Senior Counsel, Dechert LLP
Wilson Chu is a senior counsel in the law firm of Dechert LLP and is based in Dallas. He is a strategic advisor to boardrooms and C-suites, known for his collaborative, creative and business-minded approach to complex transactions and corporate governance matters.
Wilson focuses on strategic transactions, particularly mergers and acquisitions, and governance for clients ranging from Fortune 500 serial acquirors to high-profile technology companies in the United States and abroad. While he has experience across a wide range of industries, his practice is heavily weighted in technology – particularly involving AI-driven innovation.
In addition to advising board committees (e.g., Tesla’s Special Committee on Elon Musk’s US$1 trillion pay package), his work as Texas counsel (e.g., Amazon’s US$13 billion acquisition of Whole Foods), and advising founders (e.g., MailChimp’s US$12 billion sale to Intuit), Wilson’s practice is built on a foundation of repeat business from discriminating strategic acquirors, including:
- 7-11
- AmerisourceBergen (now, Cencora)
- Dell
- Jones Lang LaSalle
- Rakuten
- Renren
- Xerox
- Varian Medical Systems
From 2018 to 2021, Wilson served as chair of the American Bar Association’s Mergers and Acquisitions Committee, the largest group of its kind in the world. As the creator of the Committee’s influential M&A Deal Points Studies and founding co-chair of the ABA’s Market Trends Subcommittee, he is widely recognized for thought leadership that continues to shape M&A practice. To promote experiential learning by law students in real-world M&A, Wilson founded “The MAC Cup,” the Committee’s national mock M&A negotiation tournament.
Wilson is a founding co-chair of the University of Texas Mergers and Acquisitions Institute, the nation’s leading private company M&A conference since 2005. He also served as founding chair of the International Financial Law Review/Inter-Pacific Bar Association’s Asia M&A Forum in Hong Kong (2005 to 2020), Asia’s leading M&A law conference, and founding chair of the Dallas Bar Association’s Mergers & Acquisitions Section.
His leadership extends to diversity in the legal profession, with several transformative “firsts,” including founding or cofounding the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association’s “50×30 Initiative,” Pipeline Program, Partners Committee and Best Lawyers Under 40 Award. Wilson is also a founding co-chair of the Texas Minority Counsel Program. From 2010 to 2023, Wilson taught M&A as an adjunct professor of law at Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law. He is also a member of (and served in various leadership roles at) the New York-based Committee of 100.
Wilson is a co-founder of The Alliance for Asian American Justice Inc., a national coalition of law firms and Fortune 1000 general counsels working to stand up for victims and prevent future acts of anti-Asian violence. In its first two years alone, the Alliance delivered more than US$10 million in pro bono services to victims across the country, including a groundbreaking lawsuit against the San Francisco District Attorney, who was later successfully recalled and removed in 2022.
Areas of Expertise
Boards Joined
- Don H. Liu Scholars Program
Online Presence
https://www.dechert.com/
