Kevin Cooper

Kevin advises clients and their boards on complex, high-stakes M&A transactions and other transformative corporate matters, serving as a trusted advisor to clients on their most consequential strategic decisions. He has extensive experience advising public and private companies in the life sciences, technology, and consumer products sectors.

Kevin’s recent notable transactions include advising Neurocrine in its $2.9 billion agreed acquisition of Soleno Therapeutics, Clorox in its $2.25 billion acquisition of GOJO, the makers of Purell, Prizepicks in its $4.15 billion sale to Allwyn International, Everbridge in its $1.8 billion sale to Thoma Bravo and Arena Pharmaceuticals in its $6.7 billion sale to Pfizer.

Kevin is ranked by Chambers USA as a leading Corporate/M&A attorney in New York.

Kevin’s representative M&A matters include the following engagements:

• Aculys Pharma in its sale to Viatris
• Altria in its $12.8 billion minority investment in JUUL, its $2.8 billion controlling investment in Cronos Group and its joint venture with the Burger Group to commercialize on! Pouch products*
• Allergan in its $83 billion acquisition by AbbVie*
• Arena Pharmaceuticals in its $6.7 billion sale to Pfizer
• Auris Health in its $5.75 billion sale to Johnson & Johnson*
• Backtrace in its sale to Sauce Labs
• BB&T in its $66 billion merger of equals with SunTrust to form Truist Financial, its $2.5 billion acquisition of Susquehanna Bancshares, its $363 million acquisition of the Bank of Kentucky, and its $3.5 billion acquisition of Citibank’s Texas retail banking business*
• Berry Petroleum in its $4.9 billion sale to Linn Energy*
• BowX in its $9 billion SPAC merger with WeWork
• Capital One in its acquisitions of BlueTarp Financial, Paribus, the Cabela’s credit card business in connection with the merger of Bass Pro Shops and Cabela’s for $5.2 billion, GE Capital’s healthcare finance business for $9 billion, and its sales of its self-directed brokerage business to ETrade, its investment management and trust business to Hancock Whitney and its mortgage business to DLJ Mortgage Capital for $17 billion*
• Cantel Medical in its $775 million acquisition of Hu-Friedy*
• Cedar Cares in its $425 million acquisition of OODA Health
• Celularity in its SPAC merger with GX Acquisition for $1.7 billion to become a publicly listed company
• Checkpoint Therapeutics’ special committee of the board of directors in Checkpoint’s $416 million sale to Sun Pharmaceutical Industries
• Chimerix in its $935 million sale to Jazz Pharmaceuticals
• Clarabridge in its $1.1 billion sale to Qualtrics
• Clorox in its $2.25 billion acquisition of GOJO Industries, makers of Purell
• DigitalOcean in its $350 million acquisition of Cloudways and its $111 million acquisition of Paperspace
• Ensoma in its acquisition of Twelve Bio
• ERYTECH Pharma in its sale of its Princeton, New Jersey, manufacturing facility and related long-term supply agreement
• Everbridge in its $1.8 billion sale to Thoma Bravo
• 4C Insights in its sale to Mediaocean, a Vista Equity Partners portfolio company
• Feedzai in its acquisition of Demyst
• Flexion in its $450 million sale to Pacira Biosciences
• Frame AI in its sale to HubSpot
• Function of Beauty in its $150 million minority investment from L Catterton
• Gopuff in its $350 million acquisition of BevMo and its acquisition of rideOS
• Hardinge in its $245 million sale to Privet Fund in a take-private transaction*
• Heliogen in its successful defense against an unsolicited takeover offer from Continuum Renewables and its sale to Zeo Energy
• Hexcel in its announced $16 billion merger of equals with Woodward*
• HiredScore in its sale to Workday
• IEX Group in its strategic investment from FTX US
• Intersect ENT in its $1.1 billion sale to Medtronic
• Jackpocket in its $750 million sale to DraftKings
