2024 DIVERSITY DATABASE UNDERWRITER Fenwick

Known for its innovative work with technology and life sciences companies, Fenwick & West is home to nearly 600 attorneys in seven offices. The firm has grown beyond Silicon Valley to three other locations in California and has established a presence in Seattle and New York, and relatively new outfits in Washington, DC and Boston.

The Founding

In 1972, four attorneys left New York City for Palo Alto, California, because they recognized that the recently named Silicon Valley would become the tech epicenter of the world. This shared vision was the basis for their new law firm.

Fenwick has grown to become a leading law firm for preeminent tech and life sciences companies including Cisco Systems, Coinbase, Databricks, Intuit, Meta, Scribe, Smartsheet, Wiz, and Workday.

Innovators in Tech and Life Sciences

Fenwick represents more than 1,500 venture capital-backed companies, of which more than 100 are unicorns (companies valued at $1 billion or more), and more than 350 public companies located in business and financial hubs around the world. In addition to serving the aforementioned technology and life science companies, Fenwick counsels clients in numerous established and nascent industries including advanced transportation and robotics, AI and machine learning, blockchain and cryptocurrencies, climatetech, consumer goods and retail, digital media and entertainment, defense innovation, fintech, games, hardware, healthtech, insurtech, life sciences, semiconductors, software, and space and aerotech.

One of the top five firms in Vault’s Emerging Companies & Venture Capital rankings, Fenwick continues to lead in the technology sector, handling a number of the largest venture capital financings, including those for CoreWeave, Databricks, Devoted Health, Formation Bio, Impulse Space, Mainspring Energy, Wiz, and Wonder. For example, this year, Fenwick advised Databricks in its $10 billion Series J financing, marking the largest-ever venture capital financing at the time of announcement.

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Fenwick has remained one of Vault’s Best Law Firms for Intellectual Property (IP) for more than a decade. Its IP group represents many of the world’s most cutting-edge companies, such as Amazon, Databricks, Day One Biopharmaceuticals, Instacart, Intuit, Niantic, and Sermonix Pharmaceuticals, in important prosecution and transactional matters. Fenwick’s litigation practice has achieved numerous victories for Amazon; precedent-setting verdicts for Lashify and Meril Life Sciences; and successes for Peloton Interactive, GoPro, Netflix, Loxo Oncology, and Yuga Labs.

The firm’s M&A practice has been consistently recognized as one of the best in the nation. The firm handles significant domestic and international M&A transactions, including groundbreaking matters and serial acquisition programs for high-profile companies such as Cisco Systems, Coinbase, Etsy, Figma, Meta, Niantic, Smartsheet, Stripe, and Wonder. Fenwick’s capital markets practice has supported numerous notable technology and life sciences clients in their path to going public, including the recent initial public offerings for CoreWeave, Maze Therapeutics, and BioAge Labs, as well as the completion of recent public offerings for BILL.com, Stoke Therapeutics, and Sutro Biopharma. The firm’s tax group has also been intimately involved in the strategy of multinational brands such as Dover Corp., Meta, and Estée Lauder and in supporting the steady stream of corporate transactions run by the firm over the past year.

Independent but Not Alone

Fenwick’s free market system enables associates to drive their own careers by seeking out the work that most interests them within their practice group and across multiple offices. The firm prides itself on encouraging associates to play an active role in establishing their careers and shaping their own work experiences. Matters are staffed across offices, allowing associates to work with teams firmwide.

This autonomy is not without support, as each associate has a dedicated practice management professional who serves as a trusted advisor in helping them find the right assignments and balance their workload to achieve their career goals.

• Incorporated Apple Computer in 1976 and pioneered the first shrink-wrap license agreement that same year.
• Successfully defended Amazon’s 1-Click patent (2002), a mission-critical victory in the early years of the online retailer.
• Guided Facebook in its seminal initial public offering (2012) and its record-setting $1 billion acquisition of Instagram (2012) and advised WhatsApp on its $19 billion sale to Facebook (2014).
• Represented Coinbase in a first-of-its-kind public listing on Nasdaq, valued at opening trade at $99 billion (2021).
• Handled many of the largest and most significant M&A transactions in the history of the technology industry, including Wiz’s $32 billion acquisition by Google, the largest-ever proposed sale of a private technology company (2025).

• Practice Group of the Year for Life Sciences and Technology, 2024—Law360
• Leading Edge Law Firm among the Best of the Best in Generative AI, 2024—BTI Consulting
• Top 10 for Summer Associate Satisfaction among BigLaw firms, 2024—The American Lawyer
• Thomas L. Sager Award, 2023—Minority Corporate Counsel Association
• Pro Bono Innovator, 2023—Bloomberg Law