Melissa is a partner in Akin’s regulatory group and serves as the transactional practices lead, focused on helping clients achieve their business and investment objectives by providing integrated regulatory and transactional advice. In this role, she works across the firm’s transactional and regulatory practices to identify emerging client needs, develop innovative solutions and strengthen the firm’s market-leading regulatory and transactional capabilities.

A highly regarded international transactional lawyer, Melissa has more than three decades of experience advising clients on complex, multijurisdictional transactions involving geopolitical risk and other regulatory considerations. She has extensive experience counseling clients in connection with mergers and acquisitions (M&A), financings, joint ventures, strategic investments and other transformative transactions across a broad range of industries and jurisdictions. Melissa is particularly recognized for helping clients identify, assess and mitigate regulatory risks that can impact transaction execution, financing arrangements, investment strategies and long-term business objectives. Her experience spans cross-border M&A, private equity investments, fund matters, financings and strategic commercial arrangements, where regulatory considerations increasingly play a critical role in successful outcomes.

Melissa has held numerous leadership positions within the firm. She currently serves on Akin’s Firmwide Management Committee and Regulatory Practice Steering Committee, and previously served as the firm’s Professional Development Partner.