Adds Emerging Company Corporate Partner Bill Bromfield
March 17, 2008 (Seattle, WA) – LAWFUEL – Fenwick & West LLP, a leading technology and life sciences law firm with offices in Seattle, Silicon Valley, San Francisco and Boise, announced today that Seattle-based emerging company corporate lawyer Bill Bromfield has joined the firm as a corporate partner.
Fenwick’s Chairman Gordon K. Davidson stated “We are very excited about the momentum we have established in the Seattle market. Key national and local media have noted the strong technology and life sciences growth in the Pacific Northwest. This growth mirrors our experience in Northern California. We are firmly committed to building the pre-eminent technology and life sciences practice in Seattle, and adding Bill to our partnership is a key step in those efforts.”
“Bill has established a strong practice that focuses on startup technology companies and the venture capital firms that fund them. This nicely complements the practices of our core group of partners in Seattle, Steve Graham, Roger Tolbert and Alan Smith, who joined us just one month ago and have already brought more than 70 clients to our Seattle office. In addition to Bill, we are actively talking with several other partners and associates who have expressed interest in joining our Seattle team. The high level of interest validates our belief that we can rapidly grow our office in Seattle.”
Bromfield said “Fenwick & West has a strong brand in technology and life sciences and provides an ideal platform for building my practice. Fenwick has extraordinary depth in corporate finance, mergers & acquisitions, intellectual property, litigation and tax, and has an international reach through strong partnerships with other firms around the globe. It is exciting to become part of the founding team of Fenwick’s office in Seattle.”
Steve Graham, who heads Fenwick’s office in Seattle, said “Alan Smith and I have worked with Bill for more than ten years, first when he was a law firm colleague and later when he was a client as chief in-house counsel for Terabeam Corporation and as an associate general counsel for Network Commerce. Bill combines extraordinary legal skill and client service with sound business judgment, which makes him such a highly sought-after counselor for emerging companies. We look forward to working with him as a partner in our new Seattle office.”
About Bill Bromfield
Bill Bromfield has extensive transactional experience in private financings and mergers and acquisitions transactions. He also provides broad general corporate and securities advice to public and private companies, particularly those within the media, e-commerce, wireless applications, gaming, security and other high-technology industries. He regularly represents venture capital and private equity investors in private financings in a broad range of industries.
Mr. Bromfield represents numerous start-ups and venture and angel-backed companies in technology sectors as well as traditional business sectors. Using his experience as a former in-house attorney, he also regularly advises founders, CEOs and company boards on business and legal issues.
In 2007, the respected English research firm Chambers & Partners named him an “Up and Coming” lawyer in Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business, commenting on his “uncommon business insight.” Washington Law and Politics magazine has also named him a “Rising Star” in every year since 2002.
Mr. Bromfield received a J.D. in 1995 from Southern Methodist University School of Law, where he was named to the Order of the Coif honor society and served as an editor of The International Lawyer. He also received an M.B.A. from S.M.U. in 1995 and a B.A. from Westminster College in 1990. Prior to joining Fenwick & West, he was a partner at DLA Piper in Seattle. He has also served as chief counsel for Terabeam Corporation, and as an associate general counsel for Network Commerce. Prior to that, he was an associate at Perkins Coie in Seattle and at Akin Gump in Texas.
About Fenwick & West
Fenwick & West, with over 250 attorneys in Silicon Valley, San Francisco, Seattle and Boise, has a leading technology and life sciences practice with a national reputation and international reach. It is a full service law firm with leading practices in mergers and acquisitions, public securities offerings, venture capital financing, intellectual property prosecution and counseling, intellectual property litigation, securities litigation, tax planning and tax litigation. Recent highlights of the firm’s practice include:
· Client Service: One of the top U.S. law firms for client service, as ranked in each of the past six years (2001-2007) by BTI Consulting’s survey of Fortune 1000 companies
· IPOs: Ranked by American Lawyer Media and Global Securities as one of the top IPO issuers’ counsel in the United States, with top 10 rankings in multiple years
· Public Companies: Ranked by Corporate Board Member as one of the top five corporate law firms in northern California for publicly traded companies
· Mergers and Acquisitions: Ranked by MergerMarket as one of the top 5 technology M&A practices in the U.S., with #1 rankings in multiple quarters
· Private Equity: Ranked by Private Equity Analyst as the #8 most active U.S. law firm for private equity deals in 2006
· Trial Practice: The firm’s $74.7 million verdict in a patent jury trial on behalf of Asyst Technologies was cited by The Daily Journal as the largest IP litigation verdict in Northern California in 2007 and by American Lawyer in April 2007 as one of the Top Five largest patent litigation verdicts during the prior 18 months. Many notable complete defense wins in litigation both before juries or in pretrial proceedings.
· Intellectual Property Litigation and Protection: Ranked by Managing Intellectual Property as one of the top five West Coast firms in both IP litigation and IP protection
· IP Litigation and Counseling: Ranked by IP Worldwide as one of the top dozen firms that Fortune 500 companies rely on for IP litigation and counseling
· Securities Litigation and Special Investigations: Successfully defended some of the largest securities class actions in the country. Handled dozens of special investigations of alleged accounting irregularities, stock option backdating and violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
· Antitrust Litigation: Overturned an antitrust verdict against our client Leegin Creative Leather Products by persuading the United States Supreme Court to overrule its 96 year old precedent making vertical price agreements per se illegal.
· Tax: Awarded First Tier status by International Tax Review, one of only eight law firms in the U.S. to receive this rating in 2008 and recognized by ITR as the Tax Litigation Firm of the Year in 2007.
· National and International Recognition: The firm’s attorneys are routinely lauded for their achievements by the American Lawyer, Best Lawyers, Chambers, Corporate Legal Times, Daily Journal, Intellectual Property Worldwide, International Tax Review, Managing Intellectual Property, Northern California Super Lawyers and Woodward White.
· Use of Technology: Awarded “Most Innovative Use of Technology by a Law Firm” in 2005 by American Lawyer Media for the firm’s proprietary electronic discovery and due diligence system
· Diversity: Ranked by Minority Law Journal as one of the top five most diverse law firms in the U.S.
For more information about Fenwick & West, see our website at www.fenwick.com.
