Leading transactional lawyer William B. Sorabella has joined Cooley’s growing mergers & acquisitions practice as a partner in New York. Arriving from Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, Sorabella brings additional senior depth, breadth and skill to support the ever‐increasing needs of Cooley’s M&A clients while also augmenting the firm’s private equity capabilities.
“As a widely recognized and respected senior M&A lawyer with deep experience in private equity, Bill is an impactful addition and will make immediate contributions to our robust New York office,” said Joe Conroy, Cooley’s chairman and chief executive officer. “He will add significant strength to our preeminent global M&A team.”
“Bill is a seasoned lawyer, and his arrival furthers our team’s ability to meet the M&A and private equity demands of Cooley clients,” said Jamie Leigh, partner and co-chair of the firm’s global M&A practice alongside Barbara Borden. “His skill set will allow him to immediately immerse himself in the transactional work generated by our platform, and he will seamlessly integrate into our culture and be a key player in our evolution of New York M&A.”
With more than 20 years of experience, Sorabella focuses his practice on a broad array of M&A transactions, including representing corporate buyers and sellers, private equity funds, special purpose acquisition companies and special committees in the purchase, merger and sale of private and public companies, divisional carve outs, and in the formation and dissolution of joint ventures. He also frequently represents financial advisers in similar transactions, and advises clients on corporate governance matters, proxy contests and anti‐takeover measures.
Over the course of his career, Sorabella has steered a number of high-profile transactions for marquee clients representing a range of industries, including life sciences and healthcare, technology, media and telecommunications, retail and consumer brands, industrial, energy, financial services, and real estate.
“Cooley’s team‐oriented and entrepreneurial platform offers an opportunity to deliver exceptional service to my client base and foster new client relationships as I help build and become a part of the firm’s M&A and private equity growth,” said Sorabella. “I also look forward to mentoring associates and playing a key role in developing Cooley’s next generation of M&A talent.”
Sorabella has received numerous accolades for his transactional prowess and creative dealmaking. He has twice been named a Dealmaker of the Year by The American Lawyer, and has been ranked by Chambers USA as a leader in corporate/M&A and by The Legal 500 US for his work in M&A: mega-deals ($1 billion+). He has also received nods for his innovative work on transactions from The New York Times DealBook, the Financial Times, The Deal and Law360, among other publications.
As global mergers and acquisitions hit record levels in 2021, topping $5 trillion for the first time ever, Cooley’s M&A practice continued to handle a large number of public and private transactions. With 365+ deals and more than $260 billion in aggregate deal value last year, Cooley was one of the most active M&A firms in the world, according to Bloomberg’s 2021 Global M&A Market Review Legal Rankings. The firm’s activity last year – which included deals across a variety of industries and maintaining its market-leading position in technology and life sciences – earned the firm top recognitions on Bloomberg and Mergermarket’s M&A legal rankings.
Cooley’s world-class transactional team has worked on 1,500+ M&A deals for an aggregate value of $650+ billion since 2017, and has guided leading companies and private equity sponsors in some of the market’s largest and most complex transactions. The 180+ member M&A group spans 17 major business and technology centers in the US, Europe and Asia, and represents all categories of participants in transactions. Cooley’s M&A practice recently welcomed lateral partner Nicholas Davis in Seattle, and last year, partners Erin Kirchner and Neal Aizenstein joined the firm’s newly established Chicago office.
