
Overview
Michael Kennedy is a partner in the Private Equity and Mergers & Acquisitions practices at Paul Hastings, based in the firm’s San Francisco office. Since 1984, he has concentrated on the corporate areas of mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, corporate partnering, joint ventures, and corporate governance, with an emphasis in the technology, emerging growth, healthcare, biotechnology, and media industries.
He has extensive experience in the private equity and leveraged buyout industries as well as decades of experience on transactions in a number of other industries, including automotive, defense, financial services, media, technology, healthcare, and building products. He represents many major investment banks in their advisory roles on M&A deals.
In addition, Michael has significant experience in the debt (bank and high-yield areas) and restructuring areas. He is routinely asked by Boards to advise on hostile transactions, proxy fights, and other governance matters. Michael frequently lectures at corporate seminars and continuing legal education forums.
Recognitions
- Chambers, Private Equity: Buyouts (2023)
- The Legal 500 USA, M&A/Corporate and Commercial: Private Equity Buyouts (2023)
- Cited since the late 1990s in Chambers and the Who’s Who Legal – California guides as a leading lawyer in M&A and technology.
Education
- New York University, J.D., 1984
- Yale University, B.A., 1981
Representations
- Represented Francisco Partners in numerous transactions
- Advised Healthland on its US$250 million acquisition by CPSI
- Advised Hyperion Therapeutics in an acquisition by Horizon Pharma
- Advised FrontRange Holding in an acquisition by Endpoint Intermediate
- Advised Ethical Oncology Science in an acquisition by Clovis Oncology
- Represented GXS Group in an acquisition by Open Text Corporation
news
- Paul Hastings Advises Francisco Partners and TPG in $6.5 Billion Take-Private of New Relic - July 31st, 2023
- Paul Hastings Advises Francisco Partners and Forcepoint in Sale of its G2CI Business to TPG - July 12th, 2023
- Paul Hastings Advises Quotient Technology, Inc. in $430 Million Business Combination with Neptune Retail Solutions - June 22nd, 2023
- Paul Hastings Advises Quotient Technology on Board Changes - June 7th, 2023
- Francisco Partners Makes Significant Growth Investment in Veson Nautical - March 17th, 2022
- Francisco Partners Announces Sale of Quest Software - November 30th, 2021
- Rockwell Automation Acquires Plex Systems from Francisco Partners for $2.2 Billion - June 25th, 2021
- Paul Hastings Ranked as Top Three Firm for New Rankings and Recognized for Numerous Practice Strength and Growth in Chambers USA 2021 - May 21st, 2021
- Paul Hastings Ranked as Top Three Firm for New Rankings and Recognized for Numerous Practice Strength and Growth in Chambers USA 2021 - May 21st, 2021
- Francisco Partners and TPG Capital Acquire Boomi from Dell Technologies for $4 Billion - May 3rd, 2021
- Keyloop Acquires RAPID RTC and enquiryMAX - March 2nd, 2021
- Francisco Partners to Acquire International Business of CDK Global for $1.45 Billion - November 30th, 2020
- Francisco Partners to Acquire the MyFitnessPal Platform from Under Armour - October 30th, 2020
- Francisco Partners to Acquire Forcepoint from Raytheon Technologies - October 28th, 2020
- SmartBear Secures Investment from Vista Equity Partners - October 26th, 2020
- Paul Hastings Practices and Lawyers Score Top Rankings in Chambers USA 2020 - May 1st, 2020
- Francisco Partners and Evergreen Coast Capital to Acquire LogMeIn for Approximately $4.3 Billion - December 19th, 2019
- Francisco Partners to Sell ClickSoftware to Salesforce for $1.4 Billion - August 8th, 2019
- Francisco Partners Sells Prometheus Group for Over $1 Billion - May 31st, 2019
- Paul Hastings Practices and Lawyers Score Top Rankings in Chambers USA 2019 - May 1st, 2019
Recognitions
- Paul Hastings Corporate Practices Recognized by Chambers USA 2022 - June 1st, 2022
- Recognized by Chambers USA 2021 - May 21st, 2021
- Recognized by Chambers USA 2020 - May 1st, 2020
- Ranked by Chambers USA 2019 - April 26th, 2019
- Recognized by Chambers USA 2018 - May 15th, 2018
- Recognized by Chambers USA 2017 - June 5th, 2017
Involvement
- Adjunct Professor, Boalt School of Law, University of California at Berkeley in the topic of Mergers & Acquisitions (1997–present)
- Chairman, PLI Technology Mergers and Acquisitions Program (1997–2002)
- Frequent lecturer at corporate seminars (e.g. Board Member magazine) and continuing legal education forums