2025 Berkeley Fall Forum on Corporate Governance

Ladi Adefala is the founder of Omega316, a cyber security services firm, with the mission of helping organizations with their cyber security consulting and talent development needs. He is a passionate cyber security professional with a broad range of expertise that spans multiple competencies including strategy, risk management, threat intelligence and artificial intelligence.

He has served in a variety of leadership roles and advises clients and executive leaders across several industry segments including Financial, Healthcare, Retail, Utilities and Government. He holds an MBA from Washington University in St. Louis and serves as an Adjunct Faculty at Webster University’s Master’s of Science – Cyber Security Program

Mr. Adefala is an engaging and dynamic speaker and is regularly invited to share his thought-leadership insights at industry conferences such as Gartner-Evanta summits, NASA Kennedy Space Center cyber tours, MIT EmTech Digital LATAM conference as well as international corporate events in Sydney, Germany and a host of other cities. He has been featured by several media outlets including US Federal Times, KMOX NewsRadio, CSO online and contributes as a guest speaker on the podcast HACKED – Unlocking the code to success

Mr. Adefala serves on the board of Delta Dental Missouri, a leading dental benefits provider where he offers his contributions to the audit and compensation committees. He is also a member of the National Association of Corporate Directors – NACD

Vikrum Aiyer is public policy executive and trusted advisor to top technology founders, with 20 years of experience across the White House, venture-backed startups, and civil society. He is recognized for bridging partisan divides, scaling regulatory win in category-defining markets, and shaping policy at the forefront of AI, climate, and innovation.

He is currently the Head of Global Public Policy at Heirloom Carbon, a climate technology company pioneering direct air capture through carbon mineralization. Vikrum leads global efforts to shape policy, unlock investment, and build coalitions that accelerate the carbon removal industry and support high-quality workforce development — all in service of long-term America’s energy security and industrial competitiveness. In this capacity he was appointed to the World Economic Forum’s Technology Pioneers program, to advance critical energy policy dialogues across the globe, and to help advance the US Energy Dominance agenda.

Previously, Vikrum served as Vice President of Public Policy at Postmates up through its multibillion dollar acquisition by Uber, where he built the company’s public affairs team and led cross-sector negotiations with government and labor leaders to shape modern labor protections in the on-demand economy. His work contributed to landmark new worker classification policies that increased the company’s valuation, positioning it for a $2.6B acquisition deal by Uber. His work on safety net reforms for the gig economy continue to influence national conversations around platform work.

Vikrum also held senior roles in the U.S. Department of Commerce and the White House National Economic Council, where he helped steward a $3.2 billion budget and coordinated national strategies for intellectual property, manufacturing innovation, and STEM investment. He played key roles in advancing U.S. competitiveness in advanced technologies — including semiconductors, smart textiles, and autonomous systems — and represented the United States in international patent diplomacy efforts.

Later, at the ACLU, he led a bipartisan portfolio of advocacy efforts to protect civil liberties across state and federal arenas, building coalitions that crossed traditional political lines on issues ranging from privacy to artificial intelligence to first amendment protections.

Vikrum has been recognized by Forbes 30 Under 30 and the San Francisco Business Times 40 Under 40. And in 2025 he was appointed a Senior Fellow to the University of California at Berkeley’s Center on Law & Business. Given his role helping startups navigate regulatory inflection points across AI, fusion, gig economy platforms and energy policy he serves as an advisor to the CEO’s of Pano.ai (an AI Hardware company) and Focused Energy (a fusion company). Aiyer is also a board member to a range of civic, cultural, and economic development organizations — where he sits on the Workforce Investment Board for San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie; is a term member to the Council on Foreign Relations; and is a Prelude Member of the San Francisco Symphony.

With a career spanning startup innovation, federal policymaking, and civil society leadership, Vikrum brings a track record of bridging ideologies and industries to help emerging markets thrive — and to help policy work for both business and the public good.

Jon’s practice focuses on corporate, securities, governance and related matters for many of the world’s most disruptive technology companies. For 25+ years, Jon has represented a variety of private and public companies on general corporate and transactional matters valued in the billions of dollars – including numerous high-profile initial public offerings (IPOs), venture capital financings, and mergers and acquisitions.

Jon spends a considerable amount of time helping late-stage private companies prepare for their IPO. This includes scaling their corporate governance infrastructure, formulating the key metrics for measuring operational performance and advising on multiclass capitalization structures. By developing a deep understanding of our clients’ businesses on a cross-functional basis, Jon is able to deliver bespoke advice on matters that span an increasingly complicated corporate landscape, making him a trusted adviser to boards and entrepreneurs alike.

Jon is passionate about client service and ensuring that Cooley’s clients receive skilled advice in a timely manner from both the corporate team and Cooley’s deep bench of subject matter practitioners across the platform.

Jon joined Cooley in 2017. From 2007 to 2017, he was a corporate partner in the Palo Alto office of another multinational law firm, after joining the firm as an associate in 1998.

Jon’s select IPO work includes advising:

• Rubrik
• Instacart
• Freshworks
• Confluent
• Procore
• Unity
• Snowflake
• CrowdStrike*
• Fastly
• Zoom
• MuleSoft
• Sunrun
• MINDBODY
• Box
• FireEye
• Palo Alto Networks
• Splunk
• LinkedIn
• Fortinet
• Aruba Networks
• Google
  * Indicates underwriter representation

Select speaking engagements:

Speaker, The L Suite’s 2024 IPO Conference, San Francisco, California, October 2024 Speaker, “Inside Rubrik: A Legal Teardown and Analysis of the IPO,” TechGC webinar, June 2024 Moderator, “Client Spotlight: Instacart,” Cooley Market Talks series, December 2023.

Andrew Baker is an assistant professor of law at UC Berkeley School of Law. His primary fields of interest are corporate governance, securities regulation, and the application of empirical methods to legal questions. His work has been published in the Journal of Financial Economics, The Journal of Law, Finance, and Accounting, and the Stanford Law Review. Before joining Berkeley Law, Baker was a Research Fellow with the Rock Center for Corporate Governance at Stanford University.

Mark Baudler is a partner at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati and a previous member of the firm’s board of directors. With more than 25 years of running a leading practice in corporate and securities law, he is among the most experienced and in-demand advisors to founders, CEOs, CFOs, CLOs, boards, and special committees on all forms of corporate matters and transactions across a broad range of technology and emerging sectors.

Mark’s practice focuses on the representation of technology and growth companies at all stages of their development, from seed-stage start-ups and early-stage public companies to mature public companies.

He regularly advises public and private companies and their management on a broad range of corporate matters, including corporate governance responsibilities, equity incentive plans and arrangements, employment matters, intellectual property issues, regulatory compliance, and commercial transactions. In addition, he frequently counsels entrepreneurs on company formation, equity structures, and negotiations with seed and venture capital investors. He also advises venture capital firms, corporate strategic groups, and other institutions investing in technology companies.

