WASHINGTON  – Paul Hastings LLP today announced that leading securities and public company advisory lawyer Sean Donahue has joined the firm as the Chair of Public Company Advisory and Co-Chair of Shareholder Activism & Takeover Defense.

“Sean will be invaluable not only in deepening our ability to advise clients on matters involving securities regulation, SEC reporting and compliance, and corporate governance, but also in further strengthening our strong shareholder activism defense practice with his experience in that area,” said Chair Frank Lopez. “We are focused on being a destination for pre-IPO and public company clients and Sean will be an incredible resource for their most important and complex matters.”

Donahue joins from Goodwin, where he chaired the firm’s public company advisory practice and co-chaired the ESG and impact practice. He is a former lawyer in the SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance with deep experience in matters involving securities regulation, shareholder activism defense, capital markets transactions, mergers and acquisitions, and corporate governance. Donahue also is well known for his counseling of public companies and their boards on shareholder activism and takeover defense matters, including in high-profile proxy contests.

“I’m excited by the opportunity to join the exceptional team at Paul Hastings and look forward to developing the many synergistic opportunities that exist between my practice and the firm and its incredible list of leading public company clients,” said Donahue, who is expected to work across multiple practice areas, including capital markets and mergers and acquisitions.

Donahue is recognized in The Legal 500 U.S. 2023 for Shareholder Activism: Advice to Boards and Corporate Governance. He is a member of the Securities Law Committee and Corporate Practices Committee of the Society for Corporate Governance and a member of the American Bar Association’s Federal Regulation of Securities Committee, for which he serves as vice-chair of the Proxy Statements and Business Combinations Subcommittee, as well as its Corporate Governance Committee, for which he serves as co-chair of the Shareholder Activism and Engagement Subcommittee.

About Paul Hastings

With widely recognized elite teams in finance, mergers & acquisitions, private equity, restructuring and special situations, litigation, employment, and real estate, Paul Hastings is a premier law firm providing intellectual capital and superior execution globally to the world’s leading investment banks, asset managers, and corporations.