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Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati history
Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati company history timeline
Wilson Sonsini was founded in 1961 as McCloskey, Wilson, Mosher & Martin in Palo Alto, California, with attorney Pete McCloskey and attorney John Arnot Wilson being two of the first named partners.
By 1966 the early partnership had established ties with some key players in the new venture capital field, including Laurance Rockefeller, Davis and Rock, and Draper, Gaither and Anderson, that provided vital private funding for several of the law firm's startup clients.
The small partnership in 1968 completed its first IPO for Wilson's client Behavioral Research Laboratories.
In 1969, the firm helped form Mayfield Fund, one of the first major venture capital firms.
1969: Firm creates WM Investment Company to invest in clients' companies.
1970: The firm's Tax Department is started.
In 1970, John B. Goodrich joined the firm.
1971: A Trust and Estates Department is formed.
After McCloskey left to enter politics, in 1973 the firm changed its name to Wilson, Mosher & Sonsini.
Roger Mosher's departure to start his own firm in 1978 led to another name change, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati.
1981: A real estate practice is started.
1985: An environmental practice is created.
By 1986 it expanded to 97 lawyers, sometimes by lateral hiring of mature attorneys from rival law firms.
The Wilson Sonsini Foundation, established in 1990, has donated over $13.5 million to nearly 700 nonprofit organizations nationwide.
In 1994, Wilson Sonsini represented Netscape Communications in its IPO, in addition to representing several other companies that, like Netscape, were tied to the start of the Internet Age, including Infoseek, USWeb/CKS, and Inktomi.
Clients seldom complained, however. For example, in 1995 Wilson Sonsini represented its client Seagate when it acquired Conner Peripherals, another client.
Wilson Sonsini also helped the National Venture Capital Association work with Congress in 1998 to pass the Internal Revenue Service Reorganization Bill (HR 2676), which clarified some wording in the federal tax code.
For example, in 1998 the firm estimated that it had made $25 million in those investments over the past ten years.
In late 1998, the firm opened its first national office, in Kirkland, Washington, led by partner Patrick Schultheis.
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.
In 2000 Americans heard the big news that the courts had declared Microsoft an illegal monopoly, but many may not have realized that a Wilson Sonsini partner had played a key role in that decision. 'Star litigator Gary Reback is Enemy No.
Although more law firms represented high-tech firms in 2000 and several large New York law firms had established California branch offices to serve such clients, it seemed that Wilson Sonsini was well prepared to continue to be a major player helping Information Age clients.
In 2010, Michael Dowler joined the firm and he formed the firm’s office in Houston, Texas.
In 2016, Wilson Sonsini represented long-time client LinkedIn in their $26.2 billion acquisition by Microsoft, which represented Microsoft's largest ever acquisition.
The firm recently opened its London office in August 2018, extending the firm's practice into one of the world's top technology markets.
In the 2018 edition of the GCR 100, a comprehensive listing of the world’s top antitrust and competition practices, WSGR ranked No.
Our patents and innovations team files an average of more than 57 United States patent applications each week, and more than 800 patents were granted in 2018.
1 in the publication's 2020 Diversity Snapshot.
2 among firms with more than 600 attorneys in Law360’s 2021 Diversity Snapshot, after ranking No.
In January 2022, for the third consecutive year, the firm achieved a perfect score of 100 on the Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s Corporate Equality Index (CEI), the nation’s foremost benchmarking survey and report measuring corporate policies and practices related to LGBTQ+ workplace equality.
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Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati competitors
| Company name | Founded date | Revenue | Employee size | Job openings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Orrick | 1863 | $1.2B | 2,500 | - |
| Kirkland & Ellis | 1909 | $4.8B | 5,721 | 99 |
| Morrison & Foerster | 1883 | $945.0M | 2,787 | - |
| Mintz | 1933 | $400.0M | 1,000 | 13 |
| Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale | 1918 | $1.2B | - | - |
| Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman | 1868 | $560.0M | 1,800 | 20 |
| Fenwick & West | 1972 | $375.0M | 605 | 64 |
| Manatt, Phelps & Phillips | 1965 | $316.9M | 983 | 84 |
| Holland & Knight | 1968 | $1.5B | 2,500 | 228 |
| WLRK | 1965 | $1.0B | 621 | 16 |
Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati history FAQs
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Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati may also be known as or be related to Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati Professional Corporation, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, Professional Corporation and Wilson Sonsini Goodrich and Rosati.