Arthur Fleischer Jr., Veteran Corporate Takeover Lawyer, Dies at 92

Arthur Fleischer Jr., an art-loving lawyer who for decades was one of the leading deal makers in corporate mergers, died on March 21 at his home in Manhattan.He was 92.The death was confirmed by his wife, Susan.Over a 65-year career at the firm that became known as Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson, where he eventually served as co-chairman, Mr.

Fleischer became one of the top practitioners of the business of mergers and acquisitions, playing a role in a number of major transactions.Perhaps his highest-profile assignment was advising what was then Philip Morris in its unsolicited takeover bid of Kraft, which led to a $13.1 billion deal in 1988.At the time, it was one of the biggest mergers ever announced.His line of work, he admitted, could be demanding.

“These transactions do not provide opportunity for on-the-job training,” he told The New York Times in 1988.“They require people who can move quickly and can think strategically and are familiar with the kinds of problems that are common to these types of deals.”Mr.

Fleischer also provided legal counsel to BellSouth in its $86 billion sale to AT&T in 2007; to Chevron in its $36 billion takeover of Texaco in 2001; to Bestfoods in its $24 billion sale to Unilever in 2000; and to Dow Jones & Company in its $5.3 billion sale to Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation.The Philip Morris battle involved many of the best-known deal makers of the era, with Mr.Fleischer working alongside the star banker Bruce Wasserstein and facing off against Willard Overlock Jr., of Goldman Sachs, and Martin Lipton, a rival lawyer at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.

If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want al...