Carmen Lu is a partner in the firm’s Mergers & Acquisitions Group and Activism Defense practice. She advises boards and management teams of companies across industries on shareholder activism, hostile takeover defense, investor engagement, corporate governance and crisis management.
Carmen is sought after as a thought leader on shareholder activism and corporate governance issues, and her articles have been featured in publications including the Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance, Columbia Law School’s Blog on Corporations and Capital Markets, The M&A Lawyer, 13D Monitor and NYU Law School’s Compliance and Enforcement blog. A collection of her recent articles is accessible here.
Carmen currently serves on the Council of Institutional Investors’ Markets Advisory Council and the Aspen Institute’s Business & Society Program’s board of advisors. Carmen is also a frequent speaker on shareholder activism and corporate governance matters, including at the Society for Corporate Governance National Conference, the National Association of Corporate Directors Annual Conference, the Bloomberg Activism Forum, and on Bloomberg Deals, and has served as a guest lecturer on corporate governance and shareholder activism at Yale Law School and Harvard Law School.
In 2025 and 2026, Financier Worldwide named Carmen to its “Power Players: Shareholder Activism – Distinguished Advisers” list, which recognizes the ten leading advisers in shareholder activism in the United States. Carmen is also recognized by Chambers (2026) for her work in Takeover Defense and by The Legal 500 for her work in Shareholder Activism (2026) and M&A Large Deals (2026). Carmen has also been named among Lawdragon’s 500 Leading Dealmakers in America for Activism Defense and Corporate Governance (2026) and Lawdragon’s 500 Global Leaders in Crisis Management (2026).
Carmen graduated from Yale Law School, where she served as articles editor of the Yale Law Journal and executive editor of the Yale Journal on Regulation. She received a B.A., summa cum laude, from Yale College, where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and won the Arthur Twining Hadley Prize as the highest-ranking graduate. Carmen is also a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a member of the Economic Club of New York.
Carmen has advised boards and management teams in campaigns by a number of high-profile activists, including Elliott Management, Starboard Value, Icahn Enterprises, Sachem Head, ValueAct, JANA Partners, D.E. Shaw, Third Point, Trian, Land & Buildings, Legion Partners, Engaged Capital, Irenic and Engine Capital. Carmen also has extensive experience advising boards and management teams in campaigns by high-impact non-hedge fund activists including the Strategic Organizing Center, the New York City and New York State Comptrollers, the National Legal and Policy Center and the National Center for Public Policy Research.
Representative publicly disclosable engagements include:
- Hewlett Packard Enterprise in the activist campaign by Elliott Management
- Workday in the activist campaign by Elliott Management
- Workiva in the activist campaign by Irenic Capital
- Avantor in the activist campaign by Engine Capital
- Riot Platforms in the activist campaigns by Starboard Value and The D.E. Shaw Group
- Dana Incorporated in its amended cooperation agreement with Icahn Enterprises
- Twilio in the activist campaigns by Legion Partners, Anson Funds and Sachem Head
- Ventas in the activist campaign by Land & Buildings
- Pinterest in the activist campaign by Elliott Management
- Salesforce in the activist campaigns by Elliott Management, Third Point, ValueAct and Starboard Value
- Alexion in the activist campaign by Elliott Management
