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Haibo Mo LL.M. ’25

Getting a Business Boost in Berkeley

Haibo Mo had already built a successful legal career before pursuing his second LL.M. degree — but his time in Berkeley reflects a deep commitment to lifelong learning rather than resting on past achievements.

“I felt it was time to step out of my comfort zone and reconnect with the latest developments in the legal world,” says Mo, a prominent corporate law partner at China’s leading firm, King & Wood Mallesons.

A corporate and capital markets expert, Mo has advised on many high-impact transactions that have shaped industries and fueled major enterprises. He says he is “very proud” to be part of his firm’s remarkable growth over the past 20 years, representing clients in fields ranging from banking and real estate to biopharmaceuticals and advertising.

VIEW FINDER: Corporate law expert Haibo Mo LL.M. ’25, a partner at one of Asia’s most successful firms, savors his Berkeley experience both professionally and personally. Photo by Darius Riley
Landscape orientation outdoor photograph of Haibo Mo, a man with short dark black parted hair and round shaped prescription eyeglasses who is sitting on a dark wooden bench smiling faintly and looking to his left away from the camera; He is wearing a dark navy blue sweatshirt with a yellow Cal logo as well as a yellow Nike swoosh icon on the chest and he has on gray pants; He is in an outdoor setting with a light-colored tan/beige building containing an entrance doorway plus windows spread out in the background behind him as well as there is a cropped view of trees plus smaller shrubs behind the dark wooden bench
VIEW FINDER: Corporate law expert Haibo Mo LL.M. ’25, a partner at one of Asia’s most successful firms, savors his Berkeley experience both professionally and personally. Photo by Darius Riley
Haibo Mo LL.M. ’25

Getting a Business Boost in Berkeley

Haibo Mo had already built a successful legal career before pursuing his second LL.M. degree — but his time in Berkeley reflects a deep commitment to lifelong learning rather than resting on past achievements.

“I felt it was time to step out of my comfort zone and reconnect with the latest developments in the legal world,” says Mo, a prominent corporate law partner at China’s leading firm, King & Wood Mallesons.

A corporate and capital markets expert, Mo has advised on many high-impact transactions that have shaped industries and fueled major enterprises. He says he is “very proud” to be part of his firm’s remarkable growth over the past 20 years, representing clients in fields ranging from banking and real estate to biopharmaceuticals and advertising.

His dealmaking acumen has been recognized by Chambers Global, Legal 500, and China Business Law — just to name a few. Mo also helps manage his firm’s corporate practice department and its Guangzhou office.

He calls his return to Berkeley 20 years in the making. In 2005, as an LL.M. exchange student at American University Washington College of Law in Washington, D.C., he spent three memorable weeks in the Bay Area.

“I was instantly drawn to the energy of San Francisco, the intellectual atmosphere of Berkeley, the innovation of Silicon Valley, and also the California sunshine”
“I was instantly drawn to the energy of San Francisco, the intellectual atmosphere of Berkeley, the innovation of Silicon Valley, and also the California sunshine,” Mo says. “I’ve always hoped to return to see how the region has evolved.”

He also drew some strong personal inspiration from Wang Junfeng — the principal founding partner and global chair of King & Wood Mallesons, who earned LL.M. and J.S.D. degrees from UC Berkeley Law — and his own LL.M. classroom experiences. Through his firm’s collaboration with several leading universities in China, Mo supervises LL.M. students there and also teaches a course on cross-border mergers and acquisitions and financing at Sun Yat-sen University.

“For me, teaching is a meaningful way to give back to the profession and I genuinely enjoy it,” he says. “It’s quite a unique experience to go from being a teacher one week to a student the next. Returning to Berkeley has made me feel young again.”

Through his international business transaction work, Mo says he sees how English and American common law govern a significant part of the global deal-making landscape.

“Learning common law in a systematic way is now crucial for my professional development as a transaction lawyer,” he explains. “In a sense, I came to Berkeley to make up for the class I missed.”

Mo has also enjoyed exploring developments in U.S. venture capital and M&A practices, being part of a vibrant and intellectually generous academic community with diverse classmates from all over the world, and taking a course with Dean Erwin Chemerinsky.

“His intellectual depth and incredible memory are always inspiring,” Mo says. “Being in his class was genuinely a unique experience — the passion he brings and his commitment to the ideal of justice left a lasting impression on me. I was so moved after his course that I wrote him a heartfelt letter to express my gratitude.” — Andrew Cohen

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