Leading global law firm Baker McKenzie continues to expand its California transactional team, announcing today that Matthew Jacobson, a leading M&A lawyer, has joined as a partner in Palo Alto.

Matt brings significant experience representing clients on complex cross-border corporate matters, particularly in the technology and healthcare / life sciences sectors. He joins an established group of highly regarded practitioners led by Leif King, head of Baker McKenzie's Transactional Group in California. This group now has more than 30 lawyers, making it one of the largest in Northern California. The group has advised on recent major technology and healthcare / life sciences transactions including Johnson & Johnson’s spin-off of its consumer products business, Affirm’s acquisition of Returnly, Instacart’s acquisition of Caper AI and Snowflake’s acquisition of Streamlit.

"The growth of key transactional practices in North America, particularly in business centers like the Bay Area/Silicon Valley, remains a strategic goal for the Firm. Our transactional practice in Northern California has quickly become a go-to M&A execution team, working on many of the largest, headline-making technology deals," said Colin Murray, Baker McKenzie's North America Chief Executive Officer. "We are excited to have Matt join, as he provides further depth and solidifies our position as a leader in technology M&A transactions."

Matt has more than 20 years of experience advising some of the world’s leading companies and funds in connection with M&A, private equity and venture capital investments, joint ventures, financings and capital markets transactions. Known for his versatile skill set and expertise in steering complex cross-border and multi-jurisdictional transactions, including complex corporate divestitures and spin-offs, he has extensive experience in the technology and healthcare / life sciences sectors.

"We are looking to build on our success in California by adding this top-tier talent," said Leif, "I am humbled and delighted to have a strong and well-regarded practitioner such as Matt choosing to join our team. Our goal is simple: offer the best global transactional services to our clients. And this move puts us one step closer."

"Adding a lawyer with Matt's reputation and caliber aligns perfectly with our transactional growth strategy," added Jannan Crozier, Baker McKenzie's Global Chair of M&A. "I look forward to collaborating with him to provide our clients with the strategic thinking and cross-border business acumen that they want and need."

Matt joins Baker McKenzie from Ropes & Gray in Northern California, where he served as Co-Head of the Technology, Media and Telecommunications Group. He holds a JD from the University of California Hastings College of the Law and a BA from Stanford University.

Baker McKenzie is a transactional powerhouse, with more than 2,500 deal lawyers in over 46 countries offering leading expertise in the areas most critical for our clients. We excel in complex transactions and cross-border deals – over 60% of our deals are multi-jurisdictional. We are global and local, combining money-market sophistication with local excellence. Our M&A and corporate lawyers regularly represent technology companies at every state of the deal ranging from public and private mergers, acquisitions and divestitures, joint ventures and strategic alliances, corporate counseling and governance, pre-transaction restructuring and control and minority investments to post-acquisition integration and post-divestiture reorganization. We have advised on some of the most transformative deals in Silicon Valley providing innovative solutions to our clients' strategic business goals, including representing strategic acquirers on cross-border acquisitions.
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