Fenwick & West LLP

01 August 2007

Fenwick & West LLP in Who's Who Legal: California

The firm has been involved in many of the valley’s most notable events including the incorporation of Apple Computer in 1976 and the taking public of Oracle in 1986. It was also involved in the largest software merger in history, Verisign’s $21 billion acquisition of Network Solutions. Today the firm is 250 lawyers strong with offices in Mountain View and San Francisco as well as Boise, Idaho. Our research indicates that it is home to some of California’s leading lights across a number of practice areas.


The firm is one of the leaders in the state for intellectual property advice and fields three and two individuals in the trademarks and patents chapters, respectively. On the trademarks side, the firm is rated as “a well-known technology and life sciences powerhouse” with a stable of “large prestigious multinational clients”. Sally Abel is “informed and intelligent” and she leads the firm’s practice group. Connie Ellerbach also features and is rated by sources as a “highly valued counsellor”.

David Hayes appears in both the trademark and patents chapters and boasts “a great reputation for complex technology work”. Some of Hayes’s clients include Apple and Sun Microsystems. Hayes is accompanied in our patents chapter by Lynn Pasahow, chair of the firm’s litigation group. His work in the software, internet and biotech industries was noted.


The firm also has two representatives in Competition. Partner Tyler Baker’s work at the intersection between IP and antitrust was noted. Baker comes recommended as “an outstanding litigator” and his work on the Leegin case in which the Supreme Court changed the rule regarding vertical price fixing was said to be particularly noteworthy. He is accompanied in the chapter by Mark Ostrau, his co-chair of the firm’s antitrust and unfair competition group. Ostrau’s merger clearance work on deals such as Cisco Systems’ acquisition of Scientific Atlanta was brought to the attention of researchers. The firm’s deal flow comes from a strong corporate department and two of its number appear in the mergers and acquisitions chapter – Gordon Davidson and Douglas Cogen. Rated as an “outstanding technology M&A firm”, it has completed more than $100 billion in transactions in the past seven years. Cogen co-chairs the practice group and has conducted over 40 acquisitions for Cisco Systems. Davidson currently serves as chairman of the firm and has a “proven track record” in the M&A arena having worked on over 100 deals, collectively worth more than $50 billion. Fenwick & West is also strong for its corporate tax advice and the chair of the tax group, James Fuller, is a “leader in the field”. Fuller was rated by another high-profile respondent as “simply the best” and he received more recommendations than any other individual in the corporate tax chapter.


Victor Schachter chairs the firm’s employment practice and features prominently in the management, labour & employment chapter. Rated as “truly excellent”, Schachter has represented leading names such as IBM and Siemens Business Communications. Fenwick & West also has a prominent nominee in our employee benefits section – Scott Spector who was recommended to researchers as “very fine indeed”.

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