Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati (known as Wilson Sonsini) is an American multinational law firm specializing in business, securities, venture capital, and intellectual property law. It is generally one of the top-grossing law firms in the world. Headquartered in Palo Alto, California, the firm's clients are primarily technology companies, life science firms, emerging industries, venture capital firms, private equity establishments, and investment banks.[2]
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| Headquarters | Palo Alto, California |
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| No. of offices | 19 |
| No. of attorneys | 1027 (May 1, 2024)[1] |
| No. of employees | 1850 |
| Major practice areas | Corporate, intellectual property, litigation, technology transactions, and regulatory |
| Key people | Larry Sonsini (senior and founding partner) Katharine A. Martin (board chair) Douglas J. Clark (managing partner) |
| Revenue | $1.4 billion (2023) |
| Profit per equity partner | $3.0 million (2023) |
| Date founded | 1961 |
| Company type | P.C. |
| Website | Official website |
Offices
The firm is headquartered at 650 Page Mill Road in Palo Alto, California, part of the Stanford Research Park. In addition to its Palo Alto headquarters, Wilson Sonsini has 13 offices in the United States: Austin; Boston; Boulder; Los Angeles (Century City); Los Angeles (Downtown); New York; Salt Lake City; San Diego; San Francisco (Financial District); San Francisco (SOMA); Seattle; Washington, D.C.; and Wilmington, Delaware. The firm has 5 offices abroad in Beijing, Hong Kong, and Shanghai, China; Brussels, Belgium; and London, England.[3]
History
Wilson Sonsini was founded in 1961 as McCloskey, Wilson & Mosher in Palo Alto, California, with attorneys Paul N. "Pete" McCloskey Jr., John Arnot Wilson, and Roger Laurence Mosher as the name partners.[4] Wilson was a graduate of Princeton University and Yale Law School's class of 1941, which included Supreme Court jurists Byron White and Potter Stewart as well as former President Gerald Ford.[5] The firm since launch has primarily been focused on the representation of emerging technology companies and venture capitalists.[citation needed] Lawrence W. "Larry" Sonsini joined the firm in 1966 and after McCloskey left for Congress the firm became Wilson, Mosher & Sonsini. In 1969, the firm helped form Mayfield Fund, a venture capital firm. John B. Goodrich and Mario M. Rosati joined in 1970, and 1971, respectively. In 1978, name partner Roger L. Mosher broke off and took a chunk of the firm with him, ad the firm adopted its current name of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, PC. On November 6, 2019, in conjunction the launch of a new company website the firm started to use the shortened name, "Wilson Sonsini".[citation needed]
In 1980, Wilson Sonsini represented Apple Inc. (then known as Apple Computer, Inc.) in its initial public offering (IPO).[6] The firm was also involved in representing companies in the semiconductor industry like LSI Logic, Altera, Cirrus Logic, Lattice Semiconductor, and Cypress Semiconductor.[citation needed]
In late 1998, the firm opened its first national office, in Kirkland, Washington, led by partner Patrick Schultheis. Within the next few years, the firm opened offices in Austin, Texas; San Francisco; Northern Virginia; New York; and San Diego. In 2005, Wilson Sonsini launched an office in China and enhanced its New York office. In 2006 the firm relocated its Northern Virginia lawyers to Washington, D.C., to be closer to government regulators and the firm eventually moved its Kirkland office to Seattle.[citation needed] The firm has also since opened offices in Los Angeles; Boston; Wilmington, Delaware; Salt Lake City, Utah; and Boulder, Colorado. Internationally, the firm now has offices in London; Brussels; Beijing; Hong Kong; and Shanghai.[citation needed]
Like other law firms representing start-up technology companies, Wilson Sonsini accepted equity in its clients as a form of payment in return for deferral of fees, and also passed on stakes in its investment fund to associates and staff members as a means of retaining employees.[7]
In 1994, Wilson Sonsini represented Netscape Communications in its IPO, in addition to representing several other companies that, like Netscape, were tied to the start of the Internet Age, including Infoseek, USWeb/CKS, and Inktomi. Wilson Sonsini also began to lead the nation in the number of issuer IPO transactions, completing 37 IPOs in 1995 and 44 IPOs in 1997.
In 1999, when VA Linux went public, the firm reaped $24.5 million as the value of the 100,000 shares that the firm held ballooned in value.[citation needed] Other IPOs that enriched the firm because of its equity stake were those of Ask Jeeves, Google, and online grocer Webvan. With the downturn in the dotcom economy, however, Wilson Sonsini had to make a number of adjustments; 100 support staff and 60 associates were laid off—about 10% of its attorneys. Better times eventually returned. In 2004, the firm advised Google on its $2.7 billion IPO.
In February 2005, the firm announced that Larry Sonsini, 64, who had been chief executive for more than 20 years, stepped aside, and named John Roos, a 20-year veteran partner who had led representations of young companies and entrepreneurs, as chief executive officer.[8][9] After becoming CEO, Roos steered Wilson Sonsini beyond the burst tech bubble toward a broader client portfolio and a global presence.[10] In 2009, after President Obama appointed Roos as U.S. Ambassador to Japan, Steven E. Bochner, a 28 year veteran partner at the firm, succeeded Roos as CEO.[11][4]
In 2016, Wilson Sonsini represented LinkedIn acquisition by Microsoft at a price of US$26.2 billion.[12]
In a 2021 assessment, Wilson Sonsini was one of the 3 firms which received an A grade in climate change mitigation efforts.[13]
Wilson Sonsini represented Twitter in the transaction involving Elon Musk's $44 billion take-private bid.[14]
Notable people
Some of the more notable current and former Wilson Sonsini attorneys include:
- Michael Arrington, founder, TechCrunch
- Timothy Broas, former United States Ambassador to the Netherlands
- William B. Chandler, III, judge, Delaware Superior Court; Chancellor, Delaware Court of Chancery (1989–2007)
- Peter Detkin, Managing Partner at Intellectual Ventures
- David Drummond, Chief Legal Officer and Senior Vice President at Google
- Mark Farrell, supervisor, San Francisco Board of Supervisors (2011–2018)
- Richard Frenkel, former Director of Intellectual Property at Cisco
- Victor Jih, winner of The Amazing Race 14
- Chris Kelly, first General Counsel of Facebook, former Democratic candidate for Attorney General of California
- Ro Khanna, Congressman, United States House of Representatives (2017–); former Deputy Assistant Secretary, United States Department of Commerce
- Lucy H. Koh, judge, United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (2021-); former judge, United States District Court for the Northern District of California (2010–2021)
- Pete McCloskey, Congressman, United States House of Representatives (1967–83)
- John Roos, former CEO and Senior Partner of Wilson Sonsini; United States Ambassador to Japan (2009–13)
- Larry Sonsini, senior partner and founder, "godfather" of Silicon Valley Law[15]
- Chiang Wan-an, Legislator of the Legislative Yuan in the ROC (Taiwan), Mayor of Taipei (2022-)
See also
References
External links
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