Silicon Valley Office

Corporate

The Silicon Valley Corporate Department represents companies in the technology, media, life sciences, and Internet industries in connection with public and private financings, joint ventures, mergers and acquisitions, and general corporate matters. Our clients are located in the Silicon Valley area, Sacramento, and the East Coast. We staff projects both solely out of the Silicon Valley office and together with lawyers from our other offices, particularly those in our Sacramento and New York offices. We have assisted numerous companies including Iconix Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Corixa Corporation, Citadon, Inc., and Chevron Texaco Corporation. 

• Orrick lawyers represented a leading provider of infrastructure technologies in several rounds of venture financing and its initial public offering.
• Orrick lawyers represented a developer and manufacturer of diagnostic medical devices (including the first monitoring system to automatically and non-invasively provide glucose readings for adult diabetics) in its follow-on public offering.
• Orrick lawyers advised a manufacturer of digital system processor chips that drive DVD, video, CD, and MP3 players in an acquisition and a follow-on public offering.

Securities Litigation and Regulatory Enforcement

With partners in Orrick's Silicon Valley and San Francisco offices having served such Silicon Valley area clients such as Intel, NVIDIA, Oracle, VantagePoint Venture Partners and many other companies, individual executives and directors, Orrick's securities litigators have as their primary goal for each client to arrive at the best possible legal outcome at the most reasonable cost with the least negative effect on our client's business. We approach each engagement with a fresh perspective on the possible business impacts of the litigation or regulatory inquiry, listening carefully to and considering our clients' concerns and expectations. At the same time, our lawyers leverage the collective experience of our Securities Litigation and Regulatory Enforcement Group so that best practices and strategies are employed on behalf of every client.

Orrick counsels and represents corporations, boards of directors, board committees and executive officers in a variety of litigation and corporate governance matters, including:

• Compliance with fiduciary duties.
• Board composition.
• Director compensation and qualifications.
• Employee compensation.
• Shareholder matters.
• Strategic transactions.
• Disclosure requirements.
• Changes in control.
• Financial reporting irregularities.
• Crisis management.

Emerging Companies

We develop and review clients' compliance practices and procedures and assist corporations, individuals and committees in non-public internal investigations.

Orrick is the premier legal advisor for emerging companies. We offer our clients:

• In-depth experience representing emerging companies.
• Focus on emerging companies.
• A network of strong investor and other relationships.
• Capabilities that scale with our clients as they grow.
• Global resources.

Today's emerging companies combine energy and innovation with a focus on long-term growth and success. So does the Orrick Emerging Companies Group. Our multi-disciplinary group of lawyers merges deep experience and commitment to high-growth businesses with a broad national and global platform that scales with our clients as they grow.

Intellectual Property Litigation

The Silicon Valley Litigation/Intellectual Property Group represents notable clients in sophisticated high-stakes litigation in state and federal courts and before arbitration bodies at all levels of the litigation process. For clients as diverse as eBay, Cisco, Applied Materials, Microsoft, Yahoo!, Lucasfilm, Xerox, Compal Electronics, Cingular Wireless, and Affymetrix, we are advocates around the world in patent, copyright, and trademark infringement actions, as well as in unfair competition and trade secret matters.  In addition, our IP lawyers procure patents and trademarks and counsel companies on strategies to protect and leverage their intellectual property assets.

• Orrick lawyers protected and defended the patents and other intellectual property of a leading biotech company.
• Orrick lawyers obtained injunctive relief for an international computer peripherals manufacturer, preventing the seizure of its products at the Chinese border.
• Orrick lawyers represent the world's largest on-line auction house against claims of liability for content posted by third-party users.
• Orrick lawyers obtained for a Fortune 500 semiconductor company the first inevitable misappropriation injunction issued in California.
• Orrick lawyers defended a technology startup against patent infringement claims related to business methods.
• Orrick lawyers protected the release of a blockbuster film from on-line piracy and illegal distribution.

Employment Law

Our Employment lawyers represent some of the country’s best-known employers, including The Gap, Varian Medical Systems, IBM Corporation, Blockbuster, Clorox Company, Bombay Company, and Deltagen. Our team of experienced lawyers represent clients in state and federal court and before state and federal administrative agencies like the NLRB, DOL, EEOC, and the DFEH. Our lawyers have extensive experience in complex employment litigation, including class and collective actions; personnel policy planning; collective bargaining; union representation matters; and counseling on virtually every labor and employment area of concern to employers, from discrimination and wrongful termination, to wage-and-hour compliance.

• Orrick lawyers represented several national retailers in a wage-and-hour class action alleging misclassification of exempt status.
• Orrick lawyers represent major employers in high-profile, high-stakes cases, including private class actions, injunction proceedings, and major EEOC pattern-and-practice investigations and civil actions.
• Orrick lawyers have defended hundreds of employment discrimination actions and innumerable administrative charges.
• Orrick lawyers have evaluated and counseled clients on withdrawal liability exposure in multiemployer pension plans and on the effects of asset sales and corporate transactions on potential withdrawal liability.

Compensation and Benefits

Orrick’s Compensation and Benefits practice in Silicon Valley works with organizations of all sizes on all relevant state law, tax, ERISA, corporate, SEC, and accounting issues inherent in compensation and benefits plans.  Our clients are global leaders in technology, biotechnology, communications, energy, entertainment, and financial services.  We routinely advise boards of directors and compensation committees of public companies on reasonable compensation, corporate governance, disclosure, and accountability issues.

• Orrick lawyers counsel the world's largest computer chip maker on its employee benefits programs.
• Orrick lawyers restructured the compensation plans of the worldwide leader in networking for the Internet.