Bio

Henry Nassau, Dechert’s former Chief Executive Officer, served as chair of Dechert’s corporate and securities group for an aggregate of 19 years. Mr. Nassau represents private equity sponsors, venture capital firms, public and private corporations, management teams, boards of directors, and special committees in corporate and securities matters. He advises clients on mergers, acquisitions, dispositions, investments, securities offerings, proxy contests, corporate governance, and general corporate matters. Having served as general counsel and chief operating officer at a publicly-traded technology company, Mr. Nassau offers a particularly commercial perspective to his client representations. Mr. Nassau has been recognized for fifteen consecutive years as a leading Corporate/M&A lawyer and has also been ranked as a leading Private Equity Buyouts lawyer by Chambers USA, a referral guide to leading lawyers in the United States based on the opinions of their peers and clients. In recent editions, Chambers has noted that Mr. Nassau is “very well-known and respected,” a “standout lawyer” and “a true professional” with “absolutely great judgment." Clients have described him as a “terrific, responsive and pragmatic attorney” who is a “go-to person” that “provides ‘wise advice’ on M&A and private equity transactions” and is “always there when [we] need top-drawer legal analysis.” Mr. Nassau has also been recognized as a leading lawyer by Chambers Global for Corporate M&A (International & Cross-Border) transactions in the United States. In addition, Mr. Nassau has been recognized for his work in M&A, private equity, and capital markets: debt offerings by The Legal 500 (U.S.), which has cited him as “responsive and impressive” and “a superstar–smart with great attention to detail" and “spectacular judgment.” In 2024, Mr. Nassau was named to The Legal 500 M&A Power List as one of just seven leading M&A practitioners in Pennsylvania. He has also been named a “Highly Regarded” lawyer for both M&A and private equity in the IFLR1000 and was recently recognized in Lawdragon’s 2018 edition of ‘The 500 Leading Lawyers in America’, an annual guide to those lawyers in the United States who most inspire others with their public interest leadership and their vision of the rule of law. Mr. Nassau has also been recognized for his work in corporate governance and compliance law, corporate law, and mergers and acquisitions law by The Best Lawyers in America, which named him the Corporate Compliance Lawyer of the Year in Philadelphia in its 2018 edition. As former chair of Dechert’s global corporate and securities group, Mr. Nassau played an instrumental role in expanding the practice’s international platform across Europe, Asia and the Middle East in order to respond to the increasing global demands of the firm’s client base. Dechert’s corporate and securities group now has an equal proportion of lawyers inside and outside of the United States, and Mr. Nassau has devoted significant time to integrating the global team so that clients enjoy a seamless international experience when selecting Dechert to advise on cross-border matters. Mr. Nassau left Dechert in 1999 for Internet Capital Group to serve as general counsel. He most recently served as ICG’s chief operating officer, general counsel, and secretary.