Who

One of the city's top mergers and acquisitions lawyers, Block is a partner at Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft.

Backstory

A Bronx native, Block attended SUNY Buffalo and Brooklyn Law before beginning his legal career working at the SEC. He soon departed for Weil, Gotshal, & Manges and spent 27 years at the firm, making his name as a ruthless litigator and an expert on mergers and acquisitions. In 1998, he left Weil in dramatic fashion after clashing with his colleagues: Block, who claimed he was responsible for bringing in much of the firm's business, said that he disapproved of the direction the firm was heading in; Weil's chief partner, Stephen Dannhauser, countered with the vague but ominous allegation that Block had a "long history of inappropriate conduct" and that his partners had called for his ouster. It was a rare display of public discord, but Block wasn't jobless for very long. After reportedly conducting a bidding war to see which top-tier law firm would pony up for his lucrative corporate practice, he ended up joining Cadwalader, the nation's oldest law firm, as co-chair of both the corporate and litigation groups. He's since almost single-handedly turned the firm into an M&A powerhouse.

Of note

Block has been involved in some of the biggest deals of the past quarter-century. At Weil, he worked on KKR's acquisition of RJR Nabisco and Pepsi's buyout of Quaker Oats. At Cadwalader, he repped Pfizer in its $90 billion merger with Warner-Lambert in 2000 and its acquisition of Pharmacia for $60 billion in 2003, as well as Proctor & Gamble in its acquisition of Gillette. Most recently, he advised longtime client Bear Stearns following the bank's March 2008 collapse and sale to J.P. Morgan. (Other blue-chip corporate clients of Block have included General Motors and Toys R' Us.) Block works closely with other Cadwalader superstars like Lou Bevilacqua, who heads up the firm's M&A group, and Bruce Zirinsky, another former Weil partner who chairs the restructuring group.

On the job

Block is notoriously hard on his subordinates and famous for his vicious temper. In fact, his reputation is so intimidating that several years ago some Cadwalader employees surmised it was affecting recruiting. These days, Block no longer chairs the corporate or litigation practices at the firm. He focuses his attention on bringing in business and working on deals—not managing staff, presumably much to the relief of his colleagues.

On the side

He's an adjunct professor at Brooklyn Law School, his alma mater, where he teaches corporate law. He's also authored page-turners like Business Judgment Rule: Fiduciary Duties of Corporate Directors, and co-writes a monthly column in the New York Law Journal.

Personal

Block met his wife, Lauren, while at SUNY Buffalo. (She was a nursing student at the time.) They have three adult children, Tracy, Robert, and Meredith, and live in Manhasset in a home they purchased for $995,247 in 1997.