Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati

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Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati
Headquarters	Palo Alto, California
No. of Offices	8
No. of Attorneys	800
Major Practice Areas	Business law, Intellectual property law
Key People	Larry Sonsini
Revenue	$531 million (2007)
Date Founded	1961
Company Type	P.C.
Website	www.wsgr.com

Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati (WSGR) is a law firm in the United States that specializes in business, securities, and intellectual property law. The firm's Chairman, Larry Sonsini, is well known as an attorney and advisor to technology companies.^[1]

1 Overview
2 History
3 Offices
4 Current/former clients
5 See also
6 Notes
7 External links

Overview

The firm's headquarters are on Page Mill Road in Palo Alto, California, part of the Stanford Research Park. It has offices in six major American cities and one office in Shanghai. WSGR provides legal services to some of the best-known computer technology firms in Silicon Valley and elsewhere in the United States, as well as smaller firms and start-ups. WSGR deals in corporate and securities law, licensing, tax, employee benefits, real estate, antitrust, and litigation. The firm has added a New York City office based on corporate finance, antitrust, and mergers & acquisitions.

History

Wlson Sonsini was founded in 1961 as McCloskey, Wilson, Mosher & Martin in Palo Alto, California. Since its launch, the firm concentrated on the representation of emerging technology companies and venture capitalists. Larry Sonsini and Mario Rosati joined in 1966 and 1971 respectively. In 1980, Wilson Sonsini represented Apple Inc. in its much-publicized IPO. Like fellow technology-heavy firm Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison, Wilson Sonsini accepted equity in its clients as a form of payment, and also passed on stakes in its mutual fund to associates and staff members as a means of retaining employees. In 1999, when VA Linux went public, the firm reaped $24.5 million as the value of the 100,000 shares that the firm held ballooned in value. Other IPOs that enriched the firm because of its equity stake were those of Ask Jeeves and online grocer Webvan. With the downturn in the dot com economy, however, WSGR had to make a number of adjustments; 100 support staff and 60 associates were laid off—about 10% of its attorneys. Good times returned in 2004 when the firm advised Google in its $2.7 billion IPO. The next year, Wilson launched an office in China and boosted its New York office. In 2006, the firm relocated its Northern Virginia lawyers to Washington, D.C. to be closer to government regulators.