Jeannemarie O’Brien is a partner in the New York law firm of Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, where she is active in the firm’s merger and acquisition practice, focusing on the executive compensation and employee benefits aspects of transactions, with a particular emphasis on transactions involving financial services institutions. She has been involved in many major domestic and international merger, acquisition and buyout transactions, strategic defense assignments and proxy contests. Ms. O’Brien also advises companies and their boards on governance issues and assists companies and senior executives on executive compensation matters in both the public and private sectors.

Ms. O’Brien frequently writes and speaks on executive compensation and corporate governance issues and is recognized as a leading executive compensation lawyer in the Chambers USA Guide to America’s Leading Lawyers for Business and The Legal 500. In addition to memos and articles on recent developments in the executive compensation area, she is an author of the chapter on executive compensation in the Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz “Financial Institutions M&A,” an annual review of significant developments.

Ms. O’Brien received a B.A. cum laude from Mount Holyoke College, and a J.D. cum laude from Fordham University School of Law, where she was an associate editor of the Fordham Law Review. She is a member of the New York State and American Bar Associations.

Ms. O’Brien serves as a member of the Board of Trustees of the non-profit organization Prep for Prep, a member of the Dean’s Planning Council of Fordham University School of Law and a member of the Advisory Board of St. Bartholomew Community Preschool in New York City.