The SPAC Boom – Current Trends and What You Need to Know
October.01.2020
Amanda Galton
Partner
San FranciscoAmanda helps entrepreneurs reimagine the way in which our world works. High-growth companies and their investors rely on her creative and collaborative solutions to resolve both anticipated and unforeseen obstacles and developments. With Amanda by their side, these clients can focus on their true passion - innovation.
Amanda has been solving problems since her Peace Corps days in the plains of Guinea, West Africa, where she found, among other things, kinship and inspiration with Liberian refugees thinking about developing windmills to transform local energy production. Now as co-leader of Orrick’s Technology Companies Group, she uses her legal experience, business acumen, professional network and industry expertise to resolve problems before they arise, and leverage larger resources when needed. She advises at material stages of the corporate life cycle (formation, financing, and exits); and provides guidance and trusted governance advice on board, advisor, employment, separation, and other commercial matters. To further help budding companies thrive, Amanda keeps clients informed about recent investments in their space, invites them to influential events and connects entrepreneurs and investors with one another.
Amanda has worked with companies and entrepreneurs in a number of industries including:
- Community and Connection (Massdrop, Wonolo, CareerLark, Roam, Neighborly, Maybrooks, Molly);
- Financial Technology and Impact Finance (ZestFinance, Angaza Design, Konviv, Upstart Network, SunFunder);
- Clean Tech and Energy & Infrastructure (Kestrel, Fisker, Bitnami, Nelumbo, Accelergy Corporation, BrightSource Energy, Folsom Labs, Global Thermostat, Instapio, Solecular, Big Metal Additive, Other Machine Company);
- Food and Beverage (Nomiku, Perfect Day Foods, Masienda, Hampton Creek, Liquor.com, New Frontier Foods, Arable Labs, Global Food Scholar, i-Cultiver, Heat & Control, Landec); and
- Health and Professional Services (Visor, 23andMe, eHealth Insurance, Garnysh, Lifespans, W Travel).
She has also represented global strategic investors such as Shell Technology Ventures, TOTAL S.A. and Intel Capital, as well as nationally based venture funds and impact venture funds such as Imprint Venture Lab.
In addition to her practice, Amanda dedicates time to advancing women in the U.S. and abroad. She serves as a cultural mentor and professional resource for emerging women leaders from the Middle East, Central Asia and Africa through TechWomen, a U.S. State Department initiative which empowers women technology leaders in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Amanda also has served on the Board of CodeChix, a non-profit corporation which recruits, retains and inspires women engineers.
She also spends her time on projects which address her interest in global economic development. She is an active member of Orrick’s Impact Finance Leadership which supports investors and entrepreneurs who make social and environmental impacts alongside financial returns. She has also spent significant pro bono hours on the World Bank’s Doing Business project focused on Afghanistan, and handles international development-focused work for companies such as the Institute for Transformative Technologies.
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Additionally, Amanda has worked with publicly-listed companies such as eBay, SanDisk, Cisco Systems and Juniper Networks, leading and managing multi-firm and global legal and finance teams in conjunction with cross-border corporate and tax restructuring and post-acquisition integration projects.
Prior to joining Orrick in 2007, Amanda was a corporate associate at the Menlo Park, California office of Gunderson Dettmer Stough Villeneuve Franklin & Hachigian, LLP, primarily working with young companies on corporate formation and financing matters.
Before law and graduate school, Amanda spent over two years in Guinea, West Africa, as a Peace Corps volunteer, working on community development and health education projects.
