Michael Gisser

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.