Cooley’s Jamie Leigh Built Women-Led M&A Team, Then Tackled Wellness

Jamie Leigh, the co-chair of Cooley’s M&A practice, may be a powerhouse dealmaker, but she hasn’t let that distract her from an aspect of practice that busy attorneys are apt to forget—mental health and wellness.

Leigh has worked on numerous blockbuster transactions during her time at Cooley, including serving as sole lead on Tableau Software Inc.’s $16 billion sale to Salesforce.com Inc., and Google LLC’s $2.6 billion acquisition of analytic startup Looker Data Sciences Inc.

Leigh started her Big Law career as an associate at Davis Polk & Wardwell in New York, and then moved to Latham & Watkins before making partner. She joined Cooley in 2013 in the firm’s San Francisco office. She sits on the firm’s compensation and mental health and wellness committees, and has even created a mediation and mindfulness app called “The Shift.”

Bloomberg Law caught up with Leigh recently to discuss a range of topics, including how she helped to build a unique M&A team at Cooley, and how Big Law is addressing mental health issues.

The Q&A has been edited for clarity and length.

Bloomberg Law: Cooley’s M&A practice is unusual, in that it is co-led by two women, you and Barbara Borden, and is one-third female. Why are there so few women in this space?

Jamie Leigh: It’s a mix of different factors. In the past, success in the top tier of M&A has been measured by how big the deal was and if you made the cover of the Wall Street Journal. And for women, not only was there a lack of female role models, but to do this kind of work, while it’s fun, is very rigorous. You have to make some real trade offs when it comes to family and work balance.

Also, women aren’t leading the conversation. I’ve seen too many women wait to be asked their opinion, while also being afraid to be wrong. I know from personal experience that it’s not great to be the only woman in the room with a bunch of men who talk over each other. But you have to develop your voice, have a formidable presence, and have to not have to be right all of the time.

BL: Given that you and your co-chair have been able to hire a fair number of women, I assume that something has shifted within the industry.

JL: I think the business of M&A is changing. There are lots of different shapes and sizes of tech companies now. I mean, Uber didn’t even exist 20 years ago. Additionally, entrepreneurs definitely value collaborative deal making, which women tend to be very good at.

BL: What other changes are occurring within the field?

JL: One thing that we’re facing in all of our deals is that we’re finding regulatory review in places that we might have not expected it. Regulators have not always kept up with technology, so we need to be savvy about how we set up our deals.

I think that the practical business focus we have on the West Coast is gaining in popularity with both the buy and sell sides. The work is more collaborative, which can lead to repeat business. Today, it could be that the $12 million talent acquisition is a bigger deal than the $2 billion business acquisition. If a company brings on two engineers with a unique piece of code, it could yield potentially larger [monetary] gains.

BL: Switching gears, let’s talk about your mindfulness app. How did that come about?

JL: I’ve always been athletic, and sports has served me well in my legal career to cope with stress. But as I took on more leadership roles, I wanted to handle it with more grace and ease. A couple years ago, I was working through a food allergy with a nutritionist and a health coach, and I wanted to find a wellness tool that was super easy to use and to follow. Meditation should be natural and easy to access— through an app that creates a sense of ease and comfort, not confusion or pressure to log sessions or count minutes. So the health coach and I decided to create the app.

BL: In the past few years, the legal profession appears to be making a more concerted effort to address mental health issues in the workplace. What is Cooley doing for its lawyers and employees?

JL: The ABA has been pushing the profession to do more around substance abuse, and we wanted to make it about wellness as well. Cooley has Mental Health and Wellness Committee members in the majority of the firm’s outposts. Several of our offices have multiple members—all as part of the firm’s growing commitment to ensuring mental health and wellness resources for our employees.

We have yoga in the office, meditation classes, counseling services, and mental health services for issues such as dealing with a loss, or the stress of caring for elderly parents. We try to address employees’ whole health, and provide affordable services without stigma.

I think stigma is a really, really tough thing to combat when it comes to things that help us numb out. In the law, you can have really intense peaks and valleys, which can be the perfect breeding ground for substance abuse or other addiction. But because of the overlay of stigma, we don’t always know if people need help. You have to ensure that everyone believes in the tenets that you espouse.