John C. Coates IV joined the faculty in 1997 after private practice at the New York law firm of Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, where he was a partner specializing in mergers and acquisitions, corporate and securities law, and the regulation of financial institutions, including mutual funds.
He teaches courses on Mergers & Acquisitions, Financial Institutions Regulation, Contracts, Corporations, and the The Legal Profession.
He was promoted to Professor in 2001, and was named the John F. Cogan Jr. Professor of Law and Economics in 2006.
He is a frequent panelist and speaker on M&A and financial institution regulation, and a consultant to the SEC, law firms, mutual funds, hedge funds, and other participants in the M&A and capital markets.
He is a member of the American Law Institute. He is the author of numerous articles on corporate, securities, and financial institution law, and for seven years co-authored the leading annual survey of developments in financial institution M&A.
His current research at Harvard includes empirical studies of the purchasing of legal services by S&P 500 companies, the regulation and taxation of mutual funds, the causes and consequences of the completion or failure of M&A transactions, and the causes and consequences effects of CEO and CLO turnover.