Marc Wolinsky has been a member of the Litigation Department at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz since 1987. His practice includes corporate governance, contracts, antitrust, insurance and securities litigation.
Mr. Wolinsky has been involved in a number of the most significant litigation battles in the Delaware Court of Chancery, leading the successful defense of Airgas' "poison pill" and the successful effort to force Dow Chemical to close on its acquisition of Rohm and Haas. Mr. Wolinsky was the lead lawyer representing J.C. Flowers, Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase in litigation with Sallie Mae over whether Sallie Mae had suffered a material adverse change in its business and successfully defended multi-forum shareholder litigation challenging JPMorgan’s acquisition of Bear Stearns. Mr. Wolinsky also has actively litigated derivative suits and securities class actions, and most recently represented Hewlett Packard in resolving derivative, class action and ERISA litigation resulting from its acquisition of Autonomy.
Following 9/11, Mr. Wolinsky was a lead member of the team representing Larry Silverstein in insurance litigation arising out of the destruction of the World Trade Center and was a member of the trial team that convinced a New York jury that the attacks on the World Trade Center should be treated as two "occurrences" for insurance purposes. He then led the effort to settle the case, which resulted in what was reported to be the largest property insurance settlement in history. Mr. Wolinsky’s antitrust matters include the representation of General Mills in an FTC investigation of its acquisition of Pillsbury, the defense of Cardinal Health in the FTC challenge to its acquisition of Bergen Brunswig and the representation of Great Northern Nekoosa in its antitrust suit against Georgia Pacific.
As part of his pro bono work, Mr. Wolinsky represented Joseph Steffan in his challenge to the ban on the service of gay men and women in the military, arguing the case to the D.C. Circuit sitting en banc. He successfully reversed the manslaughter conviction of Anthony Oddone in the New York Court of Appeals and submitted an amicus brief on behalf of the Innocence Project as part of the successful exoneration of a Louisiana death row inmate. Mr. Wolinsky was the recipient of the 2017 Servant of Justice Award from the Legal Aid Society of New York.
Mr. Wolinsky has argued appeals in the D.C. Circuit, the New York Court of Appeals and the Appellate Divisions of the New York State Supreme Court and has litigated in state, federal and bankruptcy courts around the country. He is admitted to practice in the State of New York, the United States District Court for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York, the United States Courts of Appeals for the Second, Seventh, Ninth and D.C. Circuits and the United States Supreme Court.
Mr. Wolinsky joined Wachtell Lipton after clerking for the Honorable Henry J. Friendly of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit from 1980 - 1981. He received his B.A. with high honors from Swarthmore College in 1977 and his J.D. with honors from the University of Chicago Law School. While in law school, he was a member of The University of Chicago Law Review and served as a Comment and Articles Editor.