As one of the country’s most active deal lawyers, his experience includes structuring, managing, and negotiating venture financings, strategic alliances, M&A transactions, public equity offerings, private placement equity and debt transactions, joint ventures, spin-outs, recapitalizations, and other corporate reorganizations.

Mark’s clients include companies across a diverse range of industries, including artificial intelligence and machine learning, autonomous vehicles, aviation, big data, cleantech and climate solutions, data storage, digital health and wellness, digital media and entertainment, electronic gaming, fintech, robotics, semiconductors, software and SaaS, space, and web3, among other emerging and disruptive technologies.

Recognized among top women leaders in technology law, Dawn shepherds emerging and high-growth companies through key moments in their lifecycle. She assists clients with startup formation, venture financings and evaluating exit opportunities, and provides guidance on mergers and acquisitions, public offerings, SEC compliance and corporate governance.

Dawn is co-author of the firm’s Gender Diversity Survey, a benchmark report on women’s participation at the most senior levels of public technology and life sciences companies in the Silicon Valley 150 Index and the Standard & Poor’s 100 Index.

Ms. Berrini has two decades of investor and shareholder advisory experience. Before joining CamberView, Ms. Berrini led governance research, engagement and voting activities at Wellington Management Company. In this role, she was responsible for engaging with companies on governance, environmental and social issues, voting recommendations and developing voting policies across the firm’s global equity portfolio. Prior to that role, Ms. Berrini was with Tapestry Networks, where she worked with Fortune 500 directors to develop governance best practices through network-based collaboration. Earlier in her career, she was a Principal on the governance team of State Street Global Advisors, where her responsibilities included global portfolio company engagements and voting responsibilities. Ms. Berrini holds a Bachelor’s degree in Finance from the Carroll School of Management at Boston College.

Tara focuses on the representation of emerging growth companies throughout their life cycles – including corporate formation, venture capital financings, corporate spinouts, mergers and acquisitions, and capital markets transactions. In addition, she represents private equity firms, venture capital firms and angel investors in investment transactions and portfolio company-related matters. Tara is counsel to companies and their investors in a broad range of industries, such as artificial intelligence, agtech, consumer goods, cleantech, digital health, edtech, enterprise software, fintech, insurtech and spacetech.

Elena Chachko is an Assistant Professor of Law at Berkeley Law School. Before joining the faculty in 2023, she was the inaugural Rappaport Fellow at Harvard Law School and a Miller Fellow at Berkeley Law. Professor Chachko studies and teaches administrative law and institutions. Drawing on experience in diplomacy and intelligence analysis, her research also explores foreign relations law and the intersection of law, national security, and geopolitics, with a focus on economic statecraft.

Professor Chachko’s recent projects examine executive orders and presidential control of the administrative state, international cooperation in the administrative state, emergency governance of domestic and international institutions, the regulation of economic statecraft, and the security and geopolitical dimensions of technology governance. Her interdisciplinary work draws extensively on political science and social science research methods.

Her scholarship has been published or is forthcoming in the American Journal of International Law, California Law Review, UC Davis Law Review, Georgetown Law Journal, Stanford Technology Law Review, William & Mary Law Review, and Yale Journal of International Law, among other publications. She has also written for Lawfare, Just Security, The Regulatory Review, Balkinization, and Yale Journal on Regulation’s Notice & Comment.

Professor Chachko’s research has received several awards, including the 2020 Mike Lewis Prize for national security law scholarship, the Harvard Law School Irving Oberman constitutional law writing prize, and the Harvard Law School Mancini writing prize. She is a member of the Berkeley Working Group on Emerging Technology Governance, led by Secretary Janet Napolitano and Professor Andrew Reddy at the Goldman School of Public Policy. She also advised the Administrative Conference of the United States (ACUS) on a study of international regulatory cooperation. Her work has been covered in The New York Times, NPR, BBC, Vox, L’Express, and other media.

Professor Chachko previously held fellowships at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perry World House, Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center, and Harvard’s Weatherhead Center. She earned her S.J.D. and LL.M. from Harvard Law School and an LL.B. in law and international relations from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

John is a Partner at FGS Global in San Francisco and Co-Head of the firm’s West Coast offices. He advises clients on complex M&A, activist defense, IPOs, issues management and crisis situations, as well as ongoing media relations and investor relations programs.

Prior to joining FGS Global in 2009, John was head of West Coast Equity Capital Markets for Cowen, responsible for the origination and execution of over $26 billion of offerings in technology, consumer and health care.

Previously, John spent over 10 years with Morgan Stanley, primarily in the Silicon Valley Technology Investment Banking Group. He also helped establish the team that works with companies on their investor marketing activities.

John holds a B.A. magna cum laude with high honors from Dartmouth College and a Master of Public Policy degree from Harvard University.

Laura A. Clayton McDonnell is the President of the Corporates business segment at Thomson Reuters, focused on customer and cultural transformation, driving positive results, growing market share, and developing high performance teams. She has extensive sales management and legal experience and has held executive-level positions at leading companies in the high technology industry including ServiceNow; Microsoft; Aspect Software; IBM; Rational Software; and various senior sales and legal roles at Sun Microsystems, Cisco and Apple. Prior to making the jump to corporate America, Laura was in private corporate and securities law practice.

Laura has been honored many times for her work including as the 2022 Top 100 Global Sales Leader, sponsored by The Modern Sale and Collective[i]; and as a recipient of the 2008 YWCA Silicon Valley Tribute to Women Award. She is an avid champion of women and is a a member of the Advisory Council of the Center for Equity, Gender and Leadership, University of California at Berkeley and is a member of the Women’s Forum of New York. Laura sits on many boards including as a Board Member at Zuora, Inc. (NYSE: ZUO), the leading cloud-based subscription management platform provider; a Board Member of the private company board of Signal AI, the leading external intelligence company.

Laura received a Bachelor of Science degree “with distinction” from San Jose State University, and a JD-MBA joint degree, from the University of California, at Berkeley. Laura is licensed to practice law in the District of Columbia and the State of California.

Matthew Cowcher is the Deputy General Counsel of TPG Capital and has been with TPG since 2023.

Prior to joining TPG, Matthew was a counsel in the Mergers & Acquisitions team at Davis Polk in New York, where he led deal teams in mergers and acquisitions, private equity transactions, joint ventures, collaborations and other corporate partnering transactions, restructurings and spinoffs. Matthew started his career at King & Wood Mallesons in Australia.

Matthew has a Bachelor of Laws and Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Western Australia.

The Honorable Bonnie W. David was sworn in as Vice Chancellor of the Court of Chancery on January 7, 2025, after having served as a Magistrate in Chancery since January 2023. Before joining the Court, Vice Chancellor David was a Counsel in the litigation department of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, where she litigated before the Court of Chancery with a focus on deal litigation, corporate statutory proceedings, and contract disputes, and advised on corporate governance and transactions.

