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MoFo Advises AuditBoard on Acquisition of FairNow

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MoFo advised AuditBoard, the leading AI-powered global platform for connected risk transforming audit, risk, and compliance, in...

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MoFo advised AuditBoard, the leading AI-powered global platform for connected risk transforming audit, risk, and compliance, in its acquisition of FairNow, an end-to-end, purpose-built AI Governance platform. FairNow further enhances AuditBoard's industry leading capabilities with intelligent, automated, and step-by-step AI compliance guidance. With AI Governance requirements expanding globally, AuditBoard customers are now uniquely positioned to stay compliant and mitigate AI-related risks.The MoFo team advising AuditBoard was led by private equity M&A partners Patrick Huard and James Beach, with assistance from corporate associates Kelly Kan, Bryce Hicks, and Ryan Gopar Ramirez, and technology transactions partner Justin Haan and associate Hannah Koo.  Read the <a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/auditboard-announces-acquisition-of-fairnow-to-expand-ai-governance-capabilities-302591715.html" target="_blank">press release</a>.

MoFo Advises AuditBoard on Acquisition of FairNow

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Patrick Huard is the Global Co-Chair of the Private Equity Practice. Specializing in private equity M&A, he sits in the San Francisco office.Patrick has significant experience representing private equity funds and their portfolio companies in a broad range of corporate matters, including public and private acquisitions, leveraged buyouts, venture and growth equity investments, and divestitures. Clients rely on him for both his sophisticated legal counseling as well as his sharp business acumen.Patrick advises private equity sponsors in all aspects of their investment activity across a wide variety of industry sectors, including software and technology, business services, consumer and retail, professional and industrial services, and ESG/impact investing. Patrick is also a member of our global Sustainability + Corporate Responsibility steering committee.Patrick is ranked for California Private Equity: Buyouts by Chambers USA 2025, as a Leading Partner for Private Equity Buyouts by Legal 500 US (2021-2025), and among Top 10 Mid Cap M&A Lawyers in North America by MergerLinks (2021-2023). Our private equity practice was also recognized as a Law360 Practice Group of the Year 2021.﻿Patrick graduated, magna cum laude, from the Georgetown University Law Center, where he was elected into the Order of the Coif and served as the Notes and Articles Editor of the Journal of Law and Policy in International Business.

Patrick Huard

Global Co-Chair of Private Equity Practice

James Beach works with leading middle market private equity firms.James represents private equity funds and their portfolio companies in a broad range of complex domestic and cross-border transactions, including M&A, divestitures, and growth equity investments. He also advises companies across all stages of their lifecycle.James has completed over $15 billion of aggregate transactions across numerous industries, including healthcare, enterprise software, data, security and technology, logistics, manufacturing and consumer products.Prior to joining MoFo, James was a partner in the private equity and M&A group at another global law firm and at a private equity M&A boutique.

James Beach

Partner

Kelly Kan is a corporate associate in the Los Angeles office of Morrison Foerster.Kelly advises on complex corporate transactions including mergers and acquisitions and private equity matters, and she also counsels on corporate governance.Prior to joining Morrison Foerster, Kelly was an associate at another major law firm, where she practiced securities and corporate law.Kelly earned her J.D. from Peter A. Allard School of Law, University of British Columbia. She earned her Bachelor of Commerce from the Sauder School of Business, University of British Columbia.She also volunteers her time as a mentor with the Girl E-Mentorship Program.Kelly holds oral fluency in Cantonese and is conversational in Mandarin.

Kelly Kan

Associate

Bryce Hicks is a corporate associate in Morrison Foerster’s San Francisco office.Prior to joining Morrison Foerster, Bryce served as a corporate paralegal at another leading law firm. He also spent time as a Business and Legal Affairs Intern at the National Football League. Bryce earned his J.D. from the University of Southern California Gould School of Law. He also holds a B.A. from California State University Northridge.

Bryce Hicks

Ryan Ramirez is an associate in Morrison Foerster’s San Francisco office and a member of the firm’s Transactions Department.Ryan earned his J.D. from the University of California College of the Law San Francisco, where he served as a tutor for the Legal Education Opportunity Program, a research assistant for the First-Generation Program, and a teaching assistant for Civil Procedure.During law school, Ryan studied abroad at the Università Bocconi in Milan, Italy. He also participated in the UCDC Law Program, where he served as a law clerk at the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee for the Office of Senator Hirono in Washington, D.C. Ryan also spent two summers with Morrison Foerster as a Wetmore Fellow and summer associate in San Francisco.Ryan received his B.A. cum laude in sociology from Sonoma State University.

Ryan Gopar Ramirez

Justin Haan is a partner in the firm’s Technology Transactions Group in the San Francisco office, advising leading technology industry pioneers to help them navigate their most critical IP and technology needs.Justin’s practice focuses on transactions and counseling involving intellectual property and technology, including licensing arrangements, technology transfers, and joint development activities. Justin structures, drafts, and negotiates a wide range of commercial agreements, including software and content licenses, service agreements, reseller arrangements, and collaboration, manufacturing, supply and distribution agreements. He advises clients on the development, procurement and commercialization of cutting-edge technologies, including artificial intelligence, machine learning, augmented/virtual reality, semiconductors, cloud computing services, autonomous vehicles, and unmanned aircraft systems. Justin also counsels clients on open source software, complex patent-related transactions, and the intellectual property aspects of M&A transactions. Justin’s experience includes advising OpenAI, Arm, Autodesk, Meta, Salesforce, SoftBank, Unity, and others on the IP aspects of complex projects involving cutting-edge technologies and fast-evolving areas of law. Justin serves on the firm’s AI industry committee, where he helps to lead and collaborate with attorneys across multiple practices on the rapid advances of generative AI. Justin is also a sought–after speaker and thought leader on artificial intelligence and has spoken at SXSW on the subject of multimodal AI.Before joining the firm, Justin was an intellectual property associate in the New York office of another global law firm.Justin received his J.D., with a certificate in law and technology, from the University of California, Berkeley School of Law, where he won the Prosser Prize in intellectual property in the entertainment industries and was an articles editor for the Berkeley Technology Law Journal. He received his A.B. from Harvard University.

Justin Haan

Hannah Koo is an associate in Morrison Foerster’s Technology Transactions Group.Hannah’s practice is focused on transactions and counseling involving the acquisition, development, licensing and transfer of intellectual property and technology. She advises clients across a wide range of industries, including software and cloud services, hardware, artificial intelligence, pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, and clean technology.Her experience includes structuring and negotiating complex intellectual property and commercial agreements, including patent, software and technology licenses, strategic partnerships and collaborations, data-related agreements, research and development agreements, services agreements, and distribution agreements. Hannah also advises on the intellectual property components of mergers and acquisitions and other corporate transactions.In addition to her practice, Hannah is an active member of the firm’s pro bono efforts and diversity and inclusion initiatives.Hannah earned her J.D. from Columbia Law School, where she was a James Kent Scholar and an articles editor for the Columbia Business Law Review. She received a B.A. from Duke University.

Hannah Koo

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

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Private Equity Investments + Buyouts