Salesforce hires activist lawyer from Wachtell, Lipton as legal chief

(Reuters) - Salesforce appointed Wachtell, Lipton's Sabastian Niles as its chief legal officer on Monday, months after the leading activist lawyer helped defend the business software provider against several hedge funds that had called for changes at the company. "I'm thrilled to welcome Sabastian to Salesforce as part of our world-class management team," CEO Marc Benioff said. Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz is a major law firm sought out by corporate America to handle merger deals as well as activist investment firms' push for changes. Niles spent nearly 17 years at the law firm, where he began his career as a summer associate after earning his law degree from Harvard, rising to become a partner. During his time at the firm he advised corporations under pressure from prominent activist investors including Bill Ackman's Pershing Square Capital Management, Jeffrey Ubben and Mason Morfit's ValueAct Capital Management. Niles was part of the team at Wachtell when it advised Salesforce after Starboard Value, ValueAct and Elliott Investment Management pressured it for making key changes earlier this year.

He did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.

(Reporting by Svea Herbst-Bayliss in New York and Yuvraj Malik in Bengaluru; Editing by Vinay Dwivedi)