JPMorgan Chase & Co. CEO Jamie Dimon must have liked what he saw from Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz star dealmaker Edward Herlihy in Morgan’s acquisition of Bank One for $58 billion in 2004. Dimon, who was the CEO of Bank One when it merged with Morgan, tapped Herlihy to represent the investment bank in Sunday’s $236 million acquisition of the Bear Stearns Cos. — leaving longtime Morgan deal firms Simpson Thacher & Bartlett and Davis Polk & Wardwell in the cold.
The opening for Wachtell came in 2005, when Dimon succeeded William Harrison Jr. as CEO of Morgan. Prior to that, Dimon had been the bank’s president and chief operating officer.
