Michael Stanchfield focuses his practice on mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance, takeover preparedness, and general corporate counseling.

He represents public and private companies as buyers and sellers in acquisitions involving various forms of consideration. In the area of corporate governance, Mike counsels public companies and their boards on oversight responsibilities, board and committee structures, and fiduciary duties.

"Michael Stanchfield is a great lawyer who combines experience and knowledge with excellent judgment and common sense," according to a corporate client interviewed for The Legal 500 United States.

An authority on a variety of M&A and general-corporate topics, Mike is a regular speaker and presenter, as well as an award-winning author.

Mike's representative transactions include the following:

• Target Corporation's successful defense of proxy contest waged by Pershing Square Capital
• Sale of ReliaStar Financial Corp. to the ING Group ($6.1 billion)
• Lutheran Brotherhood's multi-billion-dollar merger with Aid Association for Lutherans
• Target Corporation's sale of its Marshall Field's division to The May Department Stores Company ($3.2 billion)
• Target Corporation's acquisition of Canadian leasehold interests from Zellers Inc. ($1.8 billion)
• Target Corporation's sale of its Mervyn's division to Sun Capital Partners and others ($1.7 billion)
• Acquisitions by 3M Company of Arizant ($810 million), Avery Dennison's OCP Division ($550 million), and Attenti ($230 million)
• Sale of Retek Inc. in public bidding war won by Oracle Corporation ($670 million)
• Graco Inc.'s pending acquisition of the global finishing business of Illinois Tool Works Inc. ($650 million)
• Archer-Daniels-Midland's acquisition of Minnesota Corn Processors ($635 million)
• Sale of Stellent, Inc. to Oracle Corporation ($440 million)
• Piper Jaffray Companies' acquisition of Advisory Research, Inc. ($218 million)

Honors

• The Best Lawyers in America, Mergers & Acquisitions Law, 2008–12
• Chambers USA: America's Leading Lawyers for Business, Corporate/M&A, 2008–11
• Super Lawyers, Mergers & Acquisitions, 2011
• Forty Under 40, The Business Journal

Professional Associations

• University of St. Thomas School of Law – Adjunct Professor of Law(2004-05)
• William Mitchell College of Law – Adjunct Professor of Law (2003)
• Minnesota State Bar Association – Business/Professional Corporations Committee, chair
• Minnesota State Bar Association – Business Law Section, treasurer

Clerkships

• U.S. Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit, Hon. James B. Loken, 1995–96

Legal Updates

• Challenging Delaware's Desirability as a Haven for Incorporation (with Philip S. Garon and John H. Matheson)
  32 William Mitchell Law Review 769 (2006)
• Fiduciary Duties in Negotiated Acquisitions: Questioning the Legal Requirements for "Outs"
  27 William Mitchell Law Review 2261 (2001)
• Voting Lock-Ups and Sales of Partially Owned Subsidiaries: Can Stockholders Love a Deal Too Early and Too Much?
  28 William Mitchell Law Review 1325 (2002)
• Will Intellectual Property Rights Survive a Merger?
  Intellectual Property and Technology Law Journal, Vol. 15, No. 9 (2003)