Corvex Management, et al. v. CommonWealth REIT, et al.

In a matter arbitrated in Massachusetts, Analysis Group clients Corvex Management, a hedge fund, and Related Fund Management, a real estate investment fund, conducted a consent solicitation to remove the board of trustees of CommonWealth REIT, a publicly traded real estate investment trust. Unlike most equity REITs, CommonWealth is externally managed by Reit Management & Research LLC, which is owned by the two managing trustees of CommonWealth's board. Corvex sought removal of the board, claiming self-dealing and attributing the REIT's underperformance to the board members' mismanagement. The consent solicitation was approved by more than two-thirds of the REIT's shareholders but was blocked by the board; the matter then went into arbitration. After a two-week hearing, the arbitration panel ruled that the consent solicitation was not valid but sided with our clients, holding that CommonWealth's board was subject to removal without cause (notwithstanding CommonWealth's claim to the contrary) and that a new consent solicitation could be run. The panel also ruled in our clients' favor on the length of time that was permissible for the board to set the record date and to review the results of the consent solicitation. The panel limited the informational burdens that the board sought to impose on Corvex and Related. In February and March 2014, Corvex and Related ran the new consent solicitation permitted by the panel's order, and CommonWealth's shareholders voted by an overwhelming supermajority to oust the board.

Working with attorneys from Gibson Dunn, an Analysis Group team led by CEO and Chairman Martha Samuelson and Managing Principal Samuel Weglein supported several experts in the arbitration: Professor Edward Rock addressed the structure of CommonWealth's share ownership and opined on corporate governance issues; Dean Glenn Hubbard assessed the underperformance of the REIT and the quality of its management; and Mark Harnett, an expert in proxy voting, discussed the reasonableness of time periods associated with the consent solicitation process. Other members of the Analysis Group team included Vice Presidents John Drum and Mike Nguyen, and Affiliate Orlando Visbal.