WHO’S WHO IN LAW – DAVID ANDERSEN

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Business Journal makes its case for L.A.’s top lawyers who shepherd the biggest M&A deals.

DAVID ANDERSEN, 46

FIRM: Bryan Cave LLP

LAW SCHOOL: Northwestern University

SELECTED CLIENTS: AssistMed, Belkin; Brothers Entertainment Merchandising, Make It Work, Monet Software, Orange County Container Group, Rapid Ratings International, Wild Brain Entertainment, X Prize Foundation

YEARS IN PRACTICE: 20

Biggest Deal: Representing the Santa Fe Railroad in its sale of about 350 miles of rights-of-way and other property to eight different governmental agencies in five counties for the purpose of forming the Metrolink system in 1992-93.

Best Career Moment: Reviewing the private jet agreement for an entrepreneur and longtime client who had started his business in his parents’ garage and who had recently cashed out on the basis of a billion-dollar valuation.

Worst: Sitting in the U.S. attorney’s office in Newark, N.J., and explaining a deal to an assistant U.S. attorney, a member of the FBI’s organized crime task force, a homicide investigator and a postal inspector. My client was engaged in a merger with another company that, in turn, was pursuing a merger with a third company. The third company had apparently been involved in a pump-and-dump market manipulation scheme perpetrated by two stockbrokers with dubious affiliations. The stockbrokers were found bound, gagged and shot in the back of the head in a mansion in northern New Jersey. The FBI was under the impression that somebody was delivering some sort of message. Needless to say, the deal did not close.

Highlight of Past Year: Closing two different multimillion-dollar corporate sponsorships for X Prize Foundation in May of this year.

The Secret to Closing a Deal: Understanding that legal issues exist within a metasystem that is often unique to the deal at hand.

If I Weren’t an Attorney: I’d be an urban planner, which might not be all that different from the process involved in bringing order to the chaos that is a startup company in growth mode.

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