Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
Agile Software Corporation
Apple Inc.
Bank of America, N.A.
Broadcom Corporation
Chemtura Corporation
Deutsche Bank Securities
Duke Energy Corporation
Francisco Partners
Ford Motor Company
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Intuit Inc.
NDS Group PLC
Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc
Mitsubishi Corporation
Morgan Stanley
SanDisk Corporation
Sirna Therapeutics, Inc.
Sutter Health
Vector Capital
Vicuron Pharmaceuticals Inc.
Visa Inc.
Western Digital Corporation
UBS Securities
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San Francisco
Since the California Gold Rush, the Bay Area has been synonymous with America’s entrepreneurial spirit. From the pioneers of the 19th Century to the visionaries of today, the region’s leaders and companies have ensured its place as one of the world’s top economic centers. In that spirit, O’Melveny’s San Francisco office represents dynamic companies from around the world that continue to break uncharted ground. With more than 100 lawyers, our San Francisco office tackles complex and challenging matters for innovative companies. From complicated financial transactions, such as Agile Software’s US$500 million sale to Oracle, or Sirna Therapeutics' US$1.1 billion sale to Merck & Co., to complex litigation, such as defending Sutter Health in a defamation campaign, as well as intellectual property and other work for Apple, companies call on O’Melveny’s San Francisco team for solutions that overcome obstacles to their success. Our breadth of practice allows our lawyers to gather insight across traditional practice boundaries, with transactional lawyers offering advice in business disputes and litigators spotting risks in proposed transactions. The office thrives on its ability to provide clients with a true interdisciplinary approach to their business challenges. The San Francisco office recognizes that part of its strength is its diversity. We are a signatory to the San Francisco Bar Association’s 2010 Goals and Timetables and Recommendations for Minority Hiring and Advancement and No Glass Ceiling Initiative. In addition, our office has four very active Affinity Groups: a Women's Affinity Group, an LGBT Affinity Group, a Parenting Affinity Group, and a Racial & Ethnic Diversity Affinity Group, all of which provide a forum where people can unite and discuss similar issues. As a result of our efforts, O’Melveny was ranked 15th in lawyer diversity among National Law Journal’s Top 255 law firms, according to the Minority Law Journal. The office also provides a college scholarship every year to a student attending San Francisco’s Balboa High School. Our lawyers participate in an aggressive pro bono initiative, which has realized impressive results. In 2007, our San Francisco lawyers billed 12,709 hours to pro bono matters—6.74% of all billable time in the office, which far exceeds the three percent target for signatories to the ABA's Pro Bono Challenge. Also, 83% of our partners and 83% of our associates and counsel participated in more than 100 pro bono matters in 2007. Additionally, members of our office are active in many legal organizations that work to protect civil rights, including Lambda Legal, BALiF, the Asian Law Caucus, the San Francisco Bar Association and the Legal Aid Society.
Key Facts
- Our new green office space, which opened in September 2008, is currently expected, by our calculations, to achieve silver certification through the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED®) program. Once certified, O’Melveny will be one of the first law firms to achieve LEED certification for refurbished space in an existing building. Using sustainable techniques and materials for office renovations and build-outs is a goal of our firmwide Green Office Initiative.
- The San Francisco office is fast growing, climbing the charts to be the 15th largest law firm in the Bay Area according to The San Francisco Business Times.
- Our San Francisco lawyers have been recognized for excellence by Chambers USA, Legal 500, Super Lawyers and Best Lawyers in America 2007. Chambers described our litigation practice as employing “a strong strategic approach to full effect.”
- We are active in the community, serving on the boards of regional organizations and charities such as the World Affairs Council, Lambda Legal, San Francisco Bar Association, Huckleberry Youth Programs, TMC Working Solutions, and the Legal Aid Society.
Related Services
- Class Actions, Mass Torts, and Aggregated Litigation
Lawyers in our San Francisco office have been handling a wide range of various aggregated litigation matters in both the private and public sector. We represent clients as diverse as Ford, and Merck in all phases of national class actions, mass torts and aggregated litigation in federal and state courts, and in cases involving consumer protection, employment, antitrust securities, product liability, environmental and other issues. Although we most frequently defeat certification in pretrial motion practice, we have also tried consumer class cases in bench and jury trials. We recently represented Ford in a three-month consumer fraud and economic loss class action trial. The case shifted to a settlement track the night before closing arguments.
- Intellectual Property and Technology
Our San Francisco lawyers represent a diverse array of clients such as Advanced Micro Devices, Apple Computer, Inc., NDS Group PLC, Broadcom Corp., and Magma Design Automation in civil and criminal matters involving patent, copyright, trade secret, trademark, and trade dress issues. We successfully negotiated resolution of the dispute related to the Apple iPhone trademark, which now allows Apple to continue to use the iPhone trademark on its products throughout the world. We helped our client Magma Design Automation prevail in two contentious disputes over the inventorship of patents relating to software for creating computer chip layouts. Two San Francisco partners led the firmwide team that led NDS to a victory in the widely watched EchoStar Corp v. NDS case. And our lawyers represent Broadcom Corp. in a series of trade secret misappropriation matters involving technologies related to computer chips used in various types of communications.
