Mountain View, CA (September 28, 2016)– Fenwick & West is pleased to announce that startup and venture capital co-chair Cynthia Hess and gaming practice chair Jennifer Lloyd Kelly have been honored as 2016 Women Leaders in Tech Law by The Recorder. They are among 65 women lawyers recognized for their leadership and achievements.
“They're helping build new business models and defending them from court challenges. They're negotiating transformational deals that remake companies and move markets,” The Recorder said of this year’s honorees. “And through it all their clients—which run the spectrum from solo entrepreneurs to tech giants—rely on them for a steady hand and sound counsel.”
Clients and colleagues praise these leading lawyers as “calm, levelheaded, persistent, determined, tenacious, strategic, [and] bold,” The Recorder said.
Startup and venture capital co-chair and corporate partner Cindy Hess receives the Women Leaders in Tech Law honor for the fourth consecutive year. Companies look to Hess’ deep technology and legal experience for their corporate transactional matters from formation and venture capital financing to mergers, acquisitions and public offerings.
The Recorder highlighted Hess’ representation of wearable health-tracking company Fitbit in its $732 million initial public offering, the largest venture capital-backed IPO of 2015.
“This year, Fitbit became the second U.S. wearable technology company to go public—and the second to be taken public by Cindy Hess,” The Recorder said, also noting her representation of GoPro in the first U.S. wearable company IPO.
In addition to Fitbit and GoPro, Hess has counseled some of the hottest emerging and established technology companies including Nextdoor, Cisco, WeWork, Doctor On Demand, Zerto and Zimperium.
In 2016, Hess was recognized among California’s top women lawyers by the Daily Journal and among the top 10 most trusted corporate counselors by The Recorder. Also seen as a leader in the broader business community, Hess was honored as one of Silicon Valley’s leading Women of Influence by Silicon Valley Business Times.
Partner Jennifer Kelly debuts on the list this year. Head of Fenwick’s gaming practice, Kelly focuses her practice on commercial and intellectual property litigation and counseling, with an emphasis on copyright, trademark, right of publicity, trade secret, and false advertising disputes for technology companies, and particularly companies in the gaming industry.
“Kelly has become the go-to lawyer in "game-cloning" cases, where competitors in the gaming industry accuse each other of knocking off popular games,” The Recorder said. “She's represented the developers behind hit games such as Candy Crush Saga, Deer Hunter 2014, and 1010!”
One of the foremost authorities on IP issues pertinent to video games and mobile apps, Kelly was also named among California’s best IP attorneys and top entertainment lawyers by the Daily Journal. Kelly’s leadership is also recognized in the broader community. Last year, San Francisco Business Times named Kelly as one of San Francisco’s Women of Influence.
Hess and Kelly were profiled in The Recorder on September 26 and were recognized at an awards reception on September 29.
About Fenwick & West
Fenwick & West LLP provides comprehensive legal services to ground-breaking technology and life sciences companies – at every stage of their lifecycle – and the investors that partner with them. We craft innovative, cost-effective and practical solutions on issues ranging from venture capital, public offerings, joint ventures, M&A and strategic relationships, to intellectual property, litigation and dispute resolution, taxation, antitrust, and employment and labor law. For more than four decades, Fenwick has helped some of the world's most recognized companies become and remain market leaders. For more information, please visit fenwick.com.