s investment bank in 2000, analysts labeled him as the ‘firm’s most promising mergers lawyer’. He moved to the Global chairman appointment at Morgan Stanley six years later.
It may be surprising to witness bankers being retained at big-bracket banks like Goldman Sachs or Morgan Stanley past the retirement age, but it isn’t rare for established lawyers on Wall Street to keep doing what they do best.
Morgan Stanley Investment Strategies: M&A Banker Oversaw Top Deals
When Rob Kindler joined Morgan Stanley, its chief executive James Gorman also did, in 2006. Kindler had envisioned staying at the investment bank through Gorman’s tenure. Gorman announced he was stepping down as CEO in the next year.
Kindler was a part of the most pivotal deals of Morgan Stanley’s investment strategies. As Global Chairman, he has advised on top mergers and acquisitions including Time Warner’s $85.4 billion acquisition by AT&T, Bristol Myers Squibb’s $90 billion acquisition of Celgene, DuPont’s $130 billion merger with Dow Chemicals and Mitsubishi’s $9 billion stake in Morgan Stanley.
The latter deal propelled Kindler to Wall Street’s folklore because the deal took place during the peak financial crisis of 2008. Kindler managed to regain lost investor confidence in the investment bank and he finalized the deal in khaki pants.
At that time, Kindler had even negotiated the largest-ever legal fee for a merger at $35 million for advising on AOL-Time Warner’s tie-up. Kindler’s latest deal included Morgan Stanley’s acquisitions of ETrade and Eaton Vance, significant to the bank’s growth in wealth management.
Morgan Stanley’s M&A Banker Transition To Law Firm Paul Weiss
By this year’s fall, Kindler will join Paul, Weiss, Wharton & Garrison, and Rifkind as the global chair of M&A and corporate partners. Kindler is ecstatic to be a part of the alleged ‘premier franchise for M&A and activism defense’.
“Rob is widely recognized as one of the most influential and respected practitioners of M&A in the world.”
– Paul Weiss Chairman Brad Karp
On how he treaded from law to banking and back to the law, at the age of 69, Kindler had no plans of retiring and was contemplating his next move when he collided with his Cravath’s one-time protege Scott Barshay.
When Barshay moved to Paul Weiss in 2016, he went on to become one of the most prolific M&A lawyers that transformed the firms into top deal ones along with Wachtell, Lipton, Sullivan & Cromwell and Rosen & Katz.
Barshay proposed Kindler move back to law firms and turned the cogwheels of Kindler’s mind to approach only Paul Weiss, where the two of them will be reunited as co-workers.
Barshay will retain his corporate-department chair at Paul Weiss while Brad Karp will remain Chairman after overseeing the firm’s expansion from litigation to M&A. Kindler will advise clients on activist investors in addition to deals.
Although M&A activities have glissaded and lulled 44 percent from last year’s ranking, Paul Weiss has advised on some of the major deals of 2023 including Carrier Global’s $13 billion acquisition of Viessma and Merck’s $10.8 billion acquisition of Prometheus Biosciences.
