Alessandra Murata, currently partner at Cooley LLP, is a trusted advisor to companies, management teams, venture capital, boards of directors, and compensation committees on executive compensation and benefits issues arising in every stage of the corporate life cycle, ranging from emerging growth to blue-chip public. She also counsels companies through transformative events, such as mergers and acquisitions, initial public offerings (IPOs), venture capital and leveraged buyout transactions, spinoffs, restructurings, and other transformative corporate events. With more than two decades of practice experience spanning many industries, her current practice focuses on cutting-edge technology and life-sciences companies of all sizes as well as clients within the private equity and real estate investment trust sectors.

Murata’s background includes significant experience counseling on executive-compensation-related securities filing disclosures, special purpose acquisition company and umbrella partnership C corporation structuring, stock and stock-based compensation, as well as negotiating and shaping the compensation and benefits aspects of transaction agreements and associated documents with underlying size values ranging from $20 million to $51 billion.

Murata frequently contributes to thought leadership, often moderating panels with other high-profile industry professionals and presenting on fresh regulatory developments. Some recent examples include a number of presentations covering the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s new pay-versus-performance disclosure rules with Compensia’s Mark Borges, Infinite Equity, and others; Cooley’s annual Comp Talks series, consisting of webinars discussing current and upcoming hot topics in compensation and benefits; and active involvement with the American Bar Association’s Joint Committee on Employee Benefits, which engages with government and regulatory agencies. She has been an IPO Institute faculty member and a panelist at Cooley and Deloitte’s joint event, Life as a Late-Stage Private Company.

She is frequently recognized for her work on compensation-related issues. Her recent publications include a feature in The Corporate Counsel, and she is a contributing author to The Section 409A Handbook (BNA 2016), the definitive treatise on the subject.

Murata began her career at Debevoise & Plimpton LLP and spent more than a decade as executive compensation and benefits counsel in Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP’s New York and Palo Alto offices. Before joining Cooley, she was a partner at Goodwin Procter in its Employee Retirement Income Security Act and executive compensation practice.

Murata is ranked by Chambers USA in Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation and listed among the Legal 500 under “Employee Benefits, Executive Compensation and Retirement Plans.” In addition, she was recognized in 2016 by the Silicon Valley Business Journal with the Women of Influence Award and in 2023 by Business Today among the “Top 10 Influential Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation Lawyers in California.”

She earned a bachelor of science from Cornell University, and she earned a law degree from the University of Michigan Law School and a master of laws from the New York University School of Law. She’s a member of the bar in California and New York.