2026 Berkeley Spring Forum on M&A and the Boardroom

Adam Badawi is a Professor of Law at UC Berkeley. He writes widely on issues of law and finance with an emphasis on corporate governance, corporate transactions, and shareholder litigation. Much of his recent work uses text analysis and machine learning to analyze debt agreements, merger documents, and shareholder class action complaints. At Berkeley Law, he teaches Contracts, Corporations, Mergers and Acquisitions, and seminars related to these topics.

His research includes Does Voluntary Financial Disclosure Matter? The Case of Fairness Opinions in M&A (forthcoming, The Journal of Law and Economics) (co-authored with Matthew D. Cain and Steven Davidoff Solomon), How Informative is the Text of Securities Complaints? (forthcoming, Journal of Law, Economics & Organization), Social Good and Litigation Risk (forthcoming, Harvard Business Law Review) (co-authored with Frank Partnoy); and Is There a First-Drafter Advantage in M&A?, California Law Review (2019, California Law Review) (co-authored with Elisabeth de Fontenay) (selected as one of the top 10 corporate and securities articles of 2019 by Corporate Practice Commentator).

Prior to joining the faculty of Berkeley Law in 2017, Badawi was a Professor of Law at Washington University in St. Louis. He has been a Visiting Professor at Northwestern Pritzker School of Law and he served as a Bigelow Fellow at the University of Chicago Law School. Before joining the academy he was a litigator in the San Francisco office of Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP and was a law clerk to the Hon. Michael McConnell of the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Mary Eaton has extensive experience in complex commercial litigation, with a focus on securities class actions, shareholder derivative claims and other complex business disputes. Mary regularly represents issuers, boards of directors, board committees and senior management across a broad spectrum of industries (including technology, financial services, private equity and asset management) in a wide variety of disputes in federal and state courts across the country. In addition to her substantial trial experience, Mary regularly counsels clients on litigation avoidance and corporate governance matters. Among her many accolades, Mary is perennially ranked among leading litigators by Chambers USA, Benchmark Litigation, Lawdragon, Crain’s New York Business, Legal 500 US and Best Lawyers in America. In 2019, the American Bar Association awarded Mary the Stonewall Award for her contributions to the advancement of LGBT individuals and issues.

Professor Gadinis’ research examines questions in corporate law and financial regulation, both domestic and international. He is particularly interested in the interplay between companies and regulators, exploring the institutional framework for law enforcement, compliance, and risk management. In the last few years, he has focused on sustainability and social issues as an attempt to expand the scope of corporate governance. In Corporate Law and Social Risk (co- authored with Amelia Miazad) (2020 Vanderbilt Law Review), the focus is on stakeholder outreach as a governance system seeking to identify and address social risks for the business. In a follow-up article, A Test of Stakeholder Capitalism (co-authored with Amelia Miazad), they explore how corporations relied on feedback from stakeholders to address the implications of the Covid pandemic. His article The Hidden Power of Compliance (co-authored with Amelia Miazad) (2019 Minnesota Law Review) explores how extensive internal reporting within companies impacts the liability of board members. In Collaborative Gatekeepers (co-authored with Colby Mangels) (2016 Washington & Lee Law Review) he explores anti-money laundering law as a model of pro-active misconduct reporting. Gadinis’ work has also traced the spread of financial standards around the world, showing how private, regulator, or government supports leads to distinct results (Three Pathways to Global Standards, 2015 American Journal of International Law). Gadinis has argued that systemic risk reforms introduced after the 2008 financial crisis has resulted in increasing the role of political appointees over independent regulators in the oversight of the financial system (2012 California Law Review).

Before entering into academia, Gadinis practiced corporate law for four years in Europe. Gadinis completed his S.J.D. at Harvard in May 2010. He also holds an LL.M. degree from the University of Cambridge (UK), and a law degree from Aristotle University, Greece.

Erik Gerding is a Capital Markets partner at Freshfields, who advises clients on a broad spectrum of cutting edge issues in securities regulation, financial markets and corporate governance.

Until the end of 2024, Erik served as the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Director of the Division of Corporation Finance. During his tenure in government service, he worked on complex policy initiatives and advised senior leaders in the public sector and worked with leaders in the private sector, providing him with exceptional insights for guiding clients at all stages of growth.