Vice Chancellor David graduated cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 2013, where she served as Senior Editor on the University of Pennsylvania Law Review. She received her B.A. from Boston University, graduating summa cum laude. Immediately after law school, Vice Chancellor David clerked in the Court of Chancery for Vice Chancellor Sam Glasscock III.

Alan, co-head of our Northern California office, has extensive experience in corporate finance, M&A and general corporate advice representing acquirers, target companies and private equity firms.

He advises clients on a broad range of public and private equity, debt and convertible financings, including more than 60 IPOs since 2015. He represents U.S. and non-U.S. issuers and underwriters in industries including technology, life sciences, retail and consumer products.

Law360 named Alan a “Capital Markets MVP” in 2019 and a “Technology MVP” three times, most recently in 2022. Chambers USA ranks Alan in each of capital markets, convertible securities and M&A.

Alan provides general corporate advice to clients including Accuray, Acutus Medical, Arcade Beauty, AssetMark, Credo Semiconductor, CrowdStrike, Equinix, GoDaddy, Ingram Micro, Kittyhawk, McKesson, Mirion, Penumbra, PLAYSTUDIOS, Premiere Medical, QuinStreet, UltraClean and Xponential Fitness.

Dan Farber is the Sho Sato Professor of Law at the University of California, Berkeley. He also has leadership roles at two Berkeley research centers: the Center for Law, Energy, and Environment; and the Edley Center on Law and Democracy. Professor Farber is a member of the American Academy of Arts.

Professor Farber is a graduate of the University of Illinois, where he earned his B.A., M.A., and J.D. degrees. He graduated, summa cum laude, from the College of Law, where he was the class valedictorian and served as editor-in-chief of the University of Illinois Law Review. After law school, he was a law clerk for Judge Philip W. Tone of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit and then for Justice John Paul Stevens of the U.S. Supreme Court. Professor Farber practiced law with Sidley & Austin, where he primarily worked on energy issues, before returning to the University of Illinois as a faculty member in 1978. He taught at the University of Minnesota Law School faculty from 1981 to 2002, where he was the McKnight Presidential Professor of Public Law. He also has been a visiting professor at the Stanford Law School, Harvard Law School, and the University of Chicago Law School.

His most recent book is Contested Ground: How to Understand the Limits on Presidential Power (UC Press 2021). His earlier books include Research Handbook on Public Choice and Public Law (Elgar 2010) (with A. O’Connell); Judgment Calls: Politics and Principle in Constitutional Law (Oxford University Press 2008) (with S. Sherry); Retained by the People: The “Silent” Ninth Amendment and the Rights Americans Don’t Know They Have (Basic Books 2007); Lincoln’s Constitution (University of Chicago Press 2003); and Eco-Pragmatism: How to Make Sensible Environmental Decisions in an Uncertain World (University of Chicago Press 1999).

Sarah Franklin is the Chief Executive Officer of Lattice, leading the company’s mission to make work meaningful. With over 25 years in technology, she has a proven track record of scaling businesses, driving innovation, and building high-performing teams. Before Lattice, Sarah spent more than 15 years at Salesforce in executive leadership roles, including President and Chief Marketing Officer, EVP of Platform and Trailhead, and head of developer initiatives. She has also held leadership roles at both startups and global enterprises. Sarah holds a dual degree in chemical engineering and biochemistry from Virginia Tech. A recognized industry leader, she has been named one of Forbes’ Most Influential CMOs, a “CMO to Watch” by Business Insider, and a recipient of Adweek’s Brand Genius Award. She also serves on the Board of Directors for PagerDuty.

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.

John Galloway is a principal at Vanguard and the head of the firm’s global investment stewardship program. On behalf of Vanguard’s internally managed equity funds, Vanguard’s Investment Stewardship team advocates for corporate governance practices associated with shareholder value creation, engages with portfolio companies to understand their governance practices, and votes on proxies.

Before he joined Vanguard in 2017, John’s career spanned the private and public sectors, with experience in corporate governance, change management, and regulatory and legislative policy. Prior to joining Vanguard, John served in senior roles within the White House, including as a special assistant to the president as part of the National Economic Council. Earlier in his career, he served as president of Atlantic Media and held senior executive positions with the then-publicly traded Advisory Board Company.

Patrick is head of Cooley’s securities litigation + enforcement group. He focuses on securities class actions and derivative litigation, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) investigations and enforcement proceedings, and internal corporate investigations. He also handles various complex litigation matters, including antitrust, consumer class actions and other types of complex business litigation. Public and private companies, venture capital and private equity firms, and investment banks in a variety of industries, such as computer hardware and software, semiconductors, biotech, life sciences, and medical devices, trust Patrick to handle their most pressing litigation issues.

Over his nearly 20-career, Jim has counseled hundreds of public companies with high-stakes crises, contested annual elections, management turnover, and M&A, including: Emerson Electric, Exact Sciences, Honeywell, Red Hat, State Street, Syneos Health, Valspar, and dozens of bank mergers and crises. Jim regularly advises companies on short attacks and shareholder activism threats; he spent two years defending the short attack against Herbalife. A former partner at Joele Frank and member of the firm since 2005, Jim is a member of the National Investor Relations Institute (NIRI). He was named to PR Week’s 40 Under 40 list in 2019.

Andrew is head of Cooley’s white collar defense & investigations group. He is a highly acclaimed former federal prosecutor, most notably known for his role as one of the top deputies to Robert Mueller III throughout the special counsel investigation at the US Department of Justice, and as chief of the public corruption unit at the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York. Andrew leads complex and sensitive internal investigations, defends companies and individuals before government agencies and in high-stakes litigation, and has successfully tried numerous significant white collar and regulatory matters.

Ryan Gould is a reporter for Bloomberg News, based at Bloomberg’s headquarters in New York City. He’s broken stories on some of the biggest mergers and acquisitions and also covers the ins and outs of the private equity industry — appearing regularly on Bloomberg TV to discuss his reporting. Ryan was previously the Chief US Correspondent at Mergermarket and has a Masters degree in English literature from the University of Oxford.

Susanne leads Cooley’s bipartisan congressional investigations practice. A former federal prosecutor and one of the nation’s leaders in congressional investigations, her practice focuses on helping clients navigate high-stakes, complex investigations that potentially involve multiple federal and state agencies, Congress, and regulatory authorities, as well as significant reputational concerns.

Susanne’s record of leading hundreds of congressional investigations from inside the government gives her a leading edge in assisting clients with congressional investigations, other government and regulatory investigations, internal investigations, and crisis management.

She provides sage counsel and advice in support of and during matters before Congress. Her experience is broad, having assisted clients in front of investigatory committees and in responding to individual member requests in the House and Senate. She also has prepared numerous company executives for public testimony in inquiries around the globe.

