Lara Alice Pender specializes in structuring, negotiating, and managing multijurisdictional acquisitions, divestitures, and minority- and majority-stake investments.

Professor Pender worked in London for several years, where she focused on complex, sponsor-backed acquisitions for global private equity sponsors. Since moving to the United States in 2014, Professor Pender has split her time between the Bay Area and the Midwest—and deepened her commitment to advising growth-stage companies. She has worked on more than a dozen financings of "unicorn" companies with valuations in excess of $1bn, chiefly acting for international corporate venture capital, sovereign wealth and pension funds. Professor Pender is deeply engaged in the burgeoning Midwest venture scene, helping founders and venture capitalists navigate initial funding rounds and other early-stage legal and strategic issues.

Professor Pender is a partner in Jones Day's Detroit office and is admitted to practice in England and Wales, California, and Michigan.