Michael Gisser’s first career was as a musician. A conservatory-trained trombonist and close contemporary of Yo-Yo Ma, he branched out into jazz, pop and commercial music and became a top-call musician on the East Coast before he was 18 years old.

Gisser is best known as the head of Skadden Arps’ Asia Pacific Practice. He was a founding partner, and led the practice as it grew to more than 200, with seven offices in six nations. Gisser spearheaded notable merger and acquisition transactions across the globe including Skype, Juicy Couture, 99 Cents Only Stores, the sale of Youku to Alibaba, the sale of Lexmark, and many others. Gisser is perhaps the only person to have advised on transactions greater than $1 billion in size on four continents.

Chambers Global consistently profiled Gisser as a leading lawyer in both China and the United States. He has been recognized in Corporate/M&A by Chambers USA and Chambers Asia-Pacific. Gisser regularly teaches corporate/transaction law topics at Stanford Law School and NYU Law School.

In addition to serving as a Senior Advisor at Europe’s largest venture capital firm, Atomico, Gisser is an active board member as well as investor in growth and technology companies. In his spare time, he has taught himself the Australian aboriginal instrument, the didgeridoo, as well as the Great Highland Bagpipes.