As one client has explained: “She is a true expert in Congressional oversight. Her matchless experience in the subject matter and personal touch makes her an invaluable member of any team.” Another client described Susanne as “a consummate professional and my first call for any matter pending before Congress.”

She is sought after for her insights, strategy, preparation and demonstrated success handling the most politically sensitive issues before government.

Susanne’s recent representations include advising:

• A global Fortune 500 company in connection with an investigation by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, including preparing senior executives to testify at a public hearing
• A national insurance company in an investigation demanding sensitive data before the Senate Committee on the Budget
• A crowdfunding platform in connection with a request for documents from the House Judiciary Committee
• A former university president in preparing to testify publicly before the House Education & Workforce Committee related to the committee’s examination of antisemitism on campus
• A local public media organization in preparing to testify publicly before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee
• A global advisory firm in connection with a subpoena for documents from the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, as well as preparing a senior executive to testify in a public hearing
• A multinational Fortune 500 company’s executives in preparation to testify in hearings before
  parliamentary committees in Australia, the UK and Canada*
• An international bank in connection with a request for documents and information from the Senate Committee on Finance*
• A global aerospace and defense company in connection with a request for documents and information from the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure*
• A senior executive from a Fortune 100 company in preparation for public testimony before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs*
• The former president of the National School Boards Association in a transcribed interview before the House Judiciary Committee*
• A union before the House Oversight and Accountability Committee’s Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic in an investigation of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) school reopening guidance*
• Witnesses in preparing for public testimony before the House Judiciary Committee’s Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government and the House Administration Committee*
• A subcontractor in connection with a request for information from the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations related to two federal government contracts*
• A media company in connection with responding to a document request from the Office of Congressional Ethics*
• Presidential nominees in preparation for confirmation hearings
• Conducting a comprehensive external review of gender equity issues at the NCAA, focusing on NCAA championships and resulting in two publicly available reports*
  * Representation handled before joining Cooley

A former federal prosecutor and Capitol Hill veteran, Susanne has served in numerous roles in government, garnering a stellar reputation and earning awards, accolades and recognition for her distinguished career.

Her prior work included serving as the deputy staff director and chief counsel for then-Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney and her predecessor Chairman Elijah E. Cummings, overseeing a team of 70+ attorneys, investigators, and communications and support staff on hundreds of fast-paced, high-volume and high-profile investigations involving the government, private industry and individuals. Maloney described Susanne as “a superb attorney with exceptional political judgment.”

Susanne initially joined the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform – the principal investigative committee of the US House of Representatives – as counsel under Chairman Henry A. Waxman. She quickly advanced into senior leadership, where she supervised and conducted hundreds of congressional hearings and investigations on a wide variety of matters and led the committee’s investigative staff from 2011 to 2021.

Susanne began her career as a trial attorney in the Tax Division of the Department of Justice, where she was a member of the Attorney General’s Honors Program and was awarded a 2005 Tax Division Outstanding Attorney Award and a 2006 Tax Division Special Act or Service Award.

From 2008 to 2010, Susanne served in a number of roles at the Internal Revenue Service, including as attorney adviser to the deputy commissioner for services and enforcement and as senior counsel to the chief of criminal investigation.

In 2010, Susanne was detailed to the White House, where she served as deputy associate counsel in the Office of Presidential Personnel, vetting presidential appointments and nominations and providing advice on tax compliance and other legal matters.
Susanne teaches Congressional Investigations at the Georgetown University Law Center. She also is a frequent speaker on matters related to congressional oversight and investigations, and she has been an invited speaker at events organized by the American Bar Association, the New York City Bar Association, the University of Pittsburgh Institute of Politics, and the Dick Thornburgh Forum for Law and Public Policy.

Lisa Kaplan founded Alethea in 2019 to help customers navigate the new digital reality and protect against online risks stemming from disinformation, misinformation, and social media manipulation. Under Kaplan’s leadership, the Alethea team has built the scalable technologies and solutions to detect threats to market capitalization and shareholder value, consumer trust and loyalty, physical safety, business operations, and brand and reputation. This includes exposing foreign, domestic extremist, and for-profit disinformation networks that have targeted organizations, institutions, and Fortune 1000 companies.

Kaplan has briefed US, NATO, EU, and G-7 policymakers and officials on disinformation. She writes for Brookings and Lawfare, and is frequently sought out by top-tier media outlets, such as The New York Times, Bloomberg, CNN, and the Washington Post. Alethea was named to Fast Company’s 2025 World’s Most Innovative Companies list and one of the hottest cybersecurity startups to watch in 2023 by Fortune and Business Insider. She was named by the Forbes Technology Council as one of the Cyber Security Founders to watch in 2025; to Inc.’s 2024 Female Founders List for innovative entrepreneurs; PRWeek’s 2023 40 Under 40 list for rising stars in strategic and crisis communications; and the 2021 Forbes 30 Under 30 list of top entrepreneurs and leaders.

Kaley is the Head of Board Advisory, Americas for Nasdaq. In her role, she advises boards and CEOs of public, private, and nonprofit corporations on corporate governance and leadership matters utilizing her experience as a director, attorney, and executive. Prior to Kaley’s tenure at Nasdaq, she started her legal career in private practice in New York before transitioning to in-house legal roles that included serving as General Counsel of Clarolux. Prior to attending law school, she served as Program Director of Jefferson County Teen Court, a restorative juvenile justice program. Kaley currently holds the following board and leadership roles: member of Nasdaq Center for Board Excellence Insights Council; member of the Board of Directors of Horizon Education; Board Chair of Northside Charter High School in New York City; member of the advisory board of Firstboard.io; member of the patient advisory board of a pharmaceutical company; Co-Chair of the Patient Advisory Board, member of the Patient Safety Committee, and member of the Steering Committee of ImmunOptimize for Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center; and a faculty member for Competent Boards. She speaks publicly and publishes articles on corporate governance matters. Kaley is admitted to practice law in the State of New York.

David Ko is the CEO and serves on the Board of Directors of Calm, the #1 app for sleep, meditation and mindfulness. Before founding his own company, which was acquired by Calm, David spent over a decade as a leading healthcare executive. He is the #1 Amazon bestselling author of Recharge: Boosting Your Mental Battery One Conversation at a Time, and has been featured in TIME’s Leadership Brief, named a LinkedIn “Top Voice” and one of RockHealth’s “Top 50 Leaders in Digital Health.” David was also the COO at Zynga, which he helped take public in December 2011. Prior to his work at Zynga, he spent 10 years at Yahoo! and currently serves on various boards at his alma mater, New York University Stern School of Business.

Heidi Patel is Co-Managing Partner of Rethink Impact, the largest VC fund in the country investing in female leaders using tech to solve the world’s greatest challenges. She invests in Seed to Series C-stage, B2B software businesses within digital health, ed tech, future of work, climate, and financial services. Heidi is a board director for Workwhile.ai, AllSpice.io, Clarity Pediatrics, Culina Health, Full Harvest, and Icon Savings Plan. She has been active for 20+years as a pioneer in the impact investing space, following an early career in corporate venture capital (Time Warner) and investment banking (Deutsche Bank and Credit Suisse). She holds an AB in Politics from Princeton University and an MBA from the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University, where she has co-taught the course “Investing for Good” since 2015 and serves as a founding Investment Committee member for the GSB Student Impact Fund.

