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Sodali & Co and Olshan Frome Wolosky Top the 2024 Diligent Advisor Awards
Diligent recognizes top 16 proxy advisory and 82 law firms, highlighting the continued growth of activism on a global scale with further uptick anticipated in 2025
New York, NY, January 14 – Diligent, the leading governance, risk and compliance (GRC) SaaS company, today revealed its Advisor Awards 2024 ranking, recognizing the most prolific proxy advisory and law firms in the activism space. This year’s rankings include representations from 16 proxy solicitation firms and 82 law firms – up from 72 in the 2023 edition, and are based on shareholder activism data from Diligent Market Intelligence, the market-leading solution for shareholder activism, investor voting, and corporate governance data.
Sodali &Co (formerly Morrow Sodali) and Olshan Frome Wolosky retained the top rankings for proxy solicitors and law firms, respectively. Criteria for the rankings include total number of representations, total representations for activists and issuers, and average market capitalization.
“The past year has been a period of significant challenges and opportunities in the realm of shareholder activism,” said Josh Black, Editor-in-Chief at Diligent Market Intelligence. “Advisors are at the forefront of helping boards and activists develop comprehensive campaign strategies as they navigate high-pressure negotiations, providing the tailored counsel and expertise needed around settlements or board fights to ensure the interests of all stakeholders are protected.”
The top proxy advisory firms in the 2024 Diligent Advisor Awards are:
- Sodali & Co
- Innisfree M&A Incorporated
- Georgeson
- InvestorCom
- Okapi Partners
“We’re proud to be top of the list after another eventful year working with companies looking to develop a more formal activism preparedness strategy,” said Paul Schulman and Mike Verrechia, co-heads of the M&A and Activism Advisory Practice at Sodali.
The top law firms in the 2024 Diligent Advisor Awards are:
- Olshan Frome Wolosky
- Schulte Roth & Zabel
- Sidley Austin
- Vinson & Elkins
- Latham & Watkins /Kirkland & Ellis (Joint)
“M&A will likely become front and center in many activism campaigns. Since the latter months of 2024, our practice has been seeing a big uptick in campaign activity or at least the initial stages of campaign activity. So that tells me that it's going to be a very busy 2025 proxy season ahead,” noted Andrew Freedman, chair of Olshan’s shareholder activism practice group.
Rankings are based on an evaluation of 16 proxy solicitation firms and 82 law firms that submitted representations or were identified from regulatory filings, between October 1, 2023 – September 30, 2024, using Diligent Market Intelligence Activism data. View the full rankings here.
About Diligent Market Intelligence
Diligent Market Intelligence (DMI) is a market-leading provider of shareholder activism, investor voting, and corporate governance data. Through its web application and data feeds, clients can access the most complete solution for listed company intelligence on the market, with broader and deeper insights than ever before.
About Diligent
Diligent is the leading GRC SaaS company, empowering more than 1 million users and 700,000 board members and leaders to make better decisions, faster. The Diligent One Platform helps organizations connect their entire GRC practice — including governance, risk, compliance, audit and ESG — to bring clarity to complex risk, stay ahead of regulatory changes and deliver impactful insights, in one consolidated view. Learn more at diligent.com.
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Media Contact
Julia Stoyanov
Communications Director, Diligent
+1 (604) 669-4225
Jhanbury@diligent.com