• Joy Global in its $3.7 billion acquisition by Komatsu of Japan*
• JW Player in its merger with Connatix
• Landos Biopharma in its $212.5 million sale to AbbVie
• Lava Therapeutics in its sale to Xoma
• Liminal Biosciences in its sale to Structured Alpha
• Longboard Pharmaceuticals in its $2.6 billion sale to Lundbeck
• M33 Growth in the majority investment by True Wind Capital in W Energy
• MacroGenics in its sale of global rights to MARGENZA to TerSera
• Marker Therapeutics in its sale of cell manufacturing assets to CellReady
• Mirum Pharmaceuticals in its $820 million acquisition of Bluejay Therapeutics
• MongoDB in its acquisitions of Aroki, Grainite and Voyage AI
• Neurocrine in its $2.9 billion acquisition of Soleno
• Nuvolo in its sale to Trane Technologies
• Nutrafol in its sale to Unilever
• Perceptive in its acquisition of Vapotherm
• Perceptive Capital Solutions in its $725 million SPAC merger with Freenome
• PetIQ in its $1.5 billion sale to Bansk Group
• PetLab in its sale of a majority stake to BC Partners
• PlayAGS in its $1.1 billion sale to Brightstar Capital
• PNC in its $1.25 billion acquisition of ECN Capital’s US vendor finance business*
• Poppin in its $110 million sale to Kimball International
• PrizePicks in its $4.15 billion sale to Allwyn International
• Private Bancorp in its $5 billion acquisition by CIBC*
• Repare Therapeutics in its sale to Xeno
• Renalys Pharma in its sale to Chugai Pharmaceutical
• Rubrik in its acquisition of Predibase
• Sandler O’Neill in its merger with Piper Jaffray to create Piper Sandler Companies*
• Saturn Technologies in its sale to Snap
• SeatGeek in its announced SPAC merger with RedBall Acquisition
• SuperValu in its $2.9 billion sale to United Natural Foods, related defense and settlement of a proxy contest with Blackwells Capital, and in its announced spinoff and $1.4 billion sale of its Save-A-Lot business to Onex*
• TCGplayer in its up to $295 million sale to eBay
• TheGuarantors in its growth investment from Warburg Pincus
• Timber Technologies in its sale to Datadog
• Touchland in its $800 million sale to Church & Dwight
• Truebill in its $1.3 billion sale to Rocket Companies
• Turnstone Biologics in its acquisition of Myst Therapeutics
• UiPath in its acquisitions of Cloud Elements, Re:infer and Peak
• UTILITY Therapeutics in its sale to Alembic Pharmaceuticals
• VR Insurance in its sale of a controlling stake in the National Security Group to PhenixFIN
• VYNE Therapeutics in its $240 million merger with Yarrow Bioscience
• Warburg Pincus and Mariner Finance in the acquisition of Personal Finance Company from Minnesota Life*
• Warburg Pincus and The Carlyle Group in their acquisition of DBRS from Colonial House Capital and the subsequent sale of DBRS to Morningstar*

Activism defense

Kevin has advised numerous public company boards and management teams – including those of Milestone Pharmaceuticals, Everbridge, Athira Pharma, Katapult, Ziopharm, Heliogen, SuperValu* and CVR Energy* (among many other confidential engagements) – in connection with proxy contests, consent solicitations and other activist situations.

Financial advisor representations

Kevin also has represented financial advisors –including Centerview, Morgan Stanley and Lazard* – in connection with M&A transactions.

* Transaction handled prior to joining Cooley

Before joining Cooley, Kevin was a member of the corporate department focusing on M&A at a prominent New York City law firm.

At Harvard Law School, Kevin received the Joshua Montgomery Sears Jr. Prize for earning the highest grades among second-year students, and he was a founder and editor in chief of the Harvard Business Law Review. Before law school, Kevin received his MBA and a bachelor’s degree in finance.

In a former life, Kevin played NCAA Division I football for the Fresno State Bulldogs. He lives in New York City with his wife, Rosemary, and his daughter.