Baker McKenzie offices in Washington, D.C. (Photo: Diego M. Radzinschi/ALM)

Baker McKenzie has brought on Silicon Valley dealmaker Leif King from Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, where he served as head of the firm's corporate, M&A practice in Palo Alto.

Concluding his 21-year run with Skadden, King joined Baker McKenzie on Monday as a partner in the Palo Alto office. King said he was attracted to Baker McKenzie's global platform and will continue to serve as a leader of the firm's corporate and M&A practice in California.

"Baker Mackenzie provides an optimal platform for my clients and practice and is well positioned to establish a high-profile M&A practice in California," King said. "Baker is in growth mode in California. And I'm excited to contribute to building a world-class diverse M&A team, which is essential to a complete global M&A offering and what I believe that our large enterprise clients demand."

Leif primarily represents clients in corporate transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, private equity transactions, activist-investor situations, recapitalisations, spinoffs and strategic investments. While at Skadden, King has closed a number of high-stakes deals for clients in the tech sector.

Among those, he advised client Broadcom Corp. its $37 billion sale to Avago Technologies Limited, its $3.7 billion acquisition of NetLogic Microsystems Inc., and its $164 million acquisition of assets from Renesas Electronics Corp.

King also represented Yahoo on several deals, including its titanic agreement to sell its roughly 20% stock in Alibaba for more than $7 billion. Also on that team was Los Angeles attorney Jonathan Ko, who also made a move on Monday from Skadden to Paul Hastings.

King declined to comment on which clients have followed him to his new firm. Instead, he said he is looking forward "to continuing relationships with clients at Baker and building new connections as well".

In a statement welcoming King to the team, Michael DeFranco, chair of Baker McKenzie's global M&A practice said: "Leif is one of the most highly regarded M&A attorneys in Silicon Valley.

"His excellent reputation handling milestone M&A matters for the technology industry will further enhance our transactional capabilities in California and beyond," DeFranco added.

With King's addition, Baker McKenzie's Silicon Valley office, which opened the late 1980s, will have seven attorneys working on deals for its clients. Across its three California offices – in San Francisco, Palo Alto and Los Angeles – Baker McKenzie has a total of 123 attorneys, including 24 transactional lawyers.

Colin Murray, Baker McKenzie's North American chief executive officer, said in a statement that King will enhance the firm's existing cross-border and post-acquisition services, "and will enable us to provide a more robust level of services throughout the deal lifecycle".

"There is no better way to demonstrate our commitment to this market than to bring on board Leif King, one of the area's best transactional lawyers," Murray said.

Legal recruiter Sabina Lippman of Lippman Jungers helped to broker King's move to Baker McKenzie.

In a statement responding to King's departure, Emily Lam, head of Skadden's Palo Alto office, said: "We appreciate Leif's many contributions to Skadden and specifically to the firm's Palo Alto office. We wish him well in his new position."