Orrick announced today that Ed Batts has joined the firm as Global Co-Head of its M&A and Private Equity Practice.  Ed focuses on M&A and corporate governance for leading public technology companies.  He joins the firm from DLA Piper, where he co-chaired the Northern California corporate group, and will be based in Orrick’s Silicon Valley office.

“We are delighted to continue the growth of Orrick’s tech focused corporate practice with a world class public company advisor like Ed Batts.  Ed brings extensive buy-side experience on complex deals and complements Orrick’s experience in many of the market shaping private company sales of recent years,” said Orrick Chairman & CEO Mitch Zuklie.

Ed counsels mature public tech companies in a broad range of areas. In M&A, he has particular experience in public company fiduciary duties, cross border transactions and both buy and sell side combinations. In corporate governance, he has counseled large enterprises on cybersecurity, stockholder activism and general board matters.

Ed noted: “Orrick is a premier tech advisor with a record of counseling clients through transformative deals such as Instagram’s sale to Facebook and Nest’s sale to Google. Equally important, the firm works as one team with offices in 25 key markets around the world that large tech companies need in a globalized competitive environment. The firm is pursuing a distinctive sector-focused strategy with additions such as Melinda Haag, who recently stepped down as U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of California as Global Head of Litigation, and the opening of its Houston office. It has a rich history of strong values and culture, as exemplified by its industry leading paid parental leave policy and its creation of the industry’s first and only Veterans Legal Career Fair. I am excited to collaborate with Orrick’s focused and forward-thinking leadership team to expand the firm’s public company and M&A offerings.”

Ed will co-lead the firm’s global M&A and Private Equity Practice with Maurice Hoo, who is based in Hong Kong and was recognized by Financial Times for his work on one of the most innovative cross-border deals coming out of China in 2015. Orrick acts for more than 1,600 private tech companies globally and half of the Fortune 20 TMT.  In 2015, the firm completed more than 300 venture financings worldwide raising $6.4 billion in total and advised on 167 M&A and private equity transactions worldwide valued at nearly $29 billion. In capital markets, Orrick advised on 38 equity and debt transactions, including underwriter-side tech company equity offerings for Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Citi, and UBS. Recognizing this work as well as the firm’s string of courtroom wins for tech sector clients, Law360 recently named the firm 2015 Tech Group of the Year for the second year in a row.

Over the past 24 months, Orrick has added seven partners to its tech-focused corporate practice globally, including in the US leading tech IPO practitioner Christopher Austin, and tech and M&A practitioners Michael Sullivan and Peter Lamb; Ning Zhang in Beijing, Christian Schröder in Düsseldorf, and Shawn Atkinson in London.  Earlier this month, the firm announced the addition of Olivier Edwards from Gide in Paris. The firm has M&A and Corporate lawyers based in 20 markets worldwide.

Ed received a B.A. in Political Science, summa cum laude, from UCLA and a J.D. from Stanford Law School.