Martin Lipton, a founding partner of Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, specializes in advising major corporations on mergers and acquisitions and matters affecting corporate policy and strategy and has written and lectured extensively on these subjects. Mr. Lipton is chairman of the Board of Trustees of New York University, a trustee of the New York University School of Law (chairman 1988-98), a member of the Council of the American Law Institute, and a director of the Institute of Judicial Administration. In 1976, Lipton authored, "Corporate Takeovers: Tender Offers and Freezeouts," American Bar Association, National Institute on Corporate Takeovers. In 1982, he created the Shareholders Rights Plan ("poison pill") which has been described by Prof. Ronald Gilson of the Columbia and Stanford Law Schools as "the most important innovation in corporate law since Samuel Dodd invented the trust for John D. Rockefeller and Standard Oil in 1879." In 1992, he served on the Subcouncil on Corporate Governance and Financial Markets of the United States Competiveness Policy Council, which resulted in his co-authoring with his fellow member of the Subcouncil, Prof. Jay Lorsch of The Harvard Business School, an article, "A Modest Proposal for Improved Corporate Governance," which became the template for much of the basic corporate governance principles that were adopted in the 1990s. Lipton served as counsel to the New York Stock Exchange Committee on Market Structure, Governance and Ownership (1999-2000), as counsel to, and member of, its Committee on Corporate Accountability and Listing Standards [Corporate Governance] (2002) and as chairman of its Legal Advisory Committee (2002-2004). Lipton is a member of the Executive Committee of the Partnership for New York City and served as its co-chair (2004-2006). He has a BS in Economics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and an LLB from the New York University School of Law. He is a member of The American Academy of Arts & Sciences, a trustee of The Economic Club of New York, a member of the International Advisory Council of Guanghua School of Management of Peking University, and a Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur.