K&L Gates Strengthens Corporate Practice with Addition of Orange County Partner

Orange County - Global law firm K&L Gates LLP has added Rema Awad as a partner in the corporate practice. She joins K&L Gates’ Orange County office from Akerman LLP. 

Awad focuses her practice on mergers and acquisitions, securities, and corporate law. She represents public and private companies of all sizes on matters including buy and sell side transactions, joint ventures, and corporate and partnership recapitalizations. Awad also advises private equity firms on investments in privately-held companies, as well as on private equity, venture capital, and angel transactions. She counsels clients in the life sciences, health care, entertainment, services, and technology industries, with extensive experience advising on M&A transactions.

“We are so pleased to have Rema join our global corporate practice,” said Annette Becker, co-leader of K&L Gates’ corporate practice area. “Her corporate capabilities in key industries of focus will be incredibly beneficial across the firm.”

Awad is the latest of nearly a dozen California-based lawyers to join K&L Gates in the past year, including labor and employment partner Eugene Ryu and litigation partners Helen Kim and Mitch Kim in Los Angeles; intellectual property partner Mincheol Kim, real estate partner William Tate, and commercial litigation partners J. David Bournazian and Jonathan Hersey in Orange County; and intellectual property partner Tom Anderton, corporate partner Ali Nardali, and asset management of counsel David Owen in San Francisco. They are among the more than 35 partners who have joined the firm since January 2020. 

“We are excited to welcome Rema to the Orange County office,” said Michael Hedge, managing partner of K&L Gates’ Orange County office. “Her extensive corporate skillset is a valuable addition to our talented group of lawyers and continues a trend of impressive hires for our California offices over the past year.”  

K&L Gates’ corporate practice is one of the most substantial in the legal industry, with more than 500 lawyers in offices on five continents assisting clients in the structuring, financing, and completion of domestic, international, and cross-border transactions. The group serves as counsel to a broad array of Global 500, Fortune 100, FTSE 100 corporations, privately held and venture-backed companies, partnerships, private equity firms, other investment funds, management groups, and entrepreneurs. The practice has helped earn K&L Gates recent recognitions that have included designations as corporate “Law Firm of the Year” in U.S. News-Best Lawyers’ annual “Best Law Firms” report and one of America’s top corporate law firms by Forbes.