Erik led the Division during a dynamic period, guiding important rulemaking on public company disclosure, governance, beneficial ownership reporting, executive compensation, conflicts of interest in securitization, climate-related disclosure, cybersecurity disclosure, SPACs, and 10b5-1 trading plans. In parallel, he led on the Division’s review of IPO and other registration statements, periodic reports, proxy statements, shareholder proposals, beneficial ownership reports, and tender offer, merger and going private filings.

Prior to his government service, Erik was a tenured law professor and in private practice. He had academic appointments at University of Colorado Law School and University of New Mexico School of Law.

Anna Gressel is a leading legal advisor to boards and senior legal executives on artificial intelligence, known for guiding global businesses through complex, high-impact matters at the intersection of technology, regulation, and litigation. Anna’s cross-functional practice focuses on counseling companies on AI legal, regulatory, and reputational considerations, including with respect to safety, liability, intellectual property, and consumer protection. Anna translates her technical fluency around emerging technologies into practical guidance that helps clients anticipate product-specific risks before they reach the market. She is also known among her clients for building trusted relationships with in-house legal, policy, and technical teams — aligning product design with legal defensibility and long-term strategic goals.

Anna represents companies in internal investigations, regulatory inquiries, and litigations concerning AI and other cutting-edge technologies. She also regularly helps corporations to benchmark and mature their AI governance and regulatory structures, particularly as advances in agentic AI and other technologies continue to pose novel legal challenges. Anna’s clients span sectors and include major technology developers, online platforms, asset managers, financial services, and life sciences and pharmaceutical companies.

Anna was named one of the “Top 100+ Women Leading AI in 2023” by Re-Work— one of only three lawyers in private practice to receive this honor. She is ranked Band 3 in Chambers USA’s inaugural nationwide Artificial Intelligence 2025 ranking and is recognized by Chambers Global in the Spotlight as a “Global Market Leader” in artificial intelligence. Her clients describe her as “an absolute rockstar, she is my go-to for complex AI matters”.

Anna holds a senior prize in neuroscience from Pomona College, was a Fulbright research fellow in Morocco, and is a fellow of the American Bar Foundation.

Paul Grewal is the Chief Legal Officer of Coinbase Global, Inc., where he is responsible for Coinbase’s legal, compliance, global intelligence and government relations groups. Before joining Coinbase, Paul was Vice President and Deputy General Counsel at Facebook and served as United States Magistrate Judge for the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. Paul was previously a partner at Howrey LLP. He received his JD from the University of Chicago Law School and his SB from MIT.

Claire Hart is Chief Operating Officer, Chief Legal Officer, and a board member at Groq Inc., where she advises and operates at the intersection of AI, semiconductors, and global technology strategy. She brings deep expertise in legal, business, and operational leadership to help high-growth technology platforms scale responsibly and strategically across global markets.

As COO and CLO, Claire leads Groq’s Legal, IP licensing, government relations, communications, IT, and engineering functions. In this capacity, she partners closely with the board, investors, and executive team on governance, corporate strategy, risk and compliance frameworks, and enterprise execution as Groq expands its footprint in the AI and semiconductor ecosystem. Claire played a central role in spearheading Groq’s landmark non-exclusive inference technology licensing agreement with Nvidia aimed at accelerating high-performance AI inference at global scale, a strategic collaboration that underscores Groq’s industry impact and broad technology relevance.

Prior to her current role, Claire was General Counsel and Head of People and Business Affairs at Genies, where she oversaw legal, HR, IT, business affairs, and internal operations through the company’s Series C financing, governance evolution, and strategic partnerships across gaming, entertainment, and technology. She also served as Chief Legal Officer of Blizzard Entertainment, leading legal and transactional matters for one of the world’s largest digital entertainment businesses. Earlier in her career, Claire held senior legal leadership roles at Google supporting YouTube, Google Play, Next Billion Users, and Jigsaw, and began her legal career in private practice at Weil, Gotshal & Manges.

Claire is an active board member and advisor to nonprofit and academic institutions, including Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law. A frequent speaker on AI, technology law, governance, and leadership.

