A partner in the Corporate Department, Steven J. Williams is a member of the Mergers and Acquisitions Group. Mr. Williams has extensive experience with public company transactions, including strategic mergers and “mergers of equals”, leveraged buy-outs, hostile acquisitions, board representations, special committee representations and proxy fights, as well as with private equity and venture capital transactions, auctions, joint ventures and restructuring transactions.

Mr. Williams’ recent experience includes representation of:

• Citigroup in its sale of Nikko Asset Management to The Sumitomo Trust and Banking Co., Ltd.;
• Elliott Associates in the leveraged buy-out of MSC.Software Corporation with Symphony Technology Group;
• Elliott Associates in its unsolicited tender offer for Packeteer Inc. and its subsequent investment in Blue Coat Systems Inc. in connection with the acquisition of Packeteer by Blue Coat;
• Elliott Associates in its investment in the leveraged buy-out of Metrologic Instruments Inc. and the subsequent sale of Metrologic to Honeywell International;
• Farallon Capital Management in its acquisition of the manufactured home business of Affordable Residential Communities;
• Harbinger Capital Partners in the proxy fight by it and Firebrand Partners for The New York Times Company, and the resulting settlement agreement which placed two of the insurgents’ nominees on the Board of The Times;
• Harbinger Capital Partners in its hostile proxy fight for Ryerson Inc.;
• Harbinger Capital Partners in the sale of its majority-owned portfolio company, General Chemical Industrial Products Inc., to Tata Chemicals Limited, a Tata Group company;
• Harbinger Capital Partners in its acquisition of U.S. Silica Company, Inc.;
• General Atlantic in its acquisition of AKQA, Inc., a leading independent digital marketing agency;
• MasterCard International in its acquisition of Orbiscom Limited, a Dublin, Ireland-based leading payments solutions software provider for major financial institutions;
• mcgarrybowen, the largest independent advertising agency in New York and the 10th largest independent agency in the United States, in its sale to Dentsu Holdings USA, Inc.;
• Premium Standard Farms, Inc. in its acquisition by Smithfield Foods, Inc;
• The Weinstein Companies in their investment in aSmallWorld, an exclusive social networking site;
• Wellspring Capital Partners in its leveraged buy-out of Checkers Drive-In Restaurants;
• Wellspring Capital Partners in the sale of its portfolio company, Tube City IMS Corporation, to Onex Corporation, in a dual-track sale/IPO process; and
• Wellspring Capital Partners in the sale of a controlling stake in its portfolio company, Vistar Corporation, to the Blackstone Group and in the subsequent acquisition by Vistar of Performance Food Group.

Mr. Williams served as a notes editor of the Columbia Law Review and was a James Kent Scholar and a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar. Mr. Williams is the recipient of a Legal Aid Society award for outstanding pro bono representation.