For months, Goldman Sachs’s activism-defence business has been the butt of competitors’ jokes. “If you want to lose, hire Goldman Sachs,” quipped Rob Kindler, head of mergers and acquisitions at the firm’s arch rival Morgan Stanley, at a conference in March.

Goldman Sachs, long considered to be the firm to beat on Wall Street, endured a pair of stinging defeats lately in its efforts to help clients ward off activist investors. In May, auction house Sotheby's opted to settle a bitter quarrel with Daniel Loeb, giving the activist three seats on its board and paying him some $10 million for expenses. Darden Restaurants, another client, lost all 12 of its board seats to Starboard Value in October.