Ranjit J. Hakim

Ranjit Hakim is a corporate lawyer in Mayer Brown’s Chicago and Northern California offices. He draws on his broad transactional and litigation experience to offer clients a first point of contact for a wide range of legal services. In the transactional space, Ranjit focuses on complex commercial deals involving corporate venture capital investments (both investor-side and company-side) and strategic contracting, as well as buy and sell side public and private company mergers, acquisitions, and asset sales. In the litigation space, Ranjit counsels clients on managing pre and post closing litigation and regulatory risk in these transactions and resolving disputes when they arise. Ranjit also provides outside general counsel services to emerging companies, advises clients on legal issues related to corporate governance and board management; emerging artificial intelligence, blockchain and quantum computing products, platforms and services; proprietary and open source software licensing; and federal, state and international privacy regimes.

Prior to rejoining the firm in 2018, Ranjit served as the Executive Director of the Cook County Board of Ethics and the Cook County Commission on Human Rights in Chicago, Illinois, where he lead over 300 anti-corruption, anti-fraud and civil rights investigations, authored more than 250 administrative decisions and successfully defended those decisions on judicial review. Prior to this term of public service, Ranjit was a litigation associate in Mayer Brown’s Chicago office where he conducted numerous internal investigations for regulated entities and briefed various state and federal appellate, trial and administrative-level matters, including several cases before the Illinois and U.S. Supreme Courts. 

Prior to joining the firm in 2006, Ranjit clerked for the Honorable Rebecca Pallmeyer on the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois and was a fellow at Lambda Legal and the Southern Center for Human Rights.

Corporate Venture Capital/Emerging Companies

• Represented numerous strategic investors in a variety of early stage convertible debt investments to launch or expand startups ranging from a retirement planning platform and a professional esports company to an aggregator of unregistered investment opportunities and AI-powered data extraction tool for financial documents.
• Represented an angel investor in a convertible debt investment in FairFrame Incorporated, a company that combines artificial intelligence and social science research in a text analysis platform to “spellcheck” for unconscious bias.
• Represented an Africa-based fintech startup in its US-formation and pre-seed, SAFE financing.
• Represented an edtech startup in its first major equity fundraising with outside investors.
• Represented a fintech credit card company in successive closings of its Series A equity financing round with new and existing investors and the subsequent creation of a hybrid debt and equity fundraising instrument used with existing investors.
• Represented a producer of large-scale LED display systems and monitoring in its Series A equity financing round with new investors.
• Represented a unified lineage platform in its Series A1 equity financing round with new and existing investors.
• Represented a strategic investor in its Series A investment in an electrical tractor manufacturer.
• Represented a financial investor in leading the Series A equity financing round of an AI-powered fundraising platform.
• Represented a strategic investor in its Series B investment in an innovative cybersecurity provider.
• Represented a strategic investor in leading the Series B-2 equity financing round in a robotics digitization company.
• Represented a strategic investor in a fintech’s Series C and D equity financing round and partnered in the commercial arrangement to launch a new digital mortgage platform. 
• Represented a strategic investor in leading the Series D equity financing round in a crowdsourcing security testing platform.
• Represented a fixed income tech platform in its Class E equity financing round.
• Represented numerous strategic investors in market, product and technology expanding joint ventures.

Mergers & Acquisitions

• Represented the buyer in the acquisition of the valuable software and contract assets of a business that enables supply chain and operations business users to harness the power of analytics through deployment of sophisticated algorithms on a modern cloud technology.
• Represented the buyer in the acquisition and post-merger integration of a San Francisco-based creator of innovative connected hardware that is tightly integrated with digital services. 
• Represented the buyer in the acquisition and post-merger integration of a privately held financial services consulting firm specializing in digital and technology integration experience.
• Represented the buyer in the acquisition and post-merger integration of a venture-backed, Boston-based consulting and systems integration firm that provides smart grid, grid modernization, analytics and security services to utilities in North America.
• Represented the buyer in the acquisition and post-merger integration of a Seattle-based, privately held company that specializes in security design and testing of enterprise software platforms and internet of things (IoT) technologies.
• Represented the buyer in the acquisition and post-merger integration of an award-winning product innovation, IoT infrastructure and engineering company with a team of 250 professionals, headquartered in Kirkland, Washington.
• Represented the buyer in the acquisition and post-merger integration of a business that creates artificial intelligence solutions for banks and credit unions.
• Represented sellers in the divestment and sale of joint venture assets.
• Represented the buyer in the acquisition of a national title and escrow company.
• Represented the buyer in the acquisition of a company that developed an online platform to allow its customers to draw up legally valid wills and estate planning documents.
• Represented the seller in the sale of subrogration rights and insurance policy claims related to the California wildfires.

Corporate Governance and Other Commercial Contracting

• Provide ongoing corporate governance and commercial advice to various start up client.
• Represented a gaming company in an international joint venture to develop and manage a branded luxury resort, residences and entertainment facilities in Dubai, U.A.E.
• Represented an international restaurant brand in various commercial arrangements with various delivery and aggregator services.
• Represented an international restaurant brand in a global collaboration agreement to expand meat substitute offerings.

• Kendall College, Certificate of Professional Cookery
• Northwestern University, MA
• The University of Chicago Law School, JD, with honors
  Articles Editor, University of Chicago Law Review; founding editor of The Carceral Notebook

• Illinois
• California