Not too long ago, we speculated that Scott Barshay of Cravath might have been one of the most-prolific dealmakers around with client IBM.
Well, his client, David Johnson, IBM’s former head of M&A has left for Dell, and Big Blue isn’t too happy. IBM has sued to prevent the 27-year veteran, from breaching a non-compete he signed in 2005.
This story should sound familiar. Back in January, we wrote about IBM suing to prevent a former chip architect, Mark Papermaster, from working for Apple.
The players in the latest round, after the jump.
IBM only works with the creme de la creme. Barshay (Colgate BA ’88, Columbia JD ’91), the IBM deal guy (for outside counsel, anyway – a guy named Greg Bomberger has run the inhouse M&A legal team for years), is head of corporate. For litigation, only presiding partner Evan Chesler will do and this case is no different. Chesler (NYU AB ‘70, Hunter MA ‘73, NYU JD ‘75) signed the complaint.
Cravath has a reputation for being good, but does it really take two firms on the defense to make it a fair fight? Seems so, with Johnson being represented by both Morgan Lewis and Schulte (although it’s possible one of the firms represents Johnson as an individual and one represents Dell). The team comprises MLB employment partners Michael Banks (Cornell AB ’78, Columbia JD ’81) and Michael Burkhardt (St. Joe’s BA ’90, Michigan JD ’92) and Schulte Roth employment partners Ronald Richman (Cornell BS ’78, Columbia JD ’81) and Holly Weiss (Emory BA ’87, Virginia JD ’91).
Yes, Banks and Richman went to college and law school together. We’re looking into that.
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