Fenwick West LLP is a firm of over 250 attorneys providing a full range of legal services, with a special emphasis on the legal and business issues facing technology companies. Their clients range from start-ups to Fortune 50 companies. Fenwick & West provides comprehensive legal services to companies from inception throughout the life of the corporation.

Mission: Their primary mission is to form effective partnerships with clients and to provide legal services with superior client service. Many clients have exceeded their own expectations in creating and building successful enterprises; Fenwick & West strives to do the same in the lawyering provided for their clients. It is important to their practice to not only provide first-rate innovative legal services, but also serve as effective business partners with their clients.

History: Established in the heart of Silicon Valley in 1972, the firm was founded by four visionary attorneys who moved to Palo Alto to establish a practice in the geographic area they believed was destined to become the technology epicenter. The Firm's history is inextricably entwined with the growth of technology in Silicon Valley: Fenwick & West incorporated Apple Computer in 1976 and took Oracle public in 1986. Since then, the firm has represented leading technology companies and underwriters in numerous high profile IPOs and led many landmark M&A transactions including the largest Internet merger in history (VeriSign's $21 billion acquisition of Network Solutions) and the largest Software merger in history (Symantec's $13 billion acquisition of VERITAS). The intellectual property practice is continuously on the cutting edge of legal issues arising from emerging technologies, from the pioneering of shrinkwrap license agreements in the 1970s, to the creation of software development clean rooms in the 1980s, to being one of the first firms to advise and litigate numerous Internet-related IP issues that arose in the 1990s, including privacy, digital copyright, software patent and domain name issues. Among many other notable technology lawsuits, the Firm's litigators successfully defended Amazon.com's 1-Click® patent just in time for the 1999 holiday shopping season and successfully defended Elan Pharmaceuticals' patents on transgenic mice.

Ranking: Fenwick & West is the third largest law firm in Silicon Valley (San Francisco Business Times), the second most profitable law firm in the Bay Area (San Francisco Daily Journal) and the 15th largest law firm in California (California Law Business). In addition, the Firm's practice groups are continually ranked among the top in the United States, including the top tax department in the western United States (International Tax Review), the top law firm in the United States for technology sector mergers and acquisitions (MergerMarket), the third most active U.S. law firm in helping IT client raise venture capital (Dow Jones), one of the top five West Coast firms in both IP litigation and IP protection (Managing Intellectual Property), and one of the top ten Computer/Software patent law firms in the United States (PatentRatings LLC).

Areas of Practice: Their practice includes: antitrust and unfair competition, appellate, complex business litigation, copyright, corporate and securities, employment and labor, executive compensation and benefits, intellectual property, IP litigation, life sciences, mergers and acquisitions, patent prosecution, privacy and information security, securities litigation, start-ups and venture capital, domestic and international tax, tax controversies, technology transactions, and trademark.