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 founder 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 agreement to sell 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
• 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 agreement to sell to Bristol-Myers Squibb for $4.1 billion
• Principia Biopharma’s sale to Sanofi for $3.7 billion
• Carmot Therapeutics’ agreement to sell 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
• Dova Pharmaceuticals’ sale to Swedish Orphan Biovitrum AB (Sobi) for approximately $915 million Adamas Pharmaceuticals’ sale to Supernus Pharmaceuticals for $450 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
• 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 adviser 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 adviser to:
  • Splunk in its agreement to sell 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 adviser to Sovos Brands in its agreement to sell to Cambell 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)

Brian Levey is a business-first legal executive with over 25 years of experience building and scaling technology companies. Most recently, he served as Chief Business Affairs and Legal Officer at Upwork, where over his 12-year tenure he built the legal, policy, and compliance organization from a single attorney to 75+ professionals and helped guide the company’s transformation from startup to publicly traded industry leader shaping the future of work in the AI era (revenues growing ~20x to $770M, with $4B in gross services volume in 2024). He also served as the company’s Chief Financial Officer from 2015 to 2017.

Brian brings extensive board governance experience, having participated in and led board and committee meetings for publicly traded companies for over 15 years. At Upwork, he played key roles in the company’s 2018 IPO, led strategic crisis management efforts including stockholder activism defense, and developed the legal strategy for AI governance initiatives. Previously, he spent 13 years at eBay/PayPal, joining as the company’s first dedicated corporate in-house attorney in 2000 and helping scale operations from 900 employees and $400M revenue to 30,000+ employees and $16B revenue, while directing legal execution of 75+ strategic transactions worth $15B+ and overseeing the legal department’s operating budget.

Named one of the Financial Times’ Top 20 General Counsel globally (2017), Brian has led award-winning legal teams recognized by the Financial Times, Law.com, and American Legal Technology Awards. He holds an A.B. in Economics with Honors and Distinction from Stanford University and a J.D. from Stanford Law School, where he was a member of Stanford Law Review.

Brian currently serves as a senior advisor to Upwork while exploring his next chapter in building something great and lasting (again).

Catherine E. Lhamon is the inaugural executive director of the Edley Center on Law and Democracy. Until January 20, 2025, she was the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Education, where she served following United States Senate confirmation. From January through October 2021, Lhamon managed President Biden’s equity policy portfolio as Deputy Assistant to the President for Racial Justice and Equity. From December 2016 until January 2021, she chaired the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, to which President Obama appointed her. She also served in California Governor Gavin Newsom’s Cabinet as Legal Affairs Secretary from January 2019 through January 2021. Before these roles, Lhamon had also been Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Education during President Obama’s Administration. In addition to her government service, Lhamon litigated civil rights cases at the ACLU Foundation of Southern California, National Center for Youth Law, and Public Counsel Law Center, and she clerked for the Honorable William A. Norris on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Lhamon has received professional honors including Disability Rights California’s National Leadership Award in 2023, Yale Women’s Lifetime Achievement Award for Excellence in 2019, and the Feminist Majority Foundation and Ms. Magazine’s Wonder Women Award in 2018. Politico Magazine named Lhamon one of Politico 50 Thinkers Transforming Politics and the National Action Network honored Lhamon with their Action & Authority Award.

Erik Lie is a professor of finance at the University of Iowa and has been teaching for twenty-five years. In 2002, he began researching executive compensation, and using large databases, he documented strong patterns of manipulation of stock option grants. He brought them to the attention of the SEC and Wall Street Journal, which resulted in a massive SEC investigation, numerous lawsuits, congressional hearings, the firings of at least seventy corporate executives, and a Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for the Wall Street Journal. In 2007, Time magazine included him in its list of the 100 most influential people in the world. He is the author of Catching Cheats: Everyday Forensics to Unmask Business Fraud.

Elizabeth Lopatto is a senior writer at The Verge, where she covers how the internet is changing how we think about money: cryptocurrency, business, fintech and Elon Musk for some reason. She joined the site in 2014, as science editor, then deputy editor running science, transportation and social media, before she got tired of being an authority figure and went back to blogging.

Lenin Lopez is a recognized expert in D&O liability risk and its mitigation. In addition to consulting on D&O insurance matters, he counsels clients on corporate governance, including ways to reduce their exposure to shareholder lawsuits and regulatory investigations. He is a frequent speaker on D&O issues and has been quoted in publications ranging from the Bloomberg Law to the Wall Street Journal.

Prior to joining Woodruff Sawyer (a Gallagher Company), Lenin was Lead Counsel at Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited (TSE:4502/NYSE:TAK), a pharmaceutical company, a position he was recruited for to lead its US corporate governance and securities function after Takeda’s acquisition of Shire plc (NASDAQ: SHPG). Prior to Takeda, Lenin served in legal roles of increasing responsibility at Sempra Energy (NYSE: SRE), Shire, Baxalta (NYSE: BXLT), and CareFusion Corporation (NYSE: CFN). Lenin earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Santa Barbara and his juris doctorate from the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law.

Clients and co-counsel depend on Paul for his in-depth knowledge of Delaware corporate law and practice, ability to identify key issues, and tireless advocacy on behalf of his clients.

Paul focuses his practice on corporate litigation issues in the Delaware Court of Chancery. Paul has worked on cases involving corporate governance disputes, corporate stock appraisal, mergers and acquisitions, advancement and indemnification disputes, and shareholder rights plans. He also has experience in litigation involving alternative entities, complex commercial disputes, and expedited injunctive relief. In addition to his litigation practice, Paul has been involved in advising business entities on matters involving Delaware corporate law.

During law school, Paul worked for the Office of the General Counsel, United States Department of Defense, and as a summer associate at Young Conaway. Prior to law school, Paul served in the United States Marine Corps.

David Marcus is a senior writer focusing on legal issues raised by corporate transactions. David writes about the structure of merger agreements, Delaware law cases and developments and cross-border M&A. He has been a reporter at The Deal since its launch in 1999 and the senior writer on Corporate Control Alert — The Deal’s journal of legal and financial trends in dealmaking — since 1997. A 1992 graduate of Princeton University and a 1996 graduate of the University of Virginia School of Law, he also writes about wine for The Deal.

The Honorable Kathaleen S. McCormick was sworn in as Chancellor of the Court of Chancery on May 6, 2021. Chancellor McCormick first joined the court as Vice Chancellor on November 1, 2018. Prior to joining the Court, Chancellor McCormick was a partner in the Delaware law firm Young Conaway Stargatt & Taylor, LLP, where she focused her practice on litigating internal governance and corporate disputes, primarily in the Court of Chancery. Before entering private practice, Chancellor McCormick was a staff attorney with the Community Legal Aid Society, Inc.

