Robert S. Townsend serves as Chair of Morrison & Foerster’s 270-lawyer Corporate Practice Group and has extensive transactional experience in the fields of mergers and acquisitions, securities law, technology and intellectual property matters, leveraged buyouts and venture capital. Mr. Townsend has been involved in transactions in numerous industries in the United States, Europe, Asia and Latin America.

Mr. Townsend has represented many public and private companies in corporate and finance matters ranging from mergers and acquisitions to seed round financings and initial public offerings. He regularly advises CEOs, Boards of Directors and Special Committees in strategic and corporate governance issues. He has represented clients in more than 100 public and private company acquisitions, strategic alliances and financings, ranging in size from over several billion dollars to much smaller transactions.

Mr. Townsend joined Morrison & Foerster in 1984 and became a partner of the firm in 1990. He served as Chair of the firm's Global Business Department from 1996 to 2003.

• The Clorox Company/Burt’s Bees: Represented The Clorox Company in its $950 million all-cash acquisition of Burt’s Bees, a leader in natural personal care consumer products.
• ADESA/Kelso: Represented ADESA (NYSE: KAR) in its acquisition by a consortium of private equity funds and related combination with Insurance Auto Auctions in a transaction valued at $3.7 billion.
• Thomson S.A./Technicolor: Represented Thomson, a French NYSE-listed company, in its cross-border acquisition of Technicolor from Carlton Communications for $2.1 billion of cash and securities.
• MarketWatch, Inc./Dow Jones: Represented MarketWatch, a Nasdaq company, in its acquisition by Dow Jones for approximately $520 million cash through a reverse triangular merger, and related adoption of a shareholder rights plan.
• Wine.com: Represented company in a Series F financing led by Baker Capital raising approximately $20 million.
• Scharffen Berger Chocolate Maker, Inc./Hershey: Represented Scharffen Berger, a first-tier chocolate manufacturer, in its acquisition by The Hershey Corporation.