SAN FRANCISCO — Corporate partner Jamie Leigh, who helped broker the Walt Disney Co.’s acquisition of Lucasfilm, has hopped from Latham & Watkins to Cooley’s San Francisco office.

In its first lateral hire of the year, Cooley added Leigh to its M&A group, which handled more than 90 publicly announced deals last year. The group had been so busy trying to keep up with demand from clients that it hadn’t been able to pursue new work, said Barbara Borden, chair of Cooley’s M&A practice.