Cooley LLP

Partner in Charge of Beijing office: Xun Zeng

Partner in Charge of Hong Kong office: Michael Yu

Partner in Charge of Shanghai office: Yiming Liu

Head of Asia Capital Markets: Will Cai

Co-chairs of China Corporate Practice: Will Cai and Patrick Loofbourrow

Number of Partners in Asia Pacific: 15

Other fee-earners (excluding paralegals): 70

Cooley’s lawyers solve legal issues for entrepreneurs, investors, financial institutions and established companies with an emphasis on technology, life sciences and other high-growth industries. Clients partner with Cooley on transformative deals, complex IP and regulatory matters, and high-stakes litigation, where innovation meets the law. Cooley maintains an environment of inclusion and is proud to be recognized by Law360 as a “Best Law Firm for Minority Partners.” The firm has 1,300+ lawyers across 19 offices in the US, Asia and Europe.

Main Areas of Practice

Capital Markets: Cooley advises disruptive companies across Greater China and globally on some of the market’s most cutting-edge capital markets transactions. With a rare and balanced representation of issuers and managers, Cooley has led the market in issuer-side IPOs for nearly a decade and regularly ranks among the top firms for manager representation. Cooley’s practitioners represent clients of all sizes across major industries and provide advice on a wide range of transactions, which include: initial public offerings, direct listings, follow-on and secondary public offerings, PIPE transactions and other private placements, convertible, high-yield and investment grade debt, preferred stock transactions, and derivative products.

Corporate/M&A: Since 2020, Cooley has handled 1,540+ M&A transactions, with an aggregate value of $745+ billion, making this practice one of the most active in the country, particularly for technology and life sciences companies. We represent all categories of participants in transactions, including buyers, sellers, major stockholders, lenders, financial advisors, management, special board committees, venture capitalists, individual investors, private equity funds, hedge funds and others.

Cyber/data/privacy: Cooley’s cyber/data/privacy practice is a global team of lawyers focusing on all aspects of cyber, data protection and privacy. The firm represents clients across all industries, ranging from emerging to Fortune 500 companies, across the full spectrum of privacy and cyber-related issues. Cooley has successfully litigated a wide range of cases involving privacy and data breach issues, including class actions and government enforcement actions.

Emerging Companies & Venture Capital: Cooley represents 7,000+ private companies across all industries. Over the past decade, Cooley has represented thousands of technology, life sciences and other high-growth businesses with all aspects of their formation and development. Cooley is consistently ranked as the #1 law firm representing VC-backed companies in the US and globally. Additionally, Cooley leads the market in the formation and deployment of venture and growth capital globally. No firm is better equipped to partner with investors – our lawyers advise venture capital firms, corporate VCs, growth equity firms, family offices and high growth companies on 1,700+ private financings each year. With an equal split of investor and company clients, we understand all angles and offer support at all stages of investment.

Fund Formation: For 60+ years, Cooley has focused on representing fund managers. We are counsel to 600+ private investment fund organizations worldwide and have formed hundreds of global investment funds over the past 6 decades. We represent venture capital, fund of funds, private equity, evergreen, growth equity and other managers with primary operations and/or investing in the US, Greater China, Europe, India, Vietnam, Singapore, Russia, Japan, Israel, Brazil, Latin America and elsewhere. Our representation includes managers specializing in all investment phases from angel to late stage and in investment areas from internet, social media and mobile to clean technology, healthcare, biotechnology and more traditional industries. Our clients include funds as small as $5 million to funds of $1 billion or more.

Life Sciences: With 2,500+ public and private life science clients worldwide, Cooley is the leading deals-volume firm across all aspects of corporate and transactional practices, including M&A, IPOs, financings and private equity. Cooley represents nearly 50% of the NASDAQ Biotechnology Index and is widely known as a best-in-class firm for handling corporate partnering and licensing transactions.

Private Equity: Cooley’s team has guided leading private equity sponsors in some of the market’s largest and most complex transactions.