Wilson Sonsini

With 950 attorneys across 19 offices around the world, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati is a global player with specialty practices in technology and life sciences financings and M&A, tech licensing transactions, intellectual property, litigation, and regulatory and compliance matters.

Running Circles Around Everyone

Wilson Sonsini began as a simple three-man shop in Palo Alto founded by and named after Pete McCloskey, John Wilson, and Roger Mosher. McCloskey departed shortly thereafter to take a seat in Congress. Larry Sonsini became a name partner in 1973 after working at the firm for seven years. John Goodrich and Mario Rosati came on board in the early 1970s, and after Mosher’s departure, the firm became Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati.

One of the early hallmarks of the firm was its “three circles” business model, which focuses on representing enterprises through all stages of their growth.

All About Tech

Wilson Sonsini focuses on six major practice areas—corporate, IP, litigation, patents and innovations, regulatory, and technology transactions—and a host of subpractices. The firm’s technology experience has become as diverse as the industry itself. The firm works with clients in the semiconductor, software, renewable energy, networking, media, fintech, social media, biotech, medical device, data storage and cloud, and consumer tech sectors. It also has a strong corporate finance practice with lawyers who work closely with financial institutions, including Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. Moreover, the Wilson Sonsini venture capital practice has grown in tandem with its early clients such as Sequoia Capital, Mayfield, and Oak Investment Partners. To date, Wilson Sonsini has worked with thousands of companies and has helped raise billions of dollars. The firm has represented more than 100 venture capital and private equity firms—many of which it helped create.

The firm boasts an IP practice that ranks among the top 10 in Vault’s Intellectual Property practice area rankings. The patents and innovations team has over 170 attorneys, patent agents, and scientific advisors who work on everything from patent applications, prosecution, patent litigation, and portfolio management to licensing and regulatory and FDA-related submissions. Firm attorneys are regulars before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board. More than 80 of the firm’s lawyers focus exclusively on its unique Technology Transactions practice, specifically on commercial transactions based on IP. The group works with startups and tech clients across industries such as 3D printing, big data, biotech, digital media entertainment, e-commerce, fintech, health IT, open source, pharmaceuticals, and renewable energy.

Ready to Launch

First and second year corporate attorneys in the firm’s Bay Area offices can participate in Launch—a work allocation system for its corporate and securities practice. Associates in this program receive a variety of assignments across the practice and not specialized assignments in one area. A staff coordinator manages the workflow and provides regular feedback.

• In 2023, Wilson Sonsini advised on 11 IPOs, which generated a total value of $1.6 billion. The firm also advised on more than 120 M&A deals that were announced and/or completed in 2023, with an aggregate disclosed value of more than $60 billion. Select recent matters include:

  Advising HashiCorp on $6.4 billion acquisition by IBM
  Advises Ibotta on $577 million IPO
  Advising SK Growth Opportunities on $7.3 billion deal with Webull
  Advised VIZIO on $2.3 billion acquisition by Walmart
  Advised Rover on $2.3 billion acquisition by Blackstone

   

• Wilson Sonsini’s technology transaction team had key roles in successfully completing IP-driven deals, like advising C4 Therapeutics on its license and research collaboration with Merck and BioMap’s strategic collaboration with Sanofi.

   

• The firm’s litigators earned impressive results and dispositions in a range of complex contested matters, including obtaining dismissal at trial of claims against RWE and securing jury victory for Epistar in patent damages.

   

• Wilson Sonsini’s patents and innovations team—one of the largest of its kind in the legal industry—is integral to the firm’s success in representing life sciences and technology clients across IP and transactional areas. For example, we advised RayzeBio on IP matters related to its $311 million IPO.

• Winner of the “Enabling Start-Up Success” award—and named a finalist for “Tech Enabled Corporate Practice Department of the Year” award—in Legalweek’s Leaders in Tech Law Awards
• Recognized in The Legal 500 Asia Pacific 2024 Guide as a top law firm in Greater China and ranked for Capital Markets: Equity (Foreign Firms) in Hong Kong and Life Sciences and Healthcare (Foreign Firms) in China
• Honored with National Legal Aid and Defender Association’s 2024 Beacon of Justice Award
• Firm earns top score in Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s 2023-2024 Corporate Equality Index
• Firm achieves Mansfield Certification Plus for fifth consecutive year