Mr. Shachar is the head of Davis Polk & Wardwell’s Tax Department. He counsels clients primarily in the areas of U.S. and cross-border mergers and acquisitions, leveraged buyouts, spinoffs, and financial products. Mr. Shachar designed the unique capital structure of SmithKline Beecham and played a leading role in the merger of SmithKline with Beecham and Comcast with AT&T Broadband, the spinoffs of YUM! Brands from Pepsi, of Visteon from Ford, of Discover Financial Services from Morgan Stanley, and the split-off by way of an exchange offer of Abercrombie & Fitch from The Limited. He advised Burlington Northern on tax matters relating to its acquisition of Santa Fe Pacific, Texaco on tax matters relating to its merger with Chevron, as well as Comcast on a variety of transactions, including the sale of its stake in QVC, the restructuring of Time Warner Entertainment, the acquisition of cable systems from Adelphia and numerous other acquisitions and dispositions.

Mr. Shachar joined Davis Polk in 1983 and became a partner in 1987.

In 1980 Mr. Shachar received his LL.B., magna cum laude, from the Tel Aviv School of Law. He received an S.J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1984.

Mr. Shachar authored “From Income to Consumption Tax: Criteria for Rules of Transition,” 97 Harv. L. Rev. 1581 (1984), and “The Importance of Considering Liabilities in Tax Transitions,” 98 Harv. L. Rev. 1842 (1985).

He is listed as a leading lawyer in several legal industry publications, including Legalease’s U.S. Legal 500 and Tax Directors Handbook 2008, Practical Law Company’s Cross-border Tax on Corporate Transactions Handbook, American Lawyer Media’s Corporate Counsel: Best Lawyers Annual Guide to Tax Law, Chambers USA – America’s Leading Lawyers for Business and Law Business Research’s Who’s Who Legal – International Who’s Who of Corporate Tax Lawyers.