At Davis Polk, he regularly represented large multinational companies with respect to acquisition-related transactions, advised clients on corporate governance, shareholder activism, and defensive matters, and was the senior partner in the firm’s practice in competition and antitrust matters, which included domestic and international mergers and acquisitions and antitrust counseling and litigation, both private and governmental (civil and criminal).  He also represented clients in various contested acquisition matters, and numerous federal grand jury investigations, including the investigations of trading practices with respect to U.S. government securities, foreign exchange rates, air cargo, vitamins, commercial tissue, and explosives industries, violations of U.S. export controls, and the ‘Ill-Wind’ criminal investigation into fraud in the Pentagon procurement process. He successfully tried antitrust merger cases against the government and acted as one of the two lead negotiators for the U.S. tobacco industry in the effort to resolve, through legislation and settlements, the legal issues facing that industry which led to the 1997 Master Settlement Agreement between the industry and various governmental and private entities. 

Mr. Golden has been recognized as a leader in the legal industry by Chambers Global, Chambers USA, IFLR100, Legal 500 U.S., Who’s Who Legal (Business, Competition, and Corporate Governance), Expert Guides (Competition & Antitrust, and Corporate Governance), and Best Lawyers – “Lawyer of the Year,” (Litigation-Antitrust, New York City, 2016). Mr. Golden graduated from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1966 and in 1969 received his J.D. from New York University School of Law, where he was an editor of the law review.  He joined Davis Polk in 1969 and became a partner in 1978. In addition to his directorship of Emerson Electric, Mr. Golden has been a director of various other companies, including ESCO Electronics (member, executive committee; chairman, compensation committee), Burns International Services (member, executive, and audit committees), and Allegiance (member, audit committee). He was President of the New Canaan Winter Club and served on the board of managers of the New York State Communities Aid Association.

Mr. Golden and his wife, Elisabeth, have been married for 52 years and have three grown children and four grandchildren. With the exception of a two and a half years assignment in Washington, they have lived in New Canaan, CT since 1973.