Wachtell Partner Dies of Brain Tumor at 49; Teen Daughter Raised $300K for Cancer Research
Mergers and acquisitions partner Craig Wasserman of Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz died Monday as a result of a malignant brain tumor. He was 49 years old.
A brilliant and creative thinker who was a supportive and committed colleague, Wasserman worked on major deal after major deal until a few months before his death, the firm tells the New York Law Journal, whose article about his death was reprinted by New York Lawyer (reg. req).
Wasserman “demanded the best from himself and from each of us in the service of our clients and the firm, and will be missed tremendously,” the firm said in an e-mail to the legal publication.
He is survived by his wife, a son and a daughter, Alison, who was featured in the New York Post last week for raising over $300,000 for brain-cancer research as the “mitzvah,” or good deed, for her bat mitvah in June, when she turned 13.
“He’s taught me to always be resilient and never give up,” she said of her father. “He’s always had a positive attitude. He never complains.”
Wasserman earned both his bachelor’s degree and master’s degrees in economics from Yale University in 1982, then went on to earn a Yale law degree in 1986, the New York Law Journal recounts.
He clerked for Chief Judge Wilfred Feinberg of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals before joining Wachtell later that year and making partner in 1993.