Chancellor McCormick received her undergraduate degree from Harvard and her law degree from Notre Dame Law School. She is a Delaware native and a graduate of Smyrna High.

Kate Monahan is a Director of Shareholder Advocacy at Trillium Asset Management, a pioneer in socially responsible investing. Founded in 1982 by ESG visionary Joan Bavaria, Trillium integrates values-driven investment strategies with active ownership to promote a global sustainable economy, a just society, and a better world. With over a decade of experience in shareholder advocacy, Kate contributes to Trillium’s engagement efforts with a focus on chemicals and pesticides, environmental justice, and human rights.

Prior to joining Trillium, Kate worked in shareholder advocacy at Friends Fiduciary Corporation, where she led initiatives on corporate sustainability and governance aligned with Quaker values. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Haverford College.

Stephen Morris is the FT’s bureau chief in San Francisco, leading a team of reporters covering the biggest tech companies in the world from Google, Apple, Nvidia and Microsoft to Tesla and OpenAI. His prior role was Banking Editor in London. He has also worked at Bloomberg News and The Independent newspaper. Stephen was named UK business and finance journalist of the year at The Press Awards in 2023 and won the Gerald Loeb award for breaking news in 2024.

Jonathan Neman is Co-Founder & CEO of Sweetgreen, the mission driven restaurant brand that serves healthy food at scale. Jonathan and his co-founders started Sweetgreen in 2007, opening their first location in Georgetown, DC, just three months out of college. Their vision is to be as ubiquitous as traditional fast-food, but far more transparent and honest.

Jonathan has been recognized as a key innovator in food and business, named to Fast Company’s “50 Most Innovative Companies”, Inc’s “30 Under 30”, Forbes’ “30 Under 30”, Food & Wine’s “40 Big Food Thinkers 40 and Under,” and the 2020 Nation’s Restaurant News NRN Power List among other accolades. Sweetgreen was named one of Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies in 2019 and 2020, won the 2020 and 2021 Webby Award for Food & Drink in the category Apps, Mobile & Voice and recognized as a Top 100 Most Loved Workplace by Newsweek in collaboration with Best Practice Institute.

Born and raised in Los Angeles, CA,  Jonathan graduated from Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business, where he met fellow sweetgreen Co-Founders, Nathaniel Ru and Nicolas Jammet. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Leora, son Nes, and daughter Theodora.

Lauren Odell is partner and chief operating officer of Gladstone Place Partners. She manages the firm’s operations and leads strategy and execution on client engagements.

At Gladstone, Lauren has advised on a range of financial communications projects including The Walt Disney Company’s acquisition of 21st Century Fox assets, Acceleron Pharma’s sale to Merck for $11.5 billion, Dunkin Brands’ $11 billion sale to Inspire Brands, Alaska Airlines’ acquisition of Hawaiian Airlines for $1.9 billion and Dell Technologies’ return to the public markets.

Lauren’s activism defense work includes working with The Walt Disney Company on its engagements with Trian Partners, Third Point Management and Blackwells Capital, Illumina on its engagement with Icahn Enterprises, and Griffon Corporation on its engagement with Voss Capital.

Lauren advised WeWork throughout its capital-raising, strategic repositioning, leadership transition and its $9 billion SPAC merger with BowX Acquisition Corp. She has also advised CLEAR Secure on its initial public offering, Marriott International following a data security incident involving the Starwood guest database, and AB InBev and Intel on their management transitions.

Lauren’s litigation experience includes supporting BP following the Deepwater Horizon accident and spill, Nikola during the fraud trial of its founder and Wayne-Sanderson Farms in antitrust litigation in Illinois. She has broad experience in planning for Investor Days and navigating investor relations issues, specifically designing strategies to effectively communicate with retail investors.

While at Gladstone, Lauren was named as one of PRWeek’s Women of Distinction. Prior to Gladstone, Lauren spent nine years at Brunswick Group. Lauren also worked in the Investment Banking and Investor Relations divisions of JPMorgan in New York and London. She graduated magna cum laude from Dartmouth College with a bachelor’s degree in Geography and is fluent in Spanish. She is a member of the National Governing Board of the Jeremiah Program. Lauren lives in New York City with her husband and two children.

Marie Oh Huber is an experienced public and private company and foundation board director. She serves on the boards of Portland General Electric (NYSE), where she chairs the nominating and corporate governance committee, and the Asian Art Museum (SF). She is a Visiting Lecturer at Yale Law School and a Fellow at the Stanford Rock Center on Corporate Governance.

Until 2024, she served as Chief Legal Officer at eBay and before that, at Agilent Technologies. Previously, she served on the boards of Adevinta, the James Campbell Company, the Silicon Valley Community Foundation and the University Council of Yale.

She has led across technology, digital platform, ecommerce and fintech, life sciences and healthcare sectors, guiding boards and C-suite teams through transformational cross-border M&A, board and CEO changes and disruptive geopolitical and regulatory developments affecting business and product strategy.

Marie earned her B.A. from Yale, J.D. from Northwestern and studied at the London School of Economics.

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.

Philip L. Rothenberg is the Chief Legal Officer of Tensor Auto Inc., an autonomous vehicle company in San Jose, California. He has extensive experience as a general counsel and legal leader for innovative companies.

Previously, he served as General Counsel of Univers, an international software company focused on decarbonization, and Sonder, a technology-enabled hospitality company. At Sonder, he led the legal efforts for a corporate inversion, two private placement funding rounds, and a SPAC merger that resulted in the company’s Nasdaq listing.

Before Sonder, Mr. Rothenberg was Vice President, Legal at Tesla, Inc. Over 7.5 years, he helped grow the legal team from 5 to 100 professionals. He also played a key role in the company’s expansion into China, led legal efforts for over $10 billion in securities offerings, and managed legal aspects of the $2.6 billion acquisition of SolarCity.

Mr. Rothenberg also worked in the public sector as an Attorney-Advisor for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), where he reviewed various public filings for domestic and foreign corporations. While at the SEC, he also taught at Georgetown Law, where he co-created and taught two law courses in the Securities and Financial Regulation program: “Initial Public Offerings” and “Rethinking Securities Regulations and the Role of the SEC.”

Mr. Rothenberg earned a B.A. in Economics and Foreign Affairs from the University of Virginia, a Masters in International Business Studies from the University of South Carolina, and a J.D. from Georgetown Law.

Christina is the partner in charge and one of the founding partners of Cooley’s Chicago office. A seasoned corporate and securities lawyer with more than 15 years of experience, she focuses on capital markets, representing issuers and investment banks in public and private offerings of equity and debt securities, as well as advising public companies on disclosure, governance and compliance matters.

