Jane Ross

Ross was brought on as the lead Weil counsel for Adobe Inc. in the company's acquisition of French marketing software developer Neolane Inc. in June.

The $600 million dollar deal allowed Ross to take full advantage of her affinity for cross-border transactions. Grappling with fresh legal challenges in new jurisdictions remains one of the most exciting and stimulating parts of the job for her.

"The cross-border transactions are always appealing to me because I know there will be something new that I'll learn and issues that come up that I'm not used to dealing with that I'll have to address in different ways from domestic acquisitions," she said. "They involve new and interesting issues to solve."

Working with French companies in particular, as was the case with Paris-based Neolane, often brings a number of unique regulatory challenges into the mix, she said.

"[The French] have a very different regulatory structure and protections for shareholders and employees. There's a whole gamut of hurdles that need to be overcome in order to acquire."

Ross has represented Adobe in a number of its acquisitions since the early 2000s. With an experienced in-house M&A team of their own, working with the San Jose-based software giant is always a streamlined process, Ross said.

In the Neolane acquisition, as with all of her successful deals, Ross also enjoys negotiations struck in the spirit of collaboration.

"Even though both sides are trying to achieve the best outcome for their clients, in the end everyone is trying to reach the same goal, which is to get a deal done. And so the end result should be a win-win for both sides," Ross said. "It has adversarial parts to it, but ultimately it's a collaborative process."

- DOMINIC FRACASSA