Aarthi Belani is a partner in Baker McKenzie’s Palo Alto office. Aarthi’s practice focuses on M&A and venture deals in the tech and life sciences arena. She represents strategic acquirers, especially in cross-border deals, emerging growth technology companies, venture capital funds, and corporate venture capital. She has also represented the sell-side and advised on health care, financial services, and impact investment deals. Prior to joining Baker McKenzie, Aarthi was a partner in the M&A practice of a top-tier international law firm. Prior to that, she was on the in-house legal team covering strategic M&A at Credit Suisse in New York, where she was also a member of the Sustainability Network, a Credit Suisse OneBank (cross-divisional) initiative to develop impact investment products. At the start of her career, Aarthi was an associate in the New York office of another top-tier international law firm for five years, where she worked on complex strategic M&A and innovative development finance. She is a mentor for the Unreasonable Group (a program for entrepreneurs); a Leadership Committee member of How Women Lead, which is part of the campaign to increase the representation of women on corporate boards; and a director of Bidoun, a not-for-profit publishing, curatorial, and educational initiative that prints a quarterly magazine showcasing art and culture from the Middle East.