Kerry E. Berchem
Partner
Areas of Focus
- Corporate Governance
- Mergers & Acquisitions
- Capital Markets
- Environmental, Social & Governance (ESG)
- Shareholder Activism
- Special Situations
- Private Capital
- Advises on M&A, capital markets transactions and corporate governance matters.
- Go-to advisor to post-restructured public and private companies and on event-driven transactions.
- Co-leader of the firm’s ESG group, corporate governance and shareholder activism group, and a member of the firm’s management committee. From 2008 to 2018, led Akin’s corporate practice.
Kerry Berchem is a highly recognized corporate transactional partner, with more than three decades of experience in public and private merger and acquisitions (M&A) and capital markets transactions. In addition to advising on complex, multibillion dollar deals, Kerry serves as a trusted advisor to and is called upon by boards of directors and special committees on a broad array of corporate governance and takeover defense matters. She has a bespoke practice working with companies following a restructuring, both out of court or through chapter 11, and developing and executing on innovative deal structures specific to post-restructured companies. Clients rely on her judgment and business acumen to manage risk, solve problems and create value.
She routinely handles:
- Mergers and acquisitions
- Capital markets transactions and ongoing ’34 Act compliance
- Corporate governance matters, including audit committee and special committee representations, and
- Crisis management engagements.
Kerry is a co-leader of Akin’s corporate governance and activism group, as well as its environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) group. She advises companies on governance structures and best practices, including the formulation and implementation of ESG strategy. Kerry frequently writes and speaks about matters of corporate governance, ESG and board diversity. In January 2021, on behalf of the firm, she authored an SEC comment letter in support of the Nasdaq Diversity Proposal, which was cited in the SEC’s approval order.
- Starboard Value Acquisition Corp. (Nasdaq: SVAC), a SPAC, in its $3.4 billion merger with Cyxtera Technologies, Inc., a global leader in mission-critical retail colocation and interconnection services.
- U.S. Shipping Corp (USSC) in its acquisition by SEACOR Holdings Inc. USSC was a privately owned, leading provider of long-haul marine transportation for chemical and petroleum cargoes in the U.S. coastwise trade, operating under the Jones Act.
- U.S. Concrete, Inc. (Nasdaq: USCR) in connection with a buy-and-build strategy involving nearly two-dozen completed strategic M&A transactions, board governance matters and $1.3 billion merger with Vulcan Materials.
- 890 5th Avenue Partners, Inc., a tech, media and telecom SPAC, in its merger with BuzzFeed, the leading tech-powered media company for digital content and commerce for millennial and Gen Z audiences.
- Nasdaq-listed reinsurance company in connection with its formation and capitalization, initial public offering and concurrent private placement, multiple financings, board governance matters and strategic alternatives review.
EducationJ.D., Tulane University Law School, cum laude, 1991
B.A., Yale University, 1988
J.D., Tulane University Law School, cum laude, 1991
B.A., Yale University, 1988
Bar AdmissionsConnecticut
New York
Connecticut
New York
- Lawdragon, 500 Leading Dealmakers in America, 2022 and 2024.
- Euromoney, Women in Business Law - Corporate Governance Lawyer of the Year, 2021.
- The Deal, Top Women Dealmakers – Activism, 2021.
- Crain’s New York, Notable Women in Law, 2021.
- IFLR1000 US– Notable Practitioner in Capital Markets, M&A and Private Equity, 2019 to 2020.
- The Legal 500 US – M&A, 2015 to 2021; Corporate Governance, 2021-2023; Shareholder activism: Advice to Shareholders, 2021-2022.
- Chambers USA as a leading lawyer in the area of corporate/M&A, 2006 to 2023.
- New York Law Journal, New York Trailblazers, 2019.
- Acritas, Acritas Star, 2019.
- Named one of New York Law Journal’s “Top Women in Law,” which recognizes those “making strides to push the legal profession forward for women,” 2016.
- Recipient of Diversity Journal’s 13th Annual “Women Worth Watching” award, 2014.
- Named to the American Lawyer’s “45 Under 45” list, recognizing the top female lawyers in private practice, 2011.
- DirectWomen Board Institute Alumnae, 2023.
- Member, New York City Bar Association, Mergers & Acquisitions Committee.
- Former member, Fairfield Connecticut Representative Town Meeting.
- Fairfield University St. Ignatius Leadership Residential College Mentor.
- Yale Alumni Interviewer.
- Volunteer for the Pro Bono Partnership.
- Neighborhood coordinator for the Fairfield-Winton Park branch of PORCH Communities.
- Panelist, “Politics, Pay and Proposals: 2024 Proxy Season Overview,” Agenda Webinar.
- Panelist, “Transformative Leadership & Trust,” Women Corporate Directors’ Global Institute & Visionary Awards Celebration.
- Moderator, General Counsel track, Corporate Board Member Mid-Cap Board Committee Peer Exchange.
- Using Evaluations to Enhance Board Effectiveness, Annual Corporate Board Member Boardroom Summit.