SAN FRANCISCO, AUGUST 27, 2004 LAWFUEL – Best for law, law news, legal news, law research – Paul Leboffe and Gregory Miller have joined the San Francisco office of Davis Wright Tremaine LLP as partners in the firm’s corporate finance practice, each bringing years of experience, as well as the unique perspective of having been both entrepreneurs and in-house counsel.
Tom Cervantez, who joined as chair of the business and finance group for the San Francisco office of DWT in February 2004 from Thelen, Reid & Priest, says, “These two partner additions to our corporate practice come at a time when the corporate finance sector is seeing positive numbers after three years of slow activity. The addition of Paul and Greg reflects DWT’s commitment to provide our Northern California clients with a full range of corporate and securities expertise, in small deals as well as multi-billion dollar deals.”
Leboffe represents early- and mid-stage emerging growth companies in the technology sector, and his practice is focused primarily on corporate governance, securities compliance, intellectual property licensing, and acquisitions. “I am very impressed with the breadth and depth of DWT’s experience, and I am excited about being able to offer my clients the full range of legal services they need to grow their businesses.”
Prior to joining DWT, Leboffe was a partner in the Menlo Park office of White & Lee LLP, a Cooley Godward spin-off. He also served as executive vice president and general counsel of Sports Universe, an Internet-based sports eCommerce company that was acquired by FogDog Sports. Before joining Sports Universe, Leboffe was a government contracts attorney for five years at Sonnenschein, Nath & Rosenthal in San Francisco. Leboffe received his J.D. with honors from Syracuse University College of Law and holds a business degree from Cornell University. During law school, Leboffe was an extern for the Honorable John E. Benson on the California Court of Appeal. He is admitted to practice in California.
Miller has been working with companies and investment banks in capital markets and venture transactions of equity and debt securities, M&A and new ventures since 1986. Immediately prior to joining DWT, Miller was general counsel and a member of the management committee of Cometa Networks, Inc., a start-up company that sought to create a nationwide, enterprise grade network of Wi-Fi wireless broadband Internet access points. He was the first general counsel at SonicWall, Inc. (Nasdaq: SNWL), which provides security, productivity and mobility solutions for businesses of all sizes, after having been outside general counsel for SonicWall as a client. Before moving in-house with these positions, Miller was a partner at Gunderson Dettmer Stough Villeneuve Franklin & Hachigian LLP in Menlo Park, California working with technology-based companies of all sizes, and was of counsel with Latham & Watkins in San Francisco principally representing global investment banks and public company clients in capital markets transactions. Miller received his J.D. from the University of Virginia Law School and his B.A. from Colgate University. He is admitted to practice in California, New York and Washington.
“We are extremely excited about adding Greg and Paul to our corporate finance practice in San Francisco,” said Martin Fineman, partner-in-charge of DWT’s San Francisco office. “Starting with the addition of Tom Cervantez, we have been aggressively moving to build our corporate finance team here. With Greg’s public company, securities and M&A experience, and Tom and Paul’s venture capital experience, we believe we will be well-positioned to serve Bay Area corporate clients in the rebounding economy from start-up to IPO and beyond,” Fineman said.
DWT is a full service business and litigation law firm, with more than 410 attorneys in its nine offices located in San Francisco and Los Angeles, California; Seattle and Bellevue, Washington; Portland, Oregon; Anchorage, Alaska; New York, Washington D.C. and Shanghai, China.
DWT CONTACTS:
Thomas J. Cervantez, Partner
(415) 276-6508, tomcervantez@dwt.com
Deirdre Norman, California Marketing Manager
(415) 276-6591, deirdrenorman@dwt.com
