John C. Coates

John F. Cogan, Jr. Professor of Law and Economics

Research Interests

• Corporate, Securities and Financial Institution Law and Regulation
• Mergers and Acquisitions
• Legal Profession

Subject Areas for Accepting Press Inquiries

• Corporate, Securities and Financial Institution Law and Regulation
• Legal Profession
• Mergers and Acquisitions

Education

• University of Virginia B.A. 1986, History
• New York University School of Law J.D. 1989

Practice Information

Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz 1988-1997

Appointments

• Assistant Professor of Law, 1997-2001
• Professor of Law, 2001-2006
• John F. Cogan, Jr. Professor of Law and Economics, 2006
• Research Director, Program on the Legal Profession, 2007

Biographical Statement

John Coates is the John F. Cogan, Jr. Professor of Law and Economics at Harvard Law School, and Research Director of the Program on the Legal Profession. Before joining Harvard, he was a partner at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, specializing in financial institutions and M&A. He has testified before Congress and provided consulting services to the U.S. Department of Justice, the U.S. Department of Treasury, the New York Stock Exchange, and participants in the financial markets, including individuals, mutual funds, hedge funds, investment banks, commercial banks, and private equity funds. In addition, he served as independent distribution consultant for the Securities and Exchange Commission in two "Fair Fund" distributions to investors - including one of the first distributions (of $50 million relating to an enforcement action regarding payment for order flow), and one of the largest distributions (of $306 million relating to enforcement actions regarding market timing and late trading). He has also served as an independent representative of individual and institutional clients of institutional trustees and money managers.

Additional Information

SSRN: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=130268

Representative Publications

• Coates, John C. "Managing Disputes Through Contract: Evidence from M&A," 2 Harvard Business Law Review 301 (2012).
  Full text: WWW
  
• Coates, John C. "Corporate Politics, Governance, and Value Before and After Citizens United," 9 Journal of Empirical Legal Studies 696 (2012).
  
• Coates, John C., Michele deStefano, David B. Wilkins & Ashish Nanda. "Hiring Teams, Firms and Lawyer: Evidence of the Evolving Relationships in the Corporate Legal Market," 36 Law and Social Inquiry 999 (2011).
  
• Coates, John C., Michele Stefano Beardslee, Ashish Nanda, Erik Ramanathan, Corporate Purchasing Project: How S&P Companies Evaluate Outside Counsel (Harvard Law School Program on the Legal Profession, 2011).
  
• Coates, John C. "M&A Break Fees: U.S. Litigation versus U.K. Regulation" in Regulation versus Litigation: Perspectives from Economics and Law (Daniel Kessler ed., Chicago University Press, 2011).
  

Bibliography

View bibliography

Other Information

2011-2012 Faculty Disclosures re: Related Outside Interests and Activities