Ethan Klingsberg, as co-head of Freshfields’ US Corporate and M&A group, has a practice that focuses on boards of directors, corporate law, M&A and SEC matters. He leads a spectrum of strategic projects for clients in the Bay Area, many of whom have been working continuously with Ethan for over two decades. Indeed, he co-founded the Berkeley Law Spring Forum on M&A and the Boardroom eleven years ago, and continues to curate this event, to ensure these clients receive the most up to date insights and value-additive information available. Ranked Band 1 for Corporate/M&A by both Chambers USA and Chambers Global, Ethan has received the Burton Award for Legal Achievement for writing on fiduciary duties, was named a “top 10 innovative lawyer” for North America by the Financial Times, has been elected by peers at other firms to be a Fellow of the American College of Governance Counsel, and named a “BTI Client Service All-Star” based on the survey of general counsels of the Fortune 1000, a Law360 M&A “MVP,” a “Legend” by Lawdragon, and “Dealmaker of the Year” by the American Lawyer. A regular guest on BloombergTV and CNBC to discuss M&A, governance, shareholder activism, the SEC, and board processes, his essays on corporate law topics have appeared in The Financial Times, Reuters Breaking Views, MarketWatch, The New York Law Journal, and the Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance. He is grateful to the amazing teams at Berkeley and Freshfields that make this event a stand-out.

Sue Meng is Partner and Managing Director of Duquesne Family Office, LLC, the investment firm of Stanley Druckenmiller. She leads the firm’s private investment strategy, which focuses on backing disruptive, high-growth technology and life sciences companies globally. Ms. Meng also serves as General Counsel to Mr. Druckenmiller.

Ms. Meng serves on the boards of Ledgebrook, an insuretech company, and Soley Therapeutics, a drug discovery company, alongside fellow investors and board members Doug Leone and Jim Breyer. She is also on the advisory board of Q.ANT, a German photonic chip company.

Ms. Meng is President of the Board of Trustees of The Brearley School and formerly chaired its Audit Committee. Ms. Meng also serves as executive vice president and secretary of the Board of Trustees of Prep for Prep. As a former Rhodes and Soros scholar, Ms. Meng has previously served on the national selection committees for the Rhodes, Soros and Schwarzman scholarships.

Previously, Ms. Meng was a corporate partner at Debevoise & Plimpton LLP. In her practice at Debevoise, Ms. Meng advised public companies, boards of directors and special committees on mergers and acquisitions, strategic investments and other significant matters.

Ms. Meng was selected as Dealmaker of the Year by The American Lawyer (2022) for her representation of Discovery in its $130 billion acquisition of Warner Media from AT&T, one of the largest deals in the world in 2021. She was also selected as Dealmaker of the Year by The American Lawyer (2020) for her
representation of Toyota Motor Corporation in its $1 billion joint investment, alongside Softbank, in Uber’s Advanced Technologies Group.

While at Debevoise, Ms. Meng was ranked as a leading M&A lawyer by Chambers USA on its “Corporate M&A: The Elite” list.

Ms. Meng received an A.B., magna cum laude, with highest honors in History and Literature from Harvard University. She received a M.St. with distinction in English Literature and a M.Phil. with distinction in Modern Chinese Studies from Oxford University, which she attended as a Rhodes Scholar. She received a J.D. from Yale Law School. She is fluent in Mandarin Chinese.

James J. Moloney became the Director of the Division of Corporation Finance at the SEC in October 2025.

Jim previously served at the SEC for six years prior to joining Gibson Dunn & Crutcher, where he worked for 25 years, ascending from corporate associate to equity partner. He served as a longstanding Co-Chair of the firm’s Securities Regulation and Corporate Governance Practice. He advised a wide base of clients on corporate governance matters, disclosure rules, mergers & acquisitions, tender offers, proxy contests, and going-private transactions among other areas.

During his tenure at the SEC from 1994 to 2000, Jim was an attorney-advisor and later a Special Counsel in the Office of Mergers & Acquisitions in the Division of Corporation Finance. Notably, Jim was the primary author of the proposing and adopting releases for Regulation M-A, a comprehensive set of rules governing mergers & acquisitions, tender offers and proxy solicitations.

Jim received his LL.M. degree in securities regulation with distinction from the Georgetown University Law Center. He received his J.D. degree cum laude from Pepperdine University, where he was an editor of the Pepperdine Law Review. He received his B.S. degree in business administration from Boston University.

Professor of Law, University of California, Berkeley Frank Partnoy is the Adrian A. Kragen Professor Law at the UC Berkeley School of Law and Affiliated Faculty at the Berkeley Haas School of Business and the Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing. He has written several books, dozens of scholarly articles, and more than fifty opinion pieces in The New York Times and the Financial Times. Partnoy has appeared on 60 Minutes and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, and has testified before both houses of Congress. He has been an international research fellow at Oxford since 2010, and is a graduate of Yale Law School.

