US-based law firm DLA Piper has a specialised international practice dedicated to emerging growth and venture capital, with 200 lawyers in the US and 400 around the world who specifically serve entrepreneurs, technology companies and venture funds by focusing on private equity and venture capital transactions.
Lawyers at the firm interested in corporate venturing include Mark Radcliffe in Palo Alto, Megan Muir in Seattle and Ed Griffiths in London.
Global Corporate Venturing is far from the only organisation to recognise DLA Piper’s value to the venturing ecosystem. Earlier this year, PitchBook named DLA Piper among its top five most active VC law firms globally for 2015. Over the course of last year, the firm was most heavily involved in deals in the healthcare services, energy, software, IT hardware, consumer goods, commercial services, and pharma and biotech sectors. In that period, the firm reported 563 venture capital deals, taking its overall total past 2,800 at a value in excess of $27bn.
And last month, corporate and securities attorney Debra Vernon, who is based in the firm’s Silicon Valley office, was named a “Woman of Influence” by the Silicon Valley Business Journal. This accolade is given to women with “a strong record of innovation and outstanding performance in their businesses who have made a difference in their communities, and are leaving a mark in Silicon Valley”.
In 2013 the firm co-created the Corporate Venture and Innovation Initiative (CVI2) – a group that offer a range of advisory services for corporations seeking to develop and implement venturing and innovation strategies to drive growth.
Providers involved in CVI2 are Bell Mason Group, Deloitte, Doblin, DLA Piper, J Thelander Consulting and Silicon Valley Bank, as well as Global Corporate Venturing.
DLA Piper’s Venture Pipeline program provides access to tools, research and insight to help the firm’s emerging growth clients optimise their potential for raising capital. This helps clients to leverage DLA Piper’s extensive network of angel, venture and corporate investors to connect to the right capital sources.
The firm represents general counsel to over 850 venture and private equity backed companies since 2009. It also represents more than 2,000 companies as primary corporate counsel and has represented over 120 institutional investment funds in nearly 330 transactions since 2009.