Christina has extensive industry knowledge of the technology, life sciences, and retail and consumer products sectors, among others. She is passionate about helping her clients achieve their strategic and financial goals while providing them with practical and tailored solutions.

Christina is a recognized leader in her field, having been named to the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin’s 40 Under Forty, Law Bulletin Media’s Women in Law: Leaders Leaning In, and Crain’s Chicago Business’ Notable Women in Law lists. She is also a regular speaker on securities law topics and serves as vice chair of the Ray Garrett Jr. Corporate and Securities Law Institute at Northwestern Pritzker School of Law. Additionally, Christina serves on the advisory board for Big Careers Little Kids, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization with a mission to connect Chicagoland’s most accomplished women professionals in the fields of law, finance and business to empower them throughout their professional and parental journeys.

Christina’s representative transactions include advising:

• Tempus AI in its $600 million acquisition of Ambry Genetics
• Tempus AI in its $410.7 million initial public offering (IPO)
• PetIQ in its $1.5 billion sale to Bansk Group
• Alto Neuroscience in its $147.9 million IPO
• COUR Pharmaceuticals in its $105 million Series A financing
• Citigroup, as representatives of the underwriters, in $243 million of follow-on offerings for Vivid Seats
• Goldman Sachs, as representatives of the underwriters, in Rent the Runway’s $410.5 million IPO
• BofA Securities, as representatives of the underwriters, in DICE Therapeutics’ $234.6 million IPO Skillz in its $835 million follow-on offering*
• NETSTREIT in its $233 million private placement of common stock pursuant to Rule 144A, Regulation D and Regulation S, subsequent $255 million IPO, and $650 million in follow-on offerings
• PetIQ in its $115 million IPO and subsequent $224 million follow-on offering*
• Groupon in its $805 million IPO*
  * Pre-Cooley experience

Adam Ruttenberg focuses on technology transactions, including counseling, structuring and negotiating such deals in industries such as Artificial Intelligence (including Generative AI), cloud computing, big data, patent licensing, software, hardware, internet, new media and edtech. He has broad experience representing emerging companies and large corporate clients in technology and intellectual property matters.

Representative matters include:

• Domestic and international matters involving inbound and outbound licensing.
• Technology development, procurement and distribution agreements (software and hardware).
• Joint marketing, strategic alliances and collaboration agreements.
• Patent licenses.
• University licenses.
• Big data.
• Artificial Intelligence transactions and policies.
• Clean Energy transactions.
• Bioinformatics and health informatics transactions.
• Software and SaaS transactions.
• Cloud transactions.
• Digital media transactions.
• Data security and privacy counseling.
• Strategic counseling and dispute resolution.
• Open source counseling.
• Information technology and business process outsourcing.

His strategic counseling experience includes developing commercialization distribution and pricing strategies for companies and data acquisition and use strategies for artificial intelligence companies.

Prior to joining Cooley, Adam was the vice president of contracts and sales operations of MicroStrategy. Previously, he had been in private practice representing technology companies in information technology, hardware and biotechnology matters.

Adam has published numerous articles on business transactions, technology transfer, intellectual property and internet law, and he is a frequent speaker on these topics.

Vince Sampson focuses on helping clients predict, navigate and understand the increasingly complex involvement of federal agencies and Congress in the regulation of the education, technology, financial services, life sciences and communications industries.

Vince regularly guides clients through the legislative and regulatory processes, advising them on potential risks and developing strategies focused on informing business decisions. These strategies include building coalitions, drafting letters to policymakers and creating other informative materials. In addition, he provides insight and advice on responding to congressional inquiries and investigations from the point of initial outreach to potential hearings and testimony.

Most recently, Vince was president of the Education Finance Council, the trade association representing nonprofit and state agency student finance organizations. He served as the organization’s chief representative on Capitol Hill, with the Executive Branch, and within the higher education community, working to advance council’s goal of increasing accessibility and affordability for postsecondary education.

Prior to joining the Education Finance Council, he served as the principal deputy assistant secretary, policy planning and innovation in the US Department of Education in the Office of the Postsecondary Education. He also served in the Office of Legislative and Congressional Affairs, where he was senior counselor, with responsibility for oversight matters.

Vince joined the Department of Education in 2007 after serving as deputy chief counsel for the Committee on Resources in the US House of Representatives. Preceding his Hill experience, he worked in various capacities in the private sector, including as vice president for public affairs at the Association for Competitive Technology.

Beth is co-head of Cooley’s corporate governance and securities regulation practice and leads the firm’s ESG and sustainability advisory practice. She regularly advises boards of directors and management on a wide range of corporate governance, disclosure and regulatory compliance matters – including corporate governance policy and trends, shareholder engagement and activism, shareholder proposals and proxy season matters, and environmental, social and governance (ESG). She is a seasoned professional with a distinguished career spanning 20+ years in a Fortune 20 company, positioning her as a trusted advisor to boards and executive teams.

Beth closely monitors and advises clients on evolving best practices and on corporate governance and ESG proposals put forth by regulators around the world as well as other stakeholders, including investors and activists. She brings a wealth of experience in guiding large multinational US public companies through the complex global ESG and sustainability regulatory landscape, including reporting and disclosure controls, engaging with stakeholders, and operationalizing governance and risk management processes.

In addition to her public companies experience, Beth counsels companies of all market caps across a broad spectrum of industries, helping to integrate sustainability strategies, oversight and risk management principles into the life cycle of early-stage growth companies and pre-initial public offering companies. In advising companies on ways to integrate sustainability principles into business strategy and operations early on, she helps companies build resilience, enhance stakeholder relationships and future-proof their operations.

Before joining Cooley, Beth was Verizon’s chief ESG officer and senior vice president of corporate governance. She also served as a management liaison to Verizon’s board of directors’ corporate governance and policy committee, which was charged with overseeing sustainability, governance, public policy and reputational risk. Before joining Verizon, Beth practiced in the corporate and litigation groups of prominent New York City law firms.

With more than 22 years of experience across public (Fortune 100) and private companies, and global law firms, David has deep expertise in technology, governance and enterprise risk. He is Vice President of Legal – Tech & Innovation at HCA Healthcare (NYSE: HCA), the largest healthcare system in the U.S. with more than 180 hospitals, 2,300 care sites, and over 44 million patient encounters in 2024. In this role David leads legal strategy around HCA’s transformation of patient care and operations by leveraging AI. He also serves as Co-Chair of the Responsible AI Steering Committee, where he advises on AI trust, safety and governance in a highly regulated environment.

Prior to HCA, David served as Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary at PE and VC-backed AI and SaaS companies, and as Chief Counsel and Corporate Secretary to the Ethics & Compliance Committee at Varian (formerly NYSE: VAR). In these roles, he also recruited and supported independent directors, including Audit and Nominating & Governance Committee chairs. David began his legal career in private practice focusing on M&A, corporate and securities at DLA Piper and Mayer Brown.

