Leif King
Biography
Leif King leads Baker McKenzie's Transactional Group in California. Before joining Baker McKenzie in 2019, Leif served as head of Skadden's transactional group in Northern California, where he had practiced for over 20 years. He represents clients in connection with a wide variety of corporate transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, private equity investments, divestitures, recapitalizations, spin-offs and minority investments. Leif regularly advises public and private companies on corporate, corporate governance and securities law compliance issues.
Leif has been featured as a Dealmaker of the Week and Dealmaker of the Month in The American Lawyer, and he has been selected for inclusion in Chambers USA: America's Leading Lawyers for Business every year since 2008. The Daily Journal has named him several times as one of the Top 100 Lawyers in California and previously recognized him as one of the Top 20 Under 40 lawyers in the state. He has been recognized by The Recorder as an Attorney of the Year. He has received two California Lawyer Attorneys of the Year awards from California Lawyer magazine and the Daily Journal.
Leif also has repeatedly been selected for inclusion in IFLR1000 and The Best Lawyers in America. He was recognized as a BTI Client Service All-Star for providing outstanding client service, as a Thompson Reuters Stand-out Lawyer in 2024 and named to the 2024 edition of the Legal 500 M&A Powerlist: USA Region.
Representative Legal Matters
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Advised Broadcom on its USD 37 billion sale to Avago.
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Advised Plum Creek on its USD 8.4 billion merger with Weyerhaeuser.
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Advised Broadcom on its USD 3.7 billion acquisition of NetLogic Microsystems
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Advised The Public Investment Fund of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in its USD 3.5 billion investment in Uber.
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Advised the majority shareholders of MagicLab, which owns Badoo, Bumble, Chappy, and Lumen, on the majority stake sale to funds managed by Blackstone, valuing the company at approximately USD 3 billion.
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Advised Wilbur-Ellis on the EUR 3 billion revenue combination of Connell with Caldic.
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Advised SolarCity on its USD 2.6 billion sale to Tesla.
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Advised Mytheresa in its separation from The Neiman Marcus Group and subsequent IPO at a USD 2.2 billion valuation.
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Advised EnergySolutions on its USD 1.1 billion sale to Energy Capital Partners.
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Advised TiVo on its USD 1.1. billion sale to Rovi.
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Advised SJW Group in its USD 1.1 billion acquisition of Connecticut Water Service.
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Advised Tessera Technologies on its USD 850 million acquisition of DTS
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Advised Snowflake on numerous transactions, including its USD 800 million acquisition of Streamlit.
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Advised ServiceNow on numerous transactions, including its USD 500 million acquisition of G2K.
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Advised Cadence Design Systems Inc. on numerous transactions, including its acquisitions of Cascade Technologies, NUMECA International and Pointwise.
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Advised SAP on the sale of its Digital Interconnect group to Sinch.
*includes matters before joining Baker McKenzie.
Professional Honors
- Leading Individual, Chambers USA
- M&A Powerlist: USA Region, The Legal 500
- Recognized, Top 100 Lawyers in California, The Daily Journal
- Attorney of the Year, The Recorder
- Attorney of the Year, California Lawyer Magazine
- Attorney of the Year, The Daily Journal
- Northern California Super Lawyers, Super Lawyers Individual Awards
- Dealmaker of the Week, The American Lawyer
- Dealmaker of the Month, The American Lawyer
- Thompson Reuters Stand-out Lawyer in 2024
- Recognized, Top 20 Under 40 Lawyers in California, The Daily Journal
- Ranked, BTI Client Service All-Star
Professional Associations and Memberships
- Member of the Board of Directors, Western Center on Law & Poverty
Admissions
- California~United States
- District of Columbia~United States
Education
- Binghamton University (BA)
- Georgetown University Law Center (JD, magna cum laude)