Mary Ann Todd

Todd advised Tokyo-based tech giant Ricoh Co. Ltd. as it acquired AnaJet Inc., a leader in direct to garment printing, in a deal expected to amp up Ricoh's industrial inkjet business. She worked with Berkshire Hathaway Inc. on two debt financing public offerings including the pricing of a 2.75 billion euro note offering and a domestic $9 billion offering. The funds from both will be used for repaying loans, refinancing other notes and replacing other notes that have matured and been repaid, according to Securities and Exchange Commission filings.

She also worked on Berkshire's $46 billion merger of its H.J. Heinz Co. and Kraft Foods Group to form the third-largest food and beverage company in North America. Earlier, she'd guided Berkshire through its $28 billion acquisition of Heinz with Brazil-based 3G Capital. Todd was on the Munger, Tolles team representing Lazard as financial advisor to Ryland Group Inc. in a proposed merger with Standard Pacific Corp. that would create the fourth-largest homebuilder in the U.S. with an enterprise value of about $8.2 billion across 41 markets in 17 states.

Top lawyers tend to be perpetually available to their clients. Another 2015 mega-deal started when Todd's phone rang as she was poolside at a hotel on Maui's Kaanapali Coast. "It was from Omaha," she said, naming Berkshire Hathaway's headquarters. "I got to work." Warren E. Buffett was entering the aerospace business by buying top-tier manufacturer of aerospace parts Precision Castparts Corp. of Portland, Ore. The price: $37.2 billion.

From her hotel room, Todd worked ten-hour days for a week. "The speed element keeps the pressure on," she said, alluding to Buffett's desire to complete a deal as quickly as possible once the commitment to buy has been made, so as to avoid media leaks that could complicate negotiations. "Once everybody else shut down," she added. "I still had a couple hours to enjoy the beach."

Munger, Tolles partner Robert E. Denham and other team members on the project were in Los Angeles; additional advisers were in Nebraska and Oregon. "You have scattered parties. You can't waste time traveling," Todd said. "That was fun," she added, of the long-distance deal making. "I was happy and lucky to have gotten the call."

She said she thought of her poolside accessibility in March when she heard President Obama's Supreme Court nominee, Merrick B. Garland, disclose that daughter Rebecca was hiking and out of cell phone range when Garland got the call from the President. "It could have happened to me," Todd said. "I might have missed something really good."

- John Roemer