Joe Claffey

Joe advises on corporate law with a focus on M&A, private equity and venture capital, advising sponsors and management teams on domestic and cross-border transactions. Joe advises clients on a wide range of matters, including acquisitions, exits, secondary buyouts, investments into founder-led businesses and joint ventures. He has also been seconded to work as legal counsel with primary execution responsibility for a private equity and venture capital investor.

Joe qualified at Jones Day in September 2017 and joined Cooley in May 2021.

Representative matters include advising:

• Nord Security, the maker of NordVPN, on its $100 million financing round led by Novator Ventures, at a valuation of $1.6 billion
• Contentsquare, on its acquisition of Hotjar, a digital analytics tool that monitors customer engagement actions and provides insights into user behavior
• Universe Software, on its spin-out and acquisition of the Appointfix business from Mobiversal
• Contentsquare on its acquisition of Hotjar, a digital analytics provider which monitors customer engagement actions and provides insights into user behavior
• True, a private equity and venture capital investor focusing on the retail, consumer and leisure sectors, in connection with their acquisition of Hush Homewear, a leading UK homewear retailer*
• Goldman Sachs in connection with the £4.66 billion sale of UK focused iQ Student Accommodation portfolio and business to Blackstone*
• Hansteen Holdings PLC in connection with their £500 million recommended cash acquisition by Blackstone*
• J.F. Lehman, a private equity investor focusing on the aerospace, defense, maritime, government, and environmental sectors, in connection with their acquisition of Global Marine Group*
• True in connection with their seed round investments into FunnelAI, ThirdEye and Jump Staff*
• StepStone Group in connection with the formation of a joint venture with Activum SG to acquire a portfolio of residential and commercial real estate assets in Germany and Spain*
• CVC Capital Partners in connection with their $703 million acquisition of Teva Pharmaceutical Industries’ Women’s Health division*
• The Riverside Company in connection with their acquisition of a group of companies trading under the "Bright & Beautiful" brand*
• Ferro Corporation in connection with its acquisition of Electro-Science Laboratories*

Transaction handled prior to joining Cooley