Nina L. Flax

Flax is co-founder and leader of Mayer Brown LLP's Northern California corporate and securities practice, and the founding member of the firm's Fintech group.

She has led teams on more than 60 complex bet-the-company transactions worth billions of dollars. Accenture's acquisitions of Déjà vu Security, Bridge Energy Group, Mindtribe Product Engineering and TargetSt8 Consulting LLC are a handful of the deals she has handled. Under guidance from Flax, Accenture Interactive has become one of the largest and fastest-growing digital agencies in the world.

Flax, who has been with the firm since 2005, discovered her interest in mergers and acquisitions as a summer associate. Mayer Brown operates a free market system that allows summer associations to try out many practices. Flax tried out different transactional practices, but was drawn to mergers and acquisitions because of the diversity in the work.

"There's always something new each transaction presents where you have to dig a bit further, and usually I'm not doing this by myself, but digging in with colleagues, doing collaborative research and solving problems."

One of her favorite deals was in 2018 for Yum! Brands, headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky. Flax and her colleagues were lead counsel in Yum's agreement with Grubhub -- from the term sheet stage through signing.

Under the terms, Yum! agreed to purchase $200 million worth of Grubhub's common stock, which provided Grubhub capital to expand its delivery network, drive more orders to Yum! restaurants and enhance the order/delivery experience for diners, drivers and restaurants.

Transactions such as these are living, material and significant concepts, she said. The deal was signed, but implementation of the transaction and the relationships with Grubhub is ongoing.

"I still get questions from counsel about it. I get texts when I wake up, like, 'do you remember this? or, will you check this issue?'" said Flax.

Flax said her favorite part about the transaction was connecting at a deeper level with various lawyers at Kentucky Fried Chicken, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut.

When Flax does a deal, she doesn't necessarily dig as deep within multiple organizations as she did with this particular transaction.

"It was a great way to learn more about Yum! as a business in general and in a different way. I loved the team I worked with. This is what I love about my job. I love interacting with people, getting to know people as professionals and helping them accomplish their goals."

Flax said one of the challenges lawyers face in this profession is dealing with the fact that "we're in the business of providing service to customers, which means that you are always available."

That often means after hours, when the din of the office has died down and her son and husband are asleep.

"I can concentrate if I have to and think deeply. It's about balance and finding ways to grab moments as you need them in different areas of your life."

-- Gina Kim