Melanie MacKay is a partner in the firm’s Securities and Complex Litigation group. She is an experienced commercial litigator and trial attorney. She represents publicly traded companies, private equity funds and their portfolio companies, hedge funds, investment advisers, and other corporations and their senior executives and directors in a variety of matters. She routinely defends clients in complex commercial litigation, governance disputes, securities litigation, derivative actions, internal investigations, and product liability litigation. She has extensive experience in all aspects of litigation in both state and federal court, including successfully arguing dispositive motions, obtaining favorable judgment after trial, prevailing in appellate courts, and negotiating settlements on terms favorable to the client. Ms. MacKay also works with Dechert’s Private Equity and Corporate and Securities teams, providing legal advice during transactions and litigating indemnification and other post-closing disputes.
Ms. MacKay recently successfully represented a sovereign wealth fund during the expedited trial and appeal of a complex dispute impacting the client’s multi-billion-dollar investment in a public utility company. She also argued a dispositive motion in Delaware Chancery Court, achieving dismissal with prejudice of all derivative claims asserted against her clients, including claims for breach of fiduciary duty, unjust enrichment, gross mismanagement, and corporate waste. In addition to this work, Ms. MacKay routinely devotes time to pro bono matters, focusing on immigration disputes and applications for citizenship, other documented status, and employment authorization.
Prior to joining Dechert, Ms. MacKay served as an associate in the litigation practice of another international law firm. She also clerked for the Honorable William J. Bauer on the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit and externed for the Honorable Wayne R. Andersen (Ret.) on the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.