Angeli Patel is the Executive Director of the Berkeley Center for Law and Business, where she focuses on advancing corporate strategy, governance, and innovation in a rapidly evolving global landscape. She is deeply engaged in UC Berkeley’s innovation ecosystem, serving on the Innovation & Entrepreneurship Council and the Advisory Board of the Open Innovation Squad at Berkeley Haas School of Business.

As a practicing attorney, Angeli advises on AI and sustainability governance and corporate strategy. She began her legal career at Jones Day in the M&A practice and later joined the Sustainability & ESG Advisory Practice at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP, advising clients on governance strategies to address climate and social risks.

Prior to her legal career, Angeli advised global governments and NGOs, including White House Office of Management and Budget under the Obama Administration focusing on government digitization and management reform; a policy advisor at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, addressing consumer privacy. She also advised the UN Global Compact Network Australia on anti-corruption and business & human rights; as well as at the Government of Chile, Ministry of Finance on the country’s first government modernization initiatives.
As startup advisor and entrepreneur herself, Angeli is passionate about scaling businesses that align growth with social & political ecosystems. She launched an e-commerce business for women of color in 2021 and advises the Leadership & Development startup, Mandala.

Angeli holds a JD from Berkeley Law.

Jai currently oversees the legal, compliance, and government affairs functions at Andreessen Horowitz as Chief Legal and Policy Officer. He was previously the Chief Risk & Compliance Officer at cLabs, working on Celo, a mobile-first platform that makes financial dApps and crypto payments accessible to anyone with a mobile phone. Jai also spent several years in the financial services industry as the Head of Enterprise Risk Management at Capital One and the Global Head of AML Compliance Risk Management at Bank of America/Merrill Lynch. Before joining the private sector, he served for over a decade at the Justice Department, as a white collar crime prosecutor in the Southern District of New York, at headquarters in the Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section, and later as Chief of the Asset Forfeiture and Money Laundering Section — a role in which he oversaw the prosecutions of BNP Paribas and HSBC for Bank Secrecy Act, Patriot Act and sanctions violations. Jai has an undergraduate degree in government and economics from Harvard University, a law degree from the University of Pennsylvania Law School and a doctorate in social and political science from Cambridge University, U.K.

The Honorable Karen Valihura was sworn in as Justice of the Supreme Court of Delaware on Friday, July 25, 2014.

Justice Valihura, as a practicing lawyer, was consistently selected for inclusion in Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business and The Best Lawyers in America. Her corporate litigation practice included complex commercial and corporate governance issues, federal and state securities matters, as well as mergers and acquisitions and other transactional litigation. Prior to her appointment to the Supreme Court, Justice Valihura was a partner at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, LLP, where she practiced law from 1989 until her appointment to the Court in 2014.

Justice Valihura served on the Advisory Board of the John L. Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance and served as Chair of the Delaware Supreme Court’s Board on Professional Responsibility and as Chair of the Delaware Supreme Court’s Permanent Ethics Advisory Committee on the Delaware Rules for Professional Conduct. Justice Valihura served for eight years on the Corporation Law Council of the Corporation Law Section of the Delaware State Bar Association. Additionally, Justice Valihura served her community as a member of the Board of Directors for the Delaware Special Olympics for eighteen years, including service as that Board’s President, and as a member of the Delaware Bar Foundation for eight years, including service as that Board’s President.

As a Justice, she was selected by the National Association of Corporate Directors to the NACD Directorship 100, honoring the most influential people in corporate governance. She is also a member of the American Law Institute, including its Board of Advisors for its Restatement of Corporate Governance. She served as Co-Chair to the Delaware Supreme Court’s Access to Justice Commission and currently serves as Co-Chair of its Law and Technology Commission.

Justice Valihura received her undergraduate degree from Washington and Jefferson College in 1985 where she was valedictorian, and her law degree from the University of Pennsylvania Law School where she was a member of the Law Review. She served as a law clerk to Judge Robert E. Cowen of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.

Christine leads Freshfields’ US antitrust, competition, and trade practice, and is based in our Washington, DC office. Drawing on 30 years of public and private sector experience at the intersection of law, policy, and politics, Christine counsels clients on how to navigate complex and evolving legal and regulatory regimes to achieve their desired business goals.

Most recently, Christine served as a Commissioner at the FTC, where she helped shape policies and enforcement actions in the fields of antitrust, consumer privacy & data security, and consumer protection. Before joining the Commission, Christine was a Senior Vice President at Delta Air Lines, where she oversaw regulatory and international matters. She also was an antitrust partner at two major international law firms.