Joanna Lin advises public and private companies on high-stakes corporate transactions and governance matters. Ms. Lin brings deep experience in mergers and acquisitions, strategic transactions and board-level counsel, with particular strength in advising special committees, conflict transactions, cross-border deals spanning more than 25 jurisdictions and joint ventures.
Ms. Lin serves as a go-to advisor for boards, special committees and executives pursuing transformative deals across high-growth sectors, including artificial intelligence (AI), digital health, life sciences, FinTech and professional services. Her strategic acumen earned her recognition as “M&A Lawyer of the Year” at the Euromoney Legal Media Group’s Americas Women in Business Law Awards in 2022.
Ms. Lin is recognized by Chambers USA 2026 as a leading lawyer for her Corporate/M&A work in Texas, where clients say she is “highly skilled in leading complex transactions,” “highly substantive, deeply engaged and is guided by the core principle of giving her clients the most thoughtful, practical advice to help them navigate through the deal issues," “highly effective and personable" and she “delivers impeccably to clients and manages multi-jurisdictional components extremely well.” She is is also recommended by The Legal 500 US for her work in M&A: large deals ($1bn+).
Beyond her practice, Ms. Lin co-chairs the Women in M&A Subcommittee of the ABA M&A Committee, which focuses on the participation, promotion and retention of women in the M&A field. She frequently speaks and publishes on M&A topics for the American Bar Association.
- Represented the Audit Committee of Tesla, Inc. in connection with Tesla's approximately US$2 billion investment in X.AI Holdings Corp.'s Series E fundraising.
- Represented Delta Electronics, Inc., a global leading provider of smart energy-saving solutions, in its acquisition of Universal Instruments Corporation, a global leader in precision automation solutions for smart manufacturing.
- Represented JLL (NYSE: JLL) in its joint venture with Slate Asset Management to commercialize a technology platform for commercial real estate.
- Represented JLL (NYSE: JLL) in its acquisition of Raise Commercial Real Estate, a technology-powered brokerage firm that provides client solutions via a transformative digital real estate platform.
- Represented BDO USA in connection with the establishment of an Employee Stock Ownership Plan.
- Represented Cognizant (Nasdaq: CTSH) in its acquisition of Thirdera, an Elite ServiceNow Partner specializing in advisory, implementation and optimization solutions related to the ServiceNow platform.
- Represented Downtown Music Holdings, a premier music publishing partner for songwriters, storied music catalogues, and emerging artists, in two transformational deals: its acquisition of AVL Digital Group, a leading digital music publishing platform, and its sale of its music catalogue business (more than 145,000 songs by artists including Beyoncé, Lady Gaga, and Mötley Crüe) to Concord Music Publishing.
- Represented BDO USA in its establishment of BDO RISE, its first international joint venture in India.
- Represented Enleofen Bio Pte. Ltd in its sale of worldwide exclusive rights to Enleofen’s preclinical interleukin-11 platform to Boehringer Ingelheim.
- Represented Hakkoda Inc., a leading global data and AI consultancy, in its sale to IBM Consulting.
- Represented DraftKings (NASDAQ: DKNG) in its sale of Vegas Sports Information Network, Inc.
- Represented Ryan LLC, a global tax services provider, in its acquisition of property tax and transfer pricing product lines from Thomson Reuters.
- Represented Dialexa, a Dallas-based digital product engineering services firm, in its acquisition by IBM Consulting.
- Represented a private equity firm in its platform acquisition of a technology consulting and digital transformation firm and three subsequent add-on acquisitions, all of which are IT and digital services firms.
- Represented a life sciences company in its acquisition of a clinical research software company that developed the clinical trial management system that improves the ease, quality and efficiency of conducting clinical research at study sites.
*Includes matters handled prior to joining the firm.
- Best Lawyers in America, Mergers and Acquisitions Law, 2024-2026
- Thomson Reuters, Stand-out Lawyer, 2024-2025
- Chambers USA, Corporate/M&A, Band 5, 2023-2025
- The Legal 500 US, Recommended, 2022, 2024-2025
- IFLR1000, M&A, 2022-2023
- Euromoney, Americas Women in Business Law Mergers & Acquisitions Lawyer of the Year, 2022
- Texas Lawyer, Most Effective Dealmaker, 2022
- The M&A Advisor, Emerging Leaders and International M&A Awards M&A Deal of the Year, 2019
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- University of California, Irvine, B.A., 2004, cum laude
- Boston College Law School, J.D., 2008
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- Texas
- Massachusetts
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- American Bar Association Mergers and Acquisitions Committee, Women in Mergers and Acquisitions Subcommittee, Co-Chair
- Helms Hope Foundation, Board Member