Back row, left to right: David Segre (partner), Siana Lowrey (partner), David Peinsipp (partner, co-chair of capital markets); Front row, left to right: Ben Beerle (partner), Jamie Leigh (partner, co-chair of M&A), Jon Avina (partner). (Photo: Jason Doiy/ALM)

In a banner year for tech deals across the board, Cooley grabbed key assignments in some of the year's highest-profile transactions, landing them Tech Deal Department of the Year honors in the California Leaders in Tech Law and Innovation Awards.

Cooley's Jamie Leigh and Jodie Bourdet led the team advising analytics platform Tableau on its agreement to sell to Salesforce in a $15.7 billion all-stock transaction. Leigh teamed up with partner Ben Beerle to lead the team advising Ellie Mae, a publicly traded cloud-based platform provider for the mortgage finance industry, on its agreement to sell to private equity firm Thoma Bravo for about $3.7 billion. That pair teamed up again to lead the firm's representation of Uber in its deal to acquire JUMP Bikes. The firm also handled company-side representations in a number of the year's biggest tech IPOs, including Uber, Zoom and PagerDuty.

Leigh, who co-chairs the firm's M&A group with Barbara Borden, recently shared the challenges of keeping up the pace in the current deal climate.

The Recorder: What are the distinguishing characteristics of dealmakers that practice at Cooley?

Jamie Leigh: We are business-focused, practical and creative. We give real advice, respect our peers and know that each interaction is a relationship build for the long haul. We also really enjoy ourselves!

When a client comes to Cooley for representation on a deal, what can they expect?

Cutting-edge expertise with a subject matter bench unrivaled in the market. We believe that we can all learn from each other—and our top-tier service is also tailored to meet the needs and goals of any given matter. Did I mention that we really enjoy ourselves?

What are the biggest challenges facing your firm in representing tech companies in the current deal climate?

The deal climate—for the last five years—has been extremely busy. I regularly suggest that our clients "take a little more time" to really learn their targets, soon-to-be employee base and prioritize integration. For us? It's balancing homegrown/lateral top-tier talent with the ever-increasing demand for the Cooley team.