- White Collar Defense and Corporate Investigations
We regularly handle bet-the-company global enforcement and criminal defense cases for high-profile clients. Our team is composed of accomplished trial lawyers who offer strategic advice, represent clients in governmental investigations and enforcement actions, and conduct internal investigations. We represent clients in internal, grand jury, SEC, and administrative investigations and criminal and civil suits relating to, among other things, securities fraud, trade and antirust violations, trade secret misappropriations, tax offenses, healthcare fraud, mail fraud, wire fraud, money-laundering, violations of the Food Drug and Cosmetic Act, violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, government procurement fraud, political corruption, and environmental crimes. Our San Francisco office won consolidated appeals for Novartis Vaccines and Diagnostics Inc. in their suit against SHAC, an animal rights group accused of conspiring with protesters who bombed the company's headquarters, harassed employees, and vandalized their homes.
- Labor and Employment
Our lawyers develop innovative legal solutions to solve employers’ most difficult problems, including the growing trend of labor unions mounting corporate campaigns. We also handle disputes involving employment discrimination, wrongful termination, harassment, wage and hour, ERISA, and employee benefits. Our lawyers also offer advice to employers engaged in mergers or acquisitions or those facing regulatory investigations. We recently represented Sutter Health at trial in a case against a national labor union that had engaged in a vicious defamation campaign. A jury found the allegations of the union to be false and defamatory, awarding our client over US$17 million in damages.
- International Arbitration
We handle disputes arising from cross-border transactions in a wide range of industries before international arbitral tribunals in major commercial centers around the world. Many of our arbitrations involve foreign governments and their commercial entities, as well as multi-jurisdictional disputes with related criminal, civil, and regulatory proceedings. Clients include Duke Energy, and Mitsubishi.
- Antitrust and Competition
Our antitrust and competition experience includes governmental merger and conduct investigations, criminal investigations, criminal litigation, and civil litigation. Our lawyers provide litigation support and counseling on regulatory issues and merger analysis, advice related to joint venture activities, as well as counseling on distribution practices and intellectual property licensing strategies, particularly those overseas. Our lawyers represent clients in both state and federal litigation. We regularly handle criminal cartel investigations, as well as non-criminal, non-merger civil antitrust litigation. Our clients include high profile companies like Visa.
- Capital Markets
Multinational and US companies, investment banks, hedge funds and private equity funds turn to O’Melveny for advice on complex securities offerings and other transactions. Our work ranges from the private placement of common stock to the quasi-public offering of perpetual preferred stock, to the public offering of more complex equity securities, such as forward securities, Dutch auction rate transferable securities, money-market preferred stock, trust preferred securities, depositary shares, medium-term notes, high-yield securities, and various types of remarketed and convertible preferred securities. We have been involved in numerous complex domestic and international transactions in Asia and Europe, including the first public offering of non-investment grade securities by a German company made simultaneously in the United States and abroad, and the first dual-listed public company in the United States and Italy. Our lawyers handle corporate restructurings and recapitalizations, and counsel boards and special committees in corporate governance and strategic matters. Clients also rely on us for ongoing advice on SEC compliance and disclosure, exchange listing requirements, and corporate governance.
- Mergers and Acquisitions
We represent private equity funds, investment banks, and public and private companies in mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, corporate partnering and joint venture transactions, and related corporate governance matters in all industries including technology, life sciences, and emerging growth. We also advise on proxy fights, unsolicited transactions, and defensive countermeasures. Our private equity fund clients include Francisco Partners, a leading technology-focused private equity fund with approximately US$5 billion of capital under management, Vector Capital, an equity capital fund, and Symphony Technology Group, a US$1.2 billion strategic holding company focused on the enterprise software and services market. Our corporate clients have included Western Digital, SanDisk, Sirna Therapeutics, Vicuron Pharmaceuticals, Agile Software, and other major technology companies such as Sun Microsystems, Sybase, Broadcom, Intuit, and Nokia Siemens Networks in a variety of acquisitions. Investment banking clients include Goldman, Sachs & Co., Deutsche Bank Securities, Credit Suisse Securities, and UBS Securities.
- Corporate Finance
Our clients regularly engage us to structure complex financings for their strategic business investments. Our experience includes acquisition financing, bridge lending, asset-based facilities, second lien, mezzanine and subordinated loans, venture debt financings, recapitalizations, public and private debt offerings, cross border and offshore transactions, and derivatives. We represent a variety of private equity sponsors and their portfolio companies, Fortune 500 companies, and many other corporate borrowers in connection with their financing activities. We also represent some of the world’s foremost financial institutions, as well as a wide range of other lending institutions, including hedge, distressed debt and other funds. We have also represented a variety of borrowers and lenders in connection with debt financings in China and Japan.
- Restructuring
We are experienced in all areas of commercial restructurings, representing private equity and hedge funds, debtors, and traditional commercial banks and financial institutions. Our lawyers also handle traditional Chapter 11 proceedings and out-of-court workouts. More recently, our practice has evolved to represent private equity funds and alternative investment companies in the disposition of distressed assets and the acquisition of distressed companies and their assets. We recently represented Cerberus Capital Management in its acquisition of the largest chain of Burger King franchises. Our restructuring team negotiated, structured, and performed due diligence on this complex transaction. We also advised Tower Records in negotiating and effecting a true prepackaged bankruptcy, involving a write-down of two-thirds of its bond debt and the closure of underperforming locations without disruption to Tower’s core business.
- Business Tax
Our business tax lawyers advise on a wide variety of domestic and international transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, securities offerings, structured finance transactions, investments funds, REITs, as well as on employee benefits and executive compensation matters. We offer an integrated approach, with a focus on maximizing efficiency and developing tax structures that are consistent with our clients’ business goals.
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Two Embarcadero Center, 28th Floor
San Francisco, CA 94111-3823
United States of America
Phone +1-415-984-8700
Fax +1-415-984-8701
Local Weather
Local Time: 12:45 PM
Local Date: 10/11/2008
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