Lyle provides strategic communications counsel to companies facing complex, high-profile corporate events, transactions and special situations, including mergers, acquisitions and unsolicited takeovers; shareholder activism defense and short attacks; and bankruptcies and restructurings. He also assists clients with ongoing investor relations, corporate communications and crisis management. His areas of expertise include:

Mergers & Acquisitions

He works with clients on friendly, unsolicited and contested transactions. Notable assignments include advising: Anadarko Petroleum in its sale to Occidental Petroleum; Broadcom in its acquisition of Symantec's enterprise security business; CBS in its defense against an unsolicited proposal from Viacom and related litigation with National Amusements; Centene in its acquisitions of Fidelis Care and WellCare; Forward Air in its acquisition of Omni Logistics; Herman Miller in its acquisition of Knoll; Johnson & Johnson in its acquisition of Actelion Pharmaceuticals; Knauf in its unsolicited takeover approach and subsequent acquisition of USG Corporation; Newmont Mining in its acquisition of Goldcorp and unsolicited proposal from Barrick Gold; Pretium Partners on its acquisition of Anchor Loans; Prologis in its unsolicited takeover approach and subsequent acquisition of Duke Realty; Rio Tinto in its acquisition of Turquoise Hill Resources; Terminix in its sale to Rentokil; the Special Committee of The We Company in its transaction agreement and related litigation with SoftBank Group; and Zynga in its sale to Take-Two Interactive.

Shareholder Activism & Short Attacks

He has advised on numerous public and private activist situations and counseled clients facing short attacks. Notable assignments include: Arconic (Elliott); Acorda (Scopia); Cars.com (Starboard); Evergy (Elliott); Energen (Corvex); Liberty Property Trust (Land & Buildings); Mercury Systems (JANA and Starboard); Rio Tinto (Pentwater); Southwest Gas Holdings (Icahn); Union Pacific (Soroban Capital); Valaris (Luminus); Maxar Technologies (Spruce Point); MiMedx (Marc Cohodes); and Samsonite (Blue Orca).

Crisis Communications

He advises companies facing a variety of crisis situations, including high-profile litigation, data breaches, unplanned management changes, regulatory inquiries and investigations, Congressional requests, facility closures and workforce reductions, fraud and accounting irregularities, internal/board investigations, and product recalls.

Restructuring & Bankruptcy

He has expertise developing and implementing communications plans related to out-of-court financial restructurings and in-court Chapter 11 reorganizations. Notable assignments include Barneys New York, Cumulus Media, CWT, Frontier Communications, High Ridge Brands, INSYS Therapeutics, JCPenney, Scandinavian Airlines System, Toys”R”Us and Vice Media Group.

Lyle joined Joele Frank in 2016. Prior to joining Joele Frank, he was part of the Communications Leadership Development Program at General Electric. He received a BS from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University.