David is Visiting Scholar & Advisor at Vanderbilt University Law School’s AI Law Lab and a member of the National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD). He has also served on the Board of Directors of Visual Communications (a film and media focused non-profit organization based in Los Angeles). He earned his J.D. from Vanderbilt University Law School and his B.A. in Politics from Occidental College.

Adam Sterling is the Associate Dean of Executive Education and Strategic Partnerships. He oversees training and development programs for alumni, legal professionals, and organizational leaders. Adam also supports key initiatives and partnerships across the campus and throughout the broader legal community.

Before joining Stanford Law in 2025, Adam was an Assistant Dean at Berkeley Law and was the Executive Director of the Berkeley Center for Law and Business. He has also taught courses and overseen research on topics including venture capital, entrepreneurship, corporate governance, artificial intelligence, and leadership.

Prior to academia, Adam was a startup and venture capital attorney at Gunderson Dettmer and the co-founder of the Sudan Divestment Taskforce and Conflict Risk Network. In 2007, Adam was one of six featured subjects in the documentary, Darfur Now, produced by Don Cheadle. Adam’s writings and work have appeared extensively in the press; including contributions to The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, and The San Francisco Chronicle. He also serves on the board of a number of nonprofit organizations.

Adam received his J.D. and M.B.A. from U.C. Berkeley. He received his B.A. in African American Studies and Political Science from U.C.L.A.

Kelly counsels clients on a variety of high-profile, high-stakes issues. Her background in politics continues to shape her focus of helping her clients “win” at key decision points. Many of Kelly’s clients are in regulated industries, such as the energy, media, airline, healthcare, gaming and telecommunications sectors, where a premium is placed on the intersection of sophisticated communications with political and regulatory processes. Kelly has advised multiple companies facing Congressional inquiries, complicated regulatory reviews and contested transactions.

Kelly also served as a spokesperson for the National Endowment for the Arts under Chairwoman Jane Alexander and began her career as press secretary to Congresswoman Louise M. Slaughter (D-NY).

Kelly graduated from Georgetown University.

Chris Trester is a partner in the Palo Alto office of Gibson Dunn and Chair of our Emerging Companies/Venture Capital Practice Group. He focuses his corporate practice on representing start-ups and investors (ranging from angel investors to corporate venture capital) in the full life cycle of emerging companies from incorporation to financings to exits, with a specific emphasis on the tech, entertainment and life science industries. He also counsels companies on general corporate matters, corporate governance and accounting issues.

Prior to his legal career, Chris was a manager at a Big 4 accounting firm in both its audit and transaction services practices. He has been a CPA since 2008. Outside of his professional career, Chris is active in his community. He is a board member and treasurer of the Redwood City Little League and a board member of his kids’ school. Additionally, he coaches his three kids in basketball, baseball, soccer, and flag football.

Chris received his law degree from UC Hastings College of the Law, cum laude, in 2013 and earned his B.A. from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 2005. He is a member of the State Bar of California.

Jeroen van Kwawegen is a partner at BLB&G and a member of the firm’s Executive Committee. As head of BLB&G’s corporate governance practice, Jeroen oversees all breach of fiduciary duty litigation against boards and senior executives on behalf of shareholders. He also leads BLB&G’s work representing European institutional investors in shareholder litigation, including securities class actions. Over the course of his career, Jeroen has recovered more than four billion dollars for investors, improved corporate governance practices at numerous companies, and defended fundamental shareholder voting and franchise rights. He is currently co-leading the case against Tesla, which resulted in a groundbreaking decision nullifying Elon Musk’s $55 billion compensation package. Notably, Jeroen also represented a Swedish institutional investor in a securities class action against Wells Fargo, securing a $1 billion cash settlement.

Jeroen is frequently recognized for his litigation and trial work, earning distinctive recognitions from Benchmark Litigation, Lawdragon, Law360, and Legal500, as well as being named a Fellow of the Litigation Counsel of America. Outside of his firm responsibilities, Jeroen serves as a board member of Legal Services NYC, and an advisory board member at both the Millstein Center at Columbia Law School and the Institute for Law & Economics at the University of Pennsylvania’s Penn Carey Law School.

Michelle VonderHaar, chief legal officer and general counsel, leads Tenable’s global legal organization. Michelle has 30 years of domestic and international legal experience and most recently served as senior vice president, deputy general counsel and assistant secretary at HP, most recently driving transformation of the company’s commercial global legal affairs team from a three-region model to nine geographic markets. Prior to HP, she was the senior vice president, general counsel and secretary at Veritas Technologies. Michelle has also held various positions in Symantec Corporation’s legal department. Prior to her career at Veritas and Symantec, Michelle was a commercial litigator with Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP in Los Angeles and Irvine, and a corporate finance and M&A attorney with O’Melveny & Myers LLP practicing in London, San Francisco and Silicon Valley. Michelle is admitted to practice law in California, Washington, D.C., New York, and England & Wales, and she received her law degree from the University of Arizona, James E. Rogers College of Law, where she was a member of and published in the Arizona Law Review. She serves as a board member for a number of nonprofit organizations, including Silicon Valley Leadership Group Foundation, Urban Libraries Council and Catholic Charities of Santa Clara County.

Lucy Wang is a Managing Director in the Technology Investment Banking group based in San Francisco. Lucy has worked extensively with software companies on capital raising and M&A situations. In her previous role as Head of Software Capital Markets, Lucy has personally led or worked on over 100 IPOs raising over $100bn of capital, building JPMorgan to be the #1 Equity Platform on Wall Street from 2010-2022. She now focuses predominately on infrastructure software clients.

Lucy began her career at J.P. Morgan in 2007 in Technology Investment Banking Group. Lucy received her Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration and Bachelor of Art in International Relations from the University of Southern California. She resides in San Francisco with her husband and son.

David is Cooley’s chief innovation officer (CINO) and is responsible for the firm’s technology strategy and business innovation in collaboration with other members of the management team. David focuses on leveraging the power of technology and innovation to develop Cooley into the great law firm of the next generation.

Before joining Cooley, David was the founding CINO at another US multinational law firm, as well as a practicing lawyer with a decade of experience representing high-growth companies and their investors globally at two US-based international law firms.

The Honorable Lori W. Will was sworn in as a Vice Chancellor of the Court of Chancery in May 2021.

She was previously a partner at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, P.C. and a senior associate at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP. She served as a law clerk to then-Vice Chancellor Leo E. Strine, Jr.

Vice Chancellor Will received her B.A. summa cum laude in both History and Government & Law from Lafayette College, her J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School, and a graduate Certificate in Business and Public Policy from the Wharton School. She is a member of the American Law Institute and the American Bar Association.

Vice Chancellor Will is an Adjunct Professor of Law at NYU School of Law and at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. She is also a Lecturer at the University of Chicago Law School and a Visiting Professor at the The University of California, Berkeley, School of Law.