Co-Chair
Bertrand CARDI
Co-Chair
Nicola Charlston
Corporate and M&A Law Committee
The Corporate and M&A Law Committee connects corporate, compliance, private equity, and M&A practitioners globally. Focused on education, networking, and collaboration, we address key challenges in corporate law and M&A.
Our goals include: promoting knowledge-sharing through conferences and legal guides, enhancing participation in IBA activities, and supporting professional development. We also contribute to legal education through training, book donations, and programming on emerging trends like ESG, compliance, and cross-border M&A. We publish a newsletter annually.
Committee podcasts
Podcast: AI in M&A
As legal technology/AI continues to have an impact on transactional-focused practices, this podcast assesses where we’ve come from, where we are and where a thought leader and innovator of legal technology believes we are headed, specifically with respect to M&A transactions, including private equity. The conversation is moderated by Adina Shapiro, Scholarship Officer of the IBA Corporate and M&A Law Committee, Member of the IBA LPD AI Working Group and a partner at Meitar Law Offices in Israel, while giving their thoughts are Noah Waisberg, Co-Founder and CEO of AI/software company Zuva, and Stephen Solursh, Conference Coordinator North America for the IBA Corporate and M&A Law Committee and General Counsel at OPTrust in Canada.
Forthcoming conferences and webinars View All Conferences
How successful women rainmakers drive business
08 Jan 2026 1400 - 1500 GMT
Webinar
14th IBA European Corporate and Private M&A Conference
05 Feb - 06 Feb 2026
Paris , France
9th Mergers and Acquisitions in the Technology Sector Conference
12 Mar - 13 Mar 2026
Barcelona , Spain
Mergers and acquisitions in Latin America — building bridges through business: rethinking M&A in the Americas
23 Mar - 25 Mar 2026
Punta del Este , Uruguay
Asia Pacific Mergers & Acquisitions Conference
09 Apr - 10 Apr 2026
Tokyo , Japan
IBA Annual Conference Copenhagen 2026
04 Oct - 09 Oct 2026
Copenhagen , Denmark
Publications
Interview with Ambassador David MacNaughton on diplomacy, dealmaking and the rule of law
At the Corporate and M&A Law Committee reception and dinner at the Art Gallery of Ontario, Ambassador David MacNaughton was interviewed by Committee Co-Chairs Nicola Charlston and Bertrand Cardi. He offered pragmatic reflections on diplomacy and negotiation in an era of heightened geopolitical complexity.
Released on Dec 01, 2025
Locking up the deal – perspectives and practices from around the world
This 2025 Toronto session explored the mechanisms and strategies used by global deal practitioners to provide greater deal certainty in regard to M&A transactions. The panel, chaired by Sarah Young and Rabindra Jhunjhunwala, featured perspectives from legal advisers, in-house counsel and an investment banker, with the panel hailing from the United States, Canada, Japan and India.
Released on Dec 01, 2025
The role of shareholders in M&A transactions
This 2025 Toronto session explored the different ways of dealing with shareholders when executing M&A transactions. In particular, the panel, which was moderated by Gabriella Covino and Harry Coghill, noted that significant M&A transactions generally require engagement with one or both sets of shareholders.
Released on Dec 01, 2025
M&A café – roundtables
The M&A café roundtables session, organised by Dovilè Burgiene and Lorenzo Olgiati, featured five specialised discussion sessions involving participants, with each session led by experienced moderators. The roundtables covered hot due diligence issues; government intervention trends; the impact of AI on M&A transactions; directors’ liability issues; and private equity transaction trends, respectively.
Released on Dec 01, 2025
Projects and reports
Takeover Guide 2023
This latest edition of our guide on takeovers aims at presenting an overview of takeover rules in 20 countries, divided by jurisdiction. In some jurisdictions, there have been substantial changes in recent years as a result of the influence of prominent authorities, as well as regulatory action, in order to preserve a delicate balance between the interests of various stakeholders.
Foreign direct investment guide 2022
The Corporate and M&A Law Committee has produced a new guide covering the highly relevant topic of foreign investment control across 29 countries. This guide is intended to offer practitioners easy access to the relevant applicable rules, answering, in a consistent fashion across jurisdictions, the most frequently raised questions in relation to foreign direct investment (FDI) rules relevant to M&A transactions. To further facilitate research work, each national report includes an alphabetical index of the key relevant topics. The guide is up-to-date as of mid-2022, with an update provided for one guide for 2025.
Minority shareholder rights guide 2022
The Corporate and M&A Law Committee has prepared a minority shareholder rights guide with chapters for over 20 countries around the world. This guide is intended as a high-level, practical guide for practitioners who are looking for an introduction to the laws of each relevant jurisdiction relating to the rights of, and protections for, minority shareholders. The guides include a summary of those rights and the percentage threshold at which the various protections become available. The guide has been updated for 2022.
Corporate and M&A Law/Corporate Counsel Forum: Directors’ Duties Checklist
The Directors' Duties Checklist is a joint project of the Corporate and M&A Law Committee and the Corporate Counsel Forum.
The checklist provides a practical perspective on the duties of directors imposed by jurisdictions around the world and includes an overview of the applicable statutory and regulatory regime in each jurisdiction.
IBA Corporate and M&A Law Committee Legal Due Diligence Guidelines
The IBA Corporate & M&A Law Committee, with contributions from a significant number of IBA Committees across various areas of practice, has published a set of guidelines for conducting legal due diligence investigations in the context of M&A transactions.
The objective of these guidelines is to provide useful information on topics that are relevant in M&A legal due diligence, as well as practical guidance for conducting well-organised due diligence processes. In this regard, these Guidelines are intended to serve as an overview and baseline to legal practitioners around the world, promoting a broader comprehension of what would be expected by clients and, therefore, helping to improve the quality of due diligence investigations.
Financial assistance guides 2022
The Corporate and M&A Law Committee has updated its financial assistance guide with chapters for more than 35 countries around the world. This guide is intended as a high-level, practical guide for practitioners who are looking for an introduction to the laws of each relevant jurisdiction relating to financial assistance when purchasing shares.
Negotiated M&A guides 2022
The Corporate and M&A Law Committee has updated its negotiated M&A guide with chapters from more than 40 countries. The negotiated M&A guides deal with negotiated acquisitions of private companies and are aimed at providing a general overview of acquisition structure options and the essential provisions contained in a standard acquisition agreement in each jurisdiction. The material is intended as a high-level, practical guide for practitioners and others who are looking for an introduction to the laws of each relevant jurisdiction relating to negotiated acquisitions.
Subcommittees and other groups
The Corporate and M&A Law Committee also coordinates the activities of the following subcommittees/working groups.
- Corporate and M&A Law Committee Advisory Board
- Corporate Governance and Activism Subcommittee
The Corporate Governance Subcommittee of the Corporate and M&A Law Committee is responsible for reviewing corporate governance issues and trends and encourages and promotes knowledge-sharing among its members, through publications and participation in conferences.
- Corporate Membership Subcommittee
The Current Legal Developments Subcommittee (CLD) of the Corporate and M&A Law Committee provides updates and analysis on legal developments to practitioners and other parties interested in international corporate and M&A law. The focus is on current trends and anticipated changes in the law affecting corporate and M&A practice.
- Private Equity Subcommittee
The Private Equity Subcommittee (PE) of the Corporate and M&A Law Committee provides updates and analysis on legal developments to practitioners and other parties interested in international private equity law.
Join us on LinkedIn
If you are a member of the Corporate and M&A Law Committee, for additional networking opportunities, programs, interviews with fellow members and tips all exclusive to members, join our LinkedIn page at: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/12836252/.