MoForever Alumni News - Summer 2019

3 | MoForever Summer 2019 During his 34 years at Morrison & Foerster, Robert Townsend represented some of the world’s largest companies on complex mergers and acquisitions, securities transactions, leveraged buyouts, and venture capital deals. The San Francisco-based partner had played many roles for MoFo over the years, including chair of the points committee, chair of the Business Department and Corporate Group, and managing partner of the Tokyo office. During his most recent role as global co-head of the Mergers & Acquisitions Group, he led many high-stakes deals, including the largest-ever U.S. acquisition by a Japanese company (the $20 billion takeover of Sprint by SoftBank) and the subsequent merger of Sprint with T-Mobile. In 2018, he was recruited to SoftBank to take on the role of first-ever chief legal officer at SoftBank Group, the leading global technology investor whose portfolio of companies includes AI, smart robotics, IoT, advanced telecommunications, internet services, and clean energy technology providers. WIDENING THE SPHERE OF INFLUENCE: FROM BIG LAW PARTNER TO GLOBAL ADVISOR