Blake Liggio

Blake Liggio is a partner in Goodwin’s M&A/Corporate Governance practice. His practice focuses on representing public and private acquirors, targets, boards of directors, transaction committees and investment banks in US and cross-border M&A and other strategic transactions. He has deep M&A experience across the real estate, life sciences, technology, and financial services industries. Blake also advises clients on a range of corporate matters, including fiduciary duties, corporate governance, federal securities law disclosure and compliance, and defensive measures.

Blake is a member of the firm’s Global M&A steering committee and serves on the Attorney Review Committee and ESG Steering Committee.

Mergers and acquisitions representations include:

• Fusion Pharmaceuticals in its $2.4 billion (upfront cash and CVR) sale to AstraZeneca
• Theseus Pharmaceuticals in its $185 million (upfront cash and CVR) sale to Concentra Biosciences
• Alkermes plc in its cross-border spin-off of its oncology business, Mural Oncology plc
• RPT Realty in its $2 billion sale to Kimco Realty
• First Real Estate Investment Trust of New Jersey, Inc., in its defense of an unsolicited takeover proposal by a Kushner company affiliate, and its adoption of a shareholder rights plan
• Donahue Schriber Realty in its sale to First Washington Realty
• BioDelivery Sciences International in its $605 million sale to Collegium Pharmaceutical
• Retail Properties of America in its $7.5 billion sale to Kite Realty Group Trust
• Cottonwood Residential in its $1.5 billion sale to Cottonwood Communities
• AquaVenture in its $1.1 billion sale to Culligan and Advent 
• Carbon Black in its $2.1 billion sale to VMware
• TIER REIT in its $5.9 billion sale to Cousins Properties
• Spark Therapeutics in its $4 billion sale to Roche
• Twilio in its $3 billion acquisition of SendGrid
• Cottonwood Residential in its $1.7 billion restructuring, including its $440 million asset portfolio sale to Ares Capital Management
• Ablynx NV in its $4.8 billion sale to Sanofi
• Planet Payment in its $250 million sale to Fintrax Group
• Monogram Residential Trust in its $4.4 billion sale to a private fund led by Greystar Real Estate Partners
• NeuStar in its $2.9 billion sale to a private investment group led by Golden Gate Capital and GIC
• Citrix Systems in the spin-off of its GoTo business and subsequent $1.8 billion sale to LogMeIn through a Reverse Morris Trust transaction
• The Scion Group LLC in its $1.4 billion acquisition (in joint venture with Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation) of University House Communities Group, Inc.
• Xoom in its $1 billion sale to PayPal
• Courier Corporation in its $320 million acquisition by R.R. Donnelley
• Trulia in its $3.5 billion sale to Zillow
• Onyx Pharmaceuticals in its $10.4 billion sale to Amgen
• Mid-America Apartment Communities in its $8.6 billion acquisition of Colonial Properties Trust
• CreXus Investment Corp. in its $1 billion sale to Annaly Capital Management
• ZOLL Medical in its $2.2 billion sale to Asahi Kasei Corporation
• Salary.com in its $80 million sale to Kenexa

Financial advisor M&A representations include:

• Centerview Partners as financial advisor to Thoratec in its $3.4 billion sale to St. Jude Medical, XenoPort in its $467 million sale to Arbor Pharmaceutical, Idenix in its $3.8 billion sale to Merck, Relypsa in its $1.5 billion sale to Galenica, Qualcomm in its $47 billion acquisition of NXP Semiconductors, Kite Pharma in its $11.9 billion sale to Gilead, and Qualcomm in connection with the unsolicited offer from Broadcom

Blake also provides ongoing pro bono advice to The Greater Boston Food Bank on general corporate matters and is a leader in the firm’s initiative on the GLAD Transgender Name Change Project.

Blake served as a law clerk to the Honorable R. Marc Kantrowitz of the Massachusetts Appeals Court, and a law clerk for the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Blake served from 2020 - 2022 as an adjunct professor at Columbia University, where he taught a workshop on real estate M&A entitled “Real Estate Mergers and Acquisitions Deal Workshop” for Columbia Business School and Columbia Law School.

Legal 500 – Real Estate / REITs (2017)

Law360 Rising Star – M&A (2017)

National LGBT Bar Association, Best Lawyers Under 40 (2017)

Massachusetts Super Lawyers Rising Star (2018; 2019; 2020)

IFLR1000 Rising Star (2019)

IFLR 1000 Notable Practitioner (2020-2023)

Blake’s recent speaking engagements and article publications include:

• Speaker, “Unsolicited M&A Process & Preparation,” 2024 ABFO National Conference
• Co-Author, “Envisioning the New Normal: Real Estate + Technology – Part 8: Series Wrap-Up,” Goodwin Insight, September 2020
• Speaker, “Why COVID is Accelerating M&A Activity and How to Get a Deal Done,” Shadow Ventures Webinar, July 2020
• Co-Author, “Envisioning the New Normal: Real Estate + Technology – Part 1: Office,” Goodwin Insight, July 2020
• Speaker, “Navigating the Ins and Outs of Cross-Border M&A,” Goodwin’s webinar event, July 2020
• Co-Author, “How Technology May be a Key X-Factor in the Real Estate Industry’s Road to Recovery,” Goodwin’s PropTech Pulse Series, May 2020
• “20/20 Vision on Biotech M&A,” ABFO Boston Chapter Meeting, February 2020
• Co-Author, “Mergers and Acquisitions: Impact on the Real Estate Technology Revolution,” Corporate Real Estate Journal, November 2019
• Speaker, “Mergers and Acquisitions on Fire – Major RE Tech Companies Invest in PropTech,” RealComm Conference 2019, June 2019
• Co-Author, “Real Estate Innovation,” Goodwin’s PropTech Pulse thought leadership, April 2019
• Co-Author, “The PropTech Industry is Set for a Wave of Consolidation,” Goodwin’s PropTech Pulse, March 2019
• Co-Author, “The Rising Presence of Tech-Experience in the C-Suites and Boardrooms of Real Estate Firms,” Goodwin’s PropTech Pulse, January 2019