Martin Lipton (born June 22, 1931) is an American lawyer, a founding partner of the law firm of Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz specializing in advising on mergers and acquisitions and matters affecting corporate policy and strategy.

[6][7] By the early 1980s Lipton was among the dominant figures with rival lawyer Joseph Flom in mergers and acquisitions.

In 1979 Lipton authored "Takeover Bids in the Target's Boardroom",[18] the seminal article advocating the right of a board of directors to take into account the interests of all the constituencies of the corporation, a position adopted by the Delaware Supreme Court in 1985, and in more than thirty other states by statute or judicial decision and in the Companies Act 2006 of Great Britain.

In 1982 Lipton created the Shareholder rights plan or poison pill, which has been described by Ronald Gilson of the Columbia and Stanford Law Schools as "the most important innovation in corporate law since Samuel Calvin Tate Dodd invented the trust for John D. Rockefeller and Standard Oil in 1879.

Lipton has served as chairman of Prep for Prep, chairman of the Jerusalem Foundation, chairman of the Lawyers Division of UJA-Federation, trustee of Temple Emanu-El of New York, member of the council of the American Law Institute, director of the Institute of Judicial Administration, trustee of the University of Pennsylvania, member of the International Advisory Council of the Guanghua School of Management of Peking University and member of the Corporate Governance Committee of the U.S. Commission on Competitiveness.

[12][21][22][23] Lipton served as special counsel to the Ethics Commission of the International Olympic Committee in connection with the Utah Winter Olympics, and co-chair, with former N.Y. Chief Judge Judith Kaye, of the N.Y. Chief Judge's Task Force on Commercial Litigation in the 21st Century.

[29] He is a member of American Academy of Arts & Sciences and a Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur.