Charles Whitehead is a corporate and financial law expert specializing in securities regulation, financial regulation, mergers and acquisitions (M&A), and complex business transactions. A former practicing attorney, senior counsel, and senior business manager at large financial institutions, Professor Whitehead has extensive expertise in a wide range of capital markets, M&A, and financial transactions, including public company disclosure and due diligence customs and practices.
Professor Whitehead has been retained as an expert in matters involving corporate disclosures, M&A due diligence, spin-offs, joint ventures, alleged breaches of contract, and special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs). He has testified in depositions and at trial, with experience in federal and state courts, including the Delaware Court of Chancery.
Before entering academia, Professor Whitehead represented clients in international transactions and held senior legal and business positions in the financial services industry in New York and Tokyo. He was a managing director of Nomura Securities International (North and South America) and subsequently a managing director and senior counsel at Salomon Smith Barney. Working for Citigroup, Professor Whitehead served as the company’s first country officer in Japan, head of its corporate bank in Japan, and chief operating officer of its investment bank in Japan.
Professor Whitehead is the coauthor of two leading casebooks, one on U.S. securities regulation and the other on business organizations. His articles on corporate governance, M&A, and financial regulation have appeared in the Columbia Law Review, Boston University Law Review, Georgetown Law Journal, the Journal of Corporation Law, and Harvard Business Law Review, among others.
At Cornell Law School, Professor Whitehead teaches courses on securities regulation; business organizations, including topics related to corporations and partnerships; capital structure and corporate governance; deals (complex business transactions); and M&A. He is also the founding director of Cornell Tech’s Law, Technology and Entrepreneurship Program.
Previously, Professor Whitehead served on the faculty of the Boston University School of Law and as associate director of Columbia Law School’s Center on Corporate Governance. He has lectured at or held visiting scholar or visiting professor appointments at leading U.S., European, and Asian universities.