Cooley recruits M&A partner from Gibson Dunn in New York

Cooley offices in New York. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly

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  • William Sorabella was previously a lawyer at Gibson Dunn and Kirkland & Ellis
  • His practice includes work with private equity funds and blank check companies

(Reuters) – Cooley said Tuesday it brought on a Gibson Dunn & Crutcher transactional lawyer, William Sorabella, to its mergers and acquisitions practice in New York.

Sorabella has been at Gibson Dunn since 2019. Before joining the firm, he had been a partner at Kirkland & Ellis starting in 2006.

He focuses on representing corporate buyers and sellers, private equity funds and special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs), Cooley said.

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His clients include corporations in life sciences and healthcare as well as technology, areas where Silicon Valley-founded Cooley has worked frequently on deals.

He advised a special committee of the board of directors of Spartan Acquisition Corp II in the SPAC’s $1.175 billion acquisition of Sunlight Financial LLC in 2021, according to Gibson Dunn’s website.

SPACS are shell companies that raise funds through a public listing in order to acquire a private company and take it public.

While at Kirkland, Sorabella advised 3G Capital, which along with Berkshire Hathaway Inc, acquired H.J. Heinz Co in a $28 billion deal, the firm said in a 2013 statement.

Global mergers and acquisitions surged in 2021 and exceeded $5 trillion for the first time. Cooley was the principal advisor on 278 announced M&A deals globally last year, according to Refinitiv data, ranking No. 25 among law firms.

Last month, Cooley represented gay dating app Grindr as it went public in a $2.1 billion acquisition by Tiga Acquisition Corp, a Singapore-based SPAC.

A Gibson Dunn spokesperson didn’t immediately respond to request for comment on Sorabella’s departure.

Read more:

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Global M&A volumes hit record high in 2021, breach $5 trillion for first time

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Reporting by Shruthi K

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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