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Mark Windfeld-Hansen is co-chair of Cooley's Tax practice group and a member of the Cooley Business department. He joined the Firm in 2008 and is resident in the Palo Alto office.
     Prior to joining Cooley, Mr. Windfeld-Hansen was a shareholder of Heller Ehrman LLP and member of that firm's Venture Law Group. Prior to its merger with Heller Ehrman LLP, Mr. Windfeld-Hansen was a director of Venture Law Group and head of that firm's Tax group. Prior to joining Venture Law Group he was a partner and co-chairman of the Tax Department of Morrison & Foerster. He has more than 20 years of experience as a tax lawyer.
     Mr. Windfeld-Hansen's practice focuses on tax issues arising in business transactions and executive compensation, with particular emphasis on tax concerns of emerging growth companies and their executives. He advises clients on federal and state tax issues in mergers and acquisitions (domestic and cross-border), spin-offs, restructurings, equity and debt financings, leveraged buy-outs, limited liability companies and other pass-through entities, liquidations and other significant transactions. He has been the lead tax lawyer on a large number of high-profile transactions for such clients as Yahoo!, Seagate, Macrovision, Oracle, Collagen, Aspect Communications, and RITA Medical Systems, and has represented the selling company in numerous acquisitions by some of the world's most active buyers, such as Cisco Systems, Microsoft, Boston Scientific, IBM, AOL, Intel, Nokia, Qualcomm and Alcatel. In the past 1-1/2 years he has been the principal tax lawyer on more than 80 acquisitions having an aggregate value in excess of $10 billion.
     Mr. Windfeld-Hansen speaks regularly on tax topics for such organizations as Council on State Taxation, the Southern Federal Tax Institute, various State Bar Associations, and the California CPA Society and has assisted in teaching classes on tax issues in venture capital transactions at Stanford Law School and Santa Clara Law School. He is co-author of "State Taxation of Pass-Through Entities," part of the Tax Management Multistate Tax Portfolio series. He has been recognized in Best Lawyers in America for Tax Law.

J.D., Yale Law School (1982)
B.A., History, Amherst College (1978) summa cum laude