Firm Profiles

Pick one of Silicon Valley’s game–changing technology companies, and there’s a good chance that Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati has advised it. Unlike other firms that were already established elsewhere when they discovered Palo Alto, Wilson was founded, and came of age, right in the heart of America’s biggest tech center. It has been the go–to law firm—and its chairman, Larry Sonsini, the go–to lawyer—for many of technology’s superstars, from Sun Microsystems and Apple Computer to Google and LinkedIn. Wilson has had its hand in many of the Valley’s key mergers and acquisitions (including Hewlett–Packard’s merger with Compaq Computer), licensing deals, and intellectual property disputes.

Wilson is notable, too, not just for working with start–ups, but investing in them. Its venture capital arm, WS Investments, was an innovative concept when it was launched in the late 1970s, and would later be emulated by a number of other firms. Still, the funds have been controversial: Not everyone (including many of the big East Coast firms) has bought Wilson’s contention that there is no conflict of interest in investing in clients. What isn’t in dispute is that some of the bets paid off—and handsomely. A $72,000 investment in Google ballooned to $28 million a year after the company went public. Indeed, during the dot–com boom, Wilson partners could make more from investments than from legal work.

Of course, being so tied to the tech sector, Wilson has seen its fortunes soar and flag along with the industry’s. The attorney roster, too, was hit hard once the bubble burst. Wilson’s lawyer count was nearly 800 in 2000—a number it has yet to reach again (it was getting close, with well over 600 lawyers, when the more recent financial crisis spurred the layoffs of several dozen associates in 2009).

Wilson now has 11 offices, many in other high–tech regions, like Austin and Seattle. It is also a leading firm in terms of diversity, ranking first on The American Lawyer’s 2011 Diversity Scorecard. Innovation, after all, isn’t just limited to technology and business models.

—Updated as of 1/1/12