Gary Smith practices in a broad range of international transactions with particular emphasis on cross-border M&A and financing transactions.
Mr. Smith is ranked as a Band 1 leading lawyer by Chambers Global and Chambers Asia Pacific for his M&A and corporate law expertise. Mr. Smith was also chosen as the exclusive winner of the International Law Office Client Choice Awards for M&A in Japan (based on a survey of over 2,000 in-house counsel), and has been consistently selected as a leading lawyer in M&A and corporate law by International Financial Law Review (IFLR), The Legal 500 Asia Pacific and Best Lawyers.
Mr. Smith’s experience in the M&A area includes inbound and outbound buyouts, international joint ventures and minority investments in media, high-tech and life sciences industries. Outbound transactions in which Mr. Smith has recently been involved include acquisitions of businesses in India, China, Brazil, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam and other parts of Southeast Asia, as well as businesses in Europe and the United States.
He has also represented senior and mezzanine lenders in numerous acquisition financings and other secured syndicated loans including a leveraged buy-out financing transaction that was cited by a leading financial publisher as the “Bond Deal of the Year” and a secured acquisition financing transaction that was cited as the “Most Innovative Deal of the Year”.
Clients with respect to which Mr. Smith has recently been active in counseling include the following: Daiwa Securities Capital Markets, Deutsche Bank, Elpida Memory, GCA Savvian, Japan Airlines, Mizuho Securities, Mitsubishi UFJ Trust and Banking, SMBC Nikko Securities and Taisho Pharmaceutical.
He received his J.D. in 1990 from Columbia University, where he was a Harlan Fiske Stone scholar, and a recipient of the Recognition of Achievement in International Law, with Honors. Mr. Smith also attended the University of Tokyo Graduate School from 1985-1987 as a Japan Ministry of Education Scholar.
Prior to joining Morrison & Foerster, Mr. Smith was the managing partner of O’Melveny & MyersLLP’s Tokyo Office. He is admitted in New York and in Japan as a Gaikokuho-Jimu-Bengoshi, and is fluent in Japanese.