Our Reputation: The Powerhouse Corporate Firm for Start-Ups and Tech
Headquartered in the heart of Silicon Valley, Wilson Sonsini is a leading legal advisor to technology, life sciences, and growth enterprises worldwide, as well as to the venture firms, private equity firms, and investment banks that finance them. From historical roots in Silicon Valley, we now work with innovative and world-changing companies globally.
Two of our notable accomplishments:
- We’ve advised more U.S. companies in their initial public offerings than any other law firm since 1998, and we’ve participated in the initial public offerings of many of the most innovative, game-changing companies of our time, including: Apple, Box, Dolby Laboratories, Dropbox, GoDaddy, Google, LinkedIn, Netflix, Netscape, Pixar, Square, Sun Microsystems, Sunrun, Netflix, Tesla Motors, and Twitter.
- Each year, we rank among the top 10 M&A advisors in the U.S. and represent more technology enterprises in mergers and acquisitions than any other U.S. law firm.
What You May Not Know About Us
Wilson Sonsini fosters an entrepreneurial and collaborative environment across its attorney ranks. We understand the importance of mentorship and strive to promote career growth and help our attorneys build leadership and relationship skills with clients and colleagues. We want to inspire them to think about the best strategies to enhance their practices.
Wilson Sonsini's culture encourages independence and responsibility from an early stage. We motivate our attorneys at each step of the way, helping them to contribute at a sophisticated level across all work areas and increase accountability and ownership levels.
In addition to having a robust M&A and capital markets practice, we represent and advise clients on a broad array of other legal matters, including litigation, intellectual property, employment law, taxation, employee benefits, and more. Some details:
- Antitrust. Global Competition Review has hailed our antitrust group as "perhaps the best antitrust and competition practice for high-tech matters in the world."
- Some of our prominent antitrust clients include: Amphastar Pharmaceuticals, Google, Live Nation, Netflix, and Mylan Pharmaceuticals.
- In the 2018 edition of the GCR 100, a comprehensive listing of the world’s top antitrust and competition practices, Wilson Sonsini ranked No. 15 among the “global elite” law firms.
- Intellectual Property. We have a robust and wide-ranging IP practice, which includes: patents and innovations, post-grant review, technology transactions, and trademark and copyright.
- We work with well-known and distinguished companies on a wide array of IP matters and transactions. A few notable clients include: Expedia, Spotify, PayScale, Dropbox, Charles Schwab, Mylan Pharmaceuticals, Ancestry.com, Hawaiian Airlines, Lyft, Square, TD Ameritrade, and more.
- Our patents and innovations team files an average of more than 57 U.S. patent applications each week, and more than 800 patents were granted in 2018.
- Litigation. We represent companies in critical and often cutting-edge litigation matters, including antitrust litigation, commercial litigation, employment litigation, patent litigation, securities class actions, trademark and copyright litigation, trade secret litigation, and trials, among others.
- Some of our notable litigation clients include: Align Technology, Broadcom, Chevron, Pacific Gas & Electric, Pinterest, Salesforce.com, Snap, Starbucks, Vivint Solar, and YouTube.
- In the BTI Litigation Outlook 2017 report, we ranked among the top 15 percent of all law firms for securities and finance litigation, based on client feedback from in-depth interviews with corporate counsel at the world's largest companies.
- Privacy, Cybersecurity, and National Security. Our regulatory attorneys are the go-to experts on the latest trending cybersecurity, privacy, national security, and export control topics and issues. We are at the helm of handling cybersecurity matters for our clients and provide comprehensive representation to protect data and manage risk at every stage.
- Start-Ups and Venture Capital. We’ve seen countless ventures—launched with little more than a promising idea and the passion of their founders—grow into highly successful, mature companies.
- In September 2018, we were named the Venture Capital Firm of the Year at the 2018 LMG Life Sciences Awards, besting four other law firm nominees.
- We represent more companies that receive venture financing than any other law firm and repeatedly rank No. 1 by Dow Jones Venture Source for the number of VC deals handled each year.
To view more, visit our complete list of practices and industries.
Other Notable Facts:
- Wilson Sonsini has 16 offices, five of which are outside of the U.S.
- The firm has offices in Austin; Beijing; Boston; Brussels; Hong Kong; London; Los Angeles; New York; Palo Alto; San Diego; San Francisco (two offices); Seattle; Shanghai; Washington, D.C.; and Wilmington.
- The firm recently opened its London office in August 2018, extending the firm's practice into one of the world's top technology markets.
- In 2017 alone, we provided more than 45,000 pro bono hours.
- WSGR is consistently ranked by The American Lawyer and Law360 as one of the most diverse law firms in the U.S.