Mountain View, Calif. (September 10, 2014)– Fenwick & West announced today that the firm has been recognized as the Emerging Companies Corporate Group of the Year by The Recorder. Fenwick was selected by Recorder editors over “dozens of firms" with offices in California based on Fenwick’s performance across benchmarks like creativity, ability to operate under tight time and cost constraints, and the depth and scope of the firm’s engagements.
Fenwick is highlighted for its “high-touch service” and its handling of “record-busting deals” for emerging companies – including Cloudera, Dropbox, GoPro, Uber and WhatsApp – in a profile featuring an interview with Dropbox General Counsel Ramsey Homsany about his experience working with Fenwick and partners Ted Wang, Sam Angus, Michael Esquivel, Cindy Hess, Mark Leahy and Mark Stevens.
Homsany described to The Recorder Fenwick’s remarkable ability to match and preserve the entrepreneurial spirit and culture of their youthful clients.
"They're able to triage these large and very sophisticated transactions and still make it feel nimble, like we're still a start-up," Homsany said.
Partner Greg Roussel recently represented Dropbox in a half-dozen acquisitions, including Endorse, a mobile-coupon start-up, and Mailbox, an email application Dropbox purchased before it was launched.
Homsany also cited Fenwick attorneys’ masterful balancing of attention to critical details with the speed required for important acquisition transactions. "That's a combination of both attitude and experience – they've done so many at this level they know what to care about," he said.
In addition, Homsany praised Fenwick’s workplace culture, "They have staffed a lot of women on our account, which sends a signal to me about what the place is about. That it's a fair place to work, and I never got the sense it's because they're women – they're just good, and it often feels like Fenwick is preparing their women to be partners.”
Start-up partner Ted Wang told The Recorder that Fenwick deliberately emulates the best qualities of the companies the firm serves.
"We learn from our clients," he said. "We get a chance to see them do their business, and we copy them."
One example is Wang’s posting on GitHub of his Series Seed Documents for early-stage funding guidance. GitHub is a go-to information source for technology types and also happens to be a Fenwick client.
"I think it's critically important that you speak their language, see their world and understand their decisions and deliberation," Wang observed. "You have to be ready to think in the way your clients think."
Fenwick also won this year’s inaugural The Legal 500 United States Award for Venture Capital and Emerging Markets.
About Fenwick & West
Fenwick & West provides comprehensive legal services to ground-breaking technology and life sciences companies at every stage of their lifecycle. We craft innovative, cost-effective and practical solutions for established and emerging companies 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.