Jamie Leigh

Jamie is the chair of Cooley’s global mergers and acquisitions group. Her representative tech clients include Zoom, Uber, Datadog, Twilio, Fastly, Sunrun, Netflix, Dropbox, Automattic, Levi Strauss & Co., Procore, Tableau, Ellie Mae, Looker, Chegg and MINDBODY. Jamie’s representative life sciences clients include Medivation, Arena Pharmaceuticals, RayzeBio, Carmot Therapeutics, Five Prime Therapeutics, Kite Pharma, Portola Pharmaceuticals, Principia Biopharma, Forty Seven and Abaxis. Her representative investment banking clients include Qatalyst Partners, Morgan Stanley and Centerview Partners.

The strength of Jamie’s practice is in its high-profile variety – a curated mix of cutting-edge public, private, buy-side, sell-side and multi-industry clients. She also regularly counsels takeover and activist defense engagements, proxy contests, joint ventures, strategic equity investments, and management teams. Jamie enjoys her regular advisory role with boards of directors and special committees regarding corporate governance and strategic matters.

Jamie’s representative M&A transactions include:

Technology

• Zoom in its:
  • Announced and then terminated agreement to acquire Five9 in an all-stock transaction valued at approximately $14.7 billion
  • Acquisition of Solvvy
  • Acquisition of Keybase
• Grindr’s combination with special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) Tiga Acquisition for $2.1 billion
• Tableau’s sale to Salesforce for $15.7 billion
• Sunrun’s acquisition of Vivint Solar in a stock deal valued at $3.2 billion
• Cornerstone OnDemand’s sale to Clearlake Capital for an enterprise value of approximately $5.2 billion
• Ellie Mae’s sale to Thoma Bravo for $3.7 billion
• AuditBoard’s sale to Hg for more than $3 billion
• MINDBODY’s sale to Vista Equity Partners for $1.9 billion
• Uber in its acquisition of multiple undisclosed targets, as well as its:
  • Acquisition of Drizly for approximately $1.1 billion
  • Acquisition of JUMP Bikes
  • Acquisition of Otto
• Everbridge’s sale to Thoma Bravo for $1.8 billion
• Chegg’s acquisition of Busuu for $436 million
• Netflix’s acquisition of Boss Fight Entertainment
• Dropbox in its:
  • Acquisition of DocSend for $165 million
  • Acquisition of Hypertools (dba CommandE)
  • Acquisition of Hellosign for $230 million
• Fastly’s acquisition of Signal Sciences for approximately $775 million
• Looker’s sale to Google for $2.6 billion
• Automattic, the parent company of online publishing platform WordPress, on its acquisition of Tumblr from Verizon
• Workday’s acquisition of Scout RFP for approximately $540 million
• Clarabridge’s sale to Qualtrics for $1.125 billion
• Hootsuite’s acquisition of Talkwalker
• Rubrik’s acquisition of Predibase
• Accel in connection with Squarespace’s take-private sale to Permira for $6.9 billion

Healthcare and life sciences

• Medivation’s sale to Pfizer for approximately $14 billion
• Arena Pharmaceuticals’ sale to Pfizer for $6.7 billion
• Forty Seven’s sale to Gilead for $4.9 billion
• RayzeBio’s sale to Bristol-Myers Squibb for $4.1 billion
• Principia Biopharma’s sale to Sanofi for $3.7 billion
• Carmot Therapeutics’ sale to Roche for up to $3.1 billion (including milestones)
• Five Prime Therapeutics’ sale to Amgen for $1.9 billion
• ProfoundBio’s sale to Genmab
• Portola Pharmaceuticals’ sale to Alexion Pharmaceuticals for $1.41 billion
• Chimerix’s sale to Jazz Pharmaceuticals for $935 million
• Dova Pharmaceuticals’ sale to Swedish Orphan Biovitrum AB (Sobi) for approximately $915 million
• Accolade’s sale to Transcarent for $621 million
• Adamas Pharmaceuticals’ sale to Supernus Pharmaceuticals for $450 million
• Alumis’ acquisition of ACELYRIN in an all-stock transaction
• BioMarin Pharmaceutical’s acquisition of Inozyme Pharma for approximately $270 million
• Abaxis’ sale to Zoetis for approximately $2 billion

Consumer and retail

• IAA’s sale to Ritchie Bros. in a $7.3 billion cross-border stock and cash transaction and related shareholder activism defense matters, including IAA’s cooperation agreement with Ancora Advisors and Ritchie Bros.’ concurrent $500 million investment from Starboard Value
• The co-founders of Alani Nu in Alani Nu’s $1.8 billion sale to Celsius Holdings
• MIRROR’s sale to lululemon athletica for $500 million
• Levi Strauss & Co. in its acquisition of Beyond Yoga 
• BowX Acquisition Corp.’s combination with WeWork
• Function of Beauty’s sale to L Catterton for $150 million
• Lucasfilm’s sale to Walt Disney Co. in a cross-border transaction worth $4.25 billion in cash and stock
• Peet’s Coffee & Tea’s acquisition of Mighty Tea Leaf 

Financial advisory

• Morgan Stanley as financial advisor to:
  • UserTesting in its sale to Thoma Bravo and Sunstone Partners for $1.3 billion in cash
  • Okta in its acquisition of Auth0 for $6.5 billion
  • Intuit in its acquisition of Mailchimp for $12 billion
  • Plantronics in its sale to HP for $3.3 billion
  • SailPoint in its sale to Thoma Bravo for $6.9 billion
  • Entegris in its sale to CMC Materials for $6.5 billion
• Qatalyst Partners as financial advisor to:
  • Splunk in its sale to Cisco for $26 billion
  • Cvent in its sale to Blackstone for $4.6 billion
  • Inphi in its sale to Marvell Technology Group for $10 billion
  • Fitbit in its sale to Google for $2.1 billion
  • Verifone in its sale to Francisco Partners for $3.4 billion
  • Imperva in its sale to Thoma Bravo for $2.1 billion
  • Apptio in its sale to Vista Equity Partners for $1.9 billion
  • Cavium in its sale to Marvell Technology Group for $6 billion
  • Vonage in its sale to Ericsson for $6.2 billion
• Centerview Partners as financial advisor to Sovos Brands in its sale to Campbell Soup Company for $2.7 billion

Recent accolades for Jamie and Cooley’s mergers and acquisitions group include:

• Chambers USA: Corporate/M&A – California: San Francisco, Silicon Valley & Surrounds (2021 – 2025)
• The Legal 500 US: Leading Lawyer in M&A: Large Deals ($1bn+) (2024 – 2025)
• The Legal 500 US: Shareholder Activism (2025)
• The Legal 500 US: M&A/corporate and commercial – M&A: middle-market (2016 – 2023)
• The Deal: Top Women in Dealmaking (2022)
• The Recorder: Women Leaders in Tech Law (2017, 2022)
• The Recorder: Tech Deal Firm of the Year (2019)
• The Deal: Dealmaker of the Year finalist (2019)
• The Deal: Women in M&A – The Powerhouse 20 (2018)
• The Recorder: Trusted Adviser (2017)
• National Law Journal: M&A/Antitrust Trailblazer (2016)