Michael S. Ringler

As the markets for cloud-based computing and social media heat up, Ringler's mergers and acquisitions work is helping companies compete in the fast-paced technology sector.

"In that industry, broadly speaking, they don't tend to sit on their laurels," Ringler said. "You're not rewarded for being complacent, so mergers and acquisitions is one of the ways they grow."

In April 2012, Ringler represented Taleo Corp., which produces human capital management software for within the cloud space, in its sale to Oracle Corp. for roughly $2 billion. A large part of his work involved advising the company's board of its fiduciary duties.

"We look for unique ways to create shareholder value by giving boards advice on what we think they should do," Ringler said.

He noted that consolidation in the industry did raise the stakes of the deal.

"SAP [AG] had announced the acquisition of a company called SuccessFactors, which is a close competitor of Taleo, and so it was clear that there was consolidation in the industry," he said. "There were also some new companies coming in on the private company side that were creating competition in the market, so the board had to think really seriously about how that impacted their views about remaining independent or who they should be acquired by."

In another deal that closed in August, Ringler represented Salesforce.com Inc., a pioneer of software on demand, in its acquisition of Buddy Media Inc., a social media marketing platform, for $689 million. The deal enabled Salesforce.com to move into the nexus of hosted software and social media.

Ringler said he enjoys getting to know a company's business and legal team and trying to become a partner to those teams.

"That's the most rewarding part - feeling like you're part of a large team and contributing in a small way to the success of the company's acquisition programs," Ringler said. "There are a lot of lawyers who are reluctant to make recommendations. They'll lay out a menu of options for their client and let their client decide which option to choose from that menu. I do that, but I'm also willing to make a recommendation, and I'm willing to put my reputation and my personal opinion behind that recommendation."

- CAITLIN JOHNSON