Sean M Donahue

Practice Areas

Sean Donahue is chair of both the Public Company Advisory and Shareholder Activism & Takeover Defense practices of Paul Hastings, and he is based in the firm’s Washington, D.C. and New York offices. Drawing on his previous experience as an attorney in the SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance, his practice focuses on counseling public companies and their boards of directors on shareholder activism and takeover defense, mergers and acquisitions, capital markets transactions, securities regulation, and corporate governance matters.

Sean spends a significant amount of his time advising public companies and their boards of directors on shareholder activism and takeover defense matters. He has been involved in hundreds of activism and takeover defense situations, including numerous high-profile proxy contests. Sean has counseled boards of directors and management teams in navigating activist situations involving Elliott Management, Carl Icahn, Engaged Capital, Starboard Value, ValueAct, Lion Point Capital, Engine Capital, Voss Capital, Tang Capital, Highland Capital, Mill Road Capital, Legion Partners, JCP Investment Management, GAMCO, Eric Singer, Brad Radoff, Global Value Investment Corp. and Kanen Wealth Management, among others.

Sean also has significant experience advising public companies and their boards of directors in responding to short attacks. He has advised companies in response to short reports by short sellers Hindenburg Research, Muddy Watters Research, Spruce Point Capital, Citron Research, Culper Research, Fuzzy Panda Research, Capybara Research, The Bear Cave, Grizzly Research, Blue Orca Capital, Kerrisdale Capital, Bleecker Street Research, Iceberg Research and Jehoshaphat Research, among others. He also advises companies in detecting and defending against naked short selling.

Sean serves as primary outside corporate and securities counsel to numerous public companies. In this role, he counsels clients on SEC reporting and corporate governance matters. Sean advises clients in a diverse range of industries, market capitalizations and geographies.

Sean has significant experience in capital markets transactions, including initial public offerings, reverse mergers, and de-SPAC transactions. Leveraging his previous experience at the SEC in the Division of Corporation Finance, he advises clients of all sizes in capital raising activities and has assisted them in completing numerous multi-billion dollar transactions.

Personal

Georgetown University Law Center, LL.M.

Cleveland-Marshall College of Law / Cleveland State University, JD / MBA

Duquesne University, B.S.