Best Lawyers in America for Corporate Governance Law
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State
Omar Parra is a top attorney recognized by Best Lawyers in the practice area(s) of Corporate Governance and Compliance Law, Corporate Law and Mergers and Acquisitions Law. Omar, who practices law in San Francisco, California, has been recognized since 2026. This recognition is based on an exhaustive peer-review survey, reflecting the high esteem in which Omar is held by other top lawyers in the same geographic and legal practice area.
Michael A. Vacchiano is a top attorney recognized by Best Lawyers in the practice area(s) of Corporate Governance and Compliance Law. Michael A., who practices law in New York, New York, has been recognized since 2026. This recognition is based on an exhaustive peer-review survey, reflecting the high esteem in which Michael A. is held by other top lawyers in the same geographic and legal practice area.
Chelsey C. Buck is a top attorney recognized by Best Lawyers in the practice area(s) of Corporate Governance and Compliance Law and Mergers and Acquisitions Law. Chelsey C., who practices law in Minneapolis, Minnesota, has been recognized since 2025. This recognition is based on an exhaustive peer-review survey, reflecting the high esteem in which Chelsey C. is held by other top lawyers in the same geographic and legal practice area.
Lance Maynard is a top attorney recognized by Best Lawyers in the practice area(s) of Corporate Governance and Compliance Law and Mergers and Acquisitions Law. Lance, who practices law in Greenville, South Carolina, has been recognized since 2026. This recognition is based on an exhaustive peer-review survey, reflecting the high esteem in which Lance is held by other top lawyers in the same geographic and legal practice area.
Rylee Wells advises clients in general corporate, transaction and securities matters. Her practices focuses on mergers and acquisitions, public and private financing transactions, corporate governance and compliance reporting matters. Her experience includes representing clients in a wide variety of industries, including energy, natural resources, construction, life sciences, media and entertainment, technology, software and private equity.
Jennifer Ybarra Taylor is a top attorney recognized by Best Lawyers in the practice area(s) of Corporate Governance and Compliance Law, Corporate Law and Securities / Capital Markets Law. Jennifer Ybarra, who practices law in Dallas, Texas, has been recognized since 2024. This recognition is based on an exhaustive peer-review survey, reflecting the high esteem in which Jennifer Ybarra is held by other top lawyers in the same geographic and legal practice area.
Sharon Freiman is a capital markets partner in the New York office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Sharon advises issuers and underwriters in a broad range of matters, including initial public offerings and other equity offerings, high-yield and investment-grade debt offerings, and private placements of securities. Sharon also regularly counsels issuers on SEC disclosure and compliance, corporate governance and general corporate matters. Sharon's experience ranges across a variety of industries,...
Ben Glicklich is an associate in the firm’s Corporate and Securities Practice Group. Ben has experience in advising privately held and publicly traded companies on a broad range of transactional matters, particularly in mergers and acquisitions, private equity and venture capital transactions, capital raises, securities offerings, joint ventures, corporate reorganizations, business entity formation, and general corporate matters.
Katherine Herbert is an associate in the Corporate Practice Group. Katie’s practice focuses primarily on assisting public and private company clients with a variety of corporate matters, including stock and asset mergers and acquisitions transactions, conversions, consolidations, dispositions, internal reorganizations/restructurings, and private equity transactions. Katie also advises on corporate governance matters and disclosure requirements of the securities laws and trading markets,...
Lakshmi A. Muthu is a top attorney recognized by Best Lawyers in the practice area(s) of Corporate Governance and Compliance Law, Corporate Law and Mergers and Acquisitions Law. Lakshmi A., who practices law in Wilmington, Delaware, has been recognized since 2022. This recognition is based on an exhaustive peer-review survey, reflecting the high esteem in which Lakshmi A. is held by other top lawyers in the same geographic and legal practice area.
David Lifshitz is a top attorney recognized by Best Lawyers in the practice area(s) of Corporate Governance and Compliance Law. David, who practices law in New York, New York, has been recognized since 2024. This recognition is based on an exhaustive peer-review survey, reflecting the high esteem in which David is held by other top lawyers in the same geographic and legal practice area.
Andrew Butler is a top attorney recognized by Best Lawyers in the practice area(s) of Corporate Governance and Compliance Law, Corporate Law and Securities / Capital Markets Law. Andrew, who practices law in New York, New York, has been recognized since 2026. This recognition is based on an exhaustive peer-review survey, reflecting the high esteem in which Andrew is held by other top lawyers in the same geographic and legal practice area.
Daniel Bernardone's practice primarily consists of commercial litigation, insurance coverage, insurance bad-faith litigation, and civil litigation. Dan is a graduate of Arizona State University’s Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law, where he served as Executive Editor of the Jurimetrics Law Journal, externed for the Honorable Michelle Burns (U.S. District Court, District of Arizona) and was inducted into the Order of Barristers. Dan’s practice includes experience dealing with...
Lance Hancock is a partner in the Salt Lake City office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. His practice concentrates on capital markets transactions, corporate governance and securities law compliance. He regularly represents issuers or underwriters in connection with initial public offerings, high yield notes offerings, debt exchanges and tender offers, follow-on equity offerings, preferred unit offerings and “at-the-market” programs, particularly in the upstream, midstream and oil fie...
Leonard Wood is a partner in and chair-elect of Goodwin’s Shareholder Activism and Takeover Defense practice, effective October 1, 2025. Leonard devotes his practice entirely to shareholder activism campaigns, proxy fights, shareholder activism preparedness, strategic investor relations, and contested M&A. He has advised hundreds of public companies across all industries and sizes in shareholder activism defense, proxy contests, strategic investor relations and hostile takeover defe...
Our Methodology
Recognition by Best Lawyers is based entirely on peer review. Our methodology is designed to capture, as accurately as possible, the consensus opinion of leading lawyers about the professional abilities of their colleagues within the same geographical area and legal practice area.
The Process
Best Lawyers employs a sophisticated, conscientious, rational, and transparent survey process designed to elicit meaningful and substantive evaluations of the quality of legal services. Our belief has always been that the quality of a peer review survey is directly related to the quality of the voters.