Cooley LLP is an American international

law firm A law firm is a business entity formed by one or more lawyers to engage in the practice of law. The primary service rendered by a law firm is to advise consumer, clients (individuals or corporations) about their legal rights and Obligation, respon ...

, headquartered in

Palo Alto, California Palo Alto ( ; Spanish language, Spanish for ) is a charter city in northwestern Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a Sequoia sempervirens, coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto. Th ...

, with offices worldwide. The firm's practice areas include corporate, litigation, intellectual property, fund formation, public markets, employment, life sciences,

clean technology Clean technology, also called cleantech or climate tech, is any process, product, or service that reduces negative environmental impacts through significant Efficient energy use, energy efficiency improvements, the sustainable use of resources, o ...

, real estate, financial services, retail, regulatory and energy. Cooley is particularly known for its technology and life sciences practices as well as its experience with marquee

initial public offerings An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investme ...

(IPOs) and deep-rooted

venture capital Venture capital (VC) is a form of private equity financing provided by firms or funds to start-up company, startup, early-stage, and emerging companies, that have been deemed to have high growth potential or that have demonstrated high growth in ...

connections & financing.

History

Cooley was founded by Arthur Cooley and Louis Crowley in 1920 in San Francisco. In 1958, Cooley formed Draper, Gaither and Anderson, the first venture capital partnership organized on the West Coast. In the 1950s, Cooley formed

Raychem The Raychem Corporation was founded and headquartered in Menlo Park, California, in 1957 by Paul M. Cook, Bob Helprin, James B. Meikle, and Richard W. Muchmore. Led by Cook and second-in-command Robert M. Halperin, Raychem became a pioneer of co ...

and

National Semiconductor National Semiconductor Corporation was an United States of America, American Semiconductor manufacturing, semiconductor manufacturer, which specialized in analogue electronics, analog devices and subsystems, formerly headquartered in Santa Clara, ...

. In 1971 the firm (then Cooley, Crowley, Gaither, Godward, Castro & Huddleson) began representing

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment industry, entertainment conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank), Walt Di ...

in the copyright and trademark infringement case '' Walt Disney Productions v. Air Pirates''. In the early 1980s, the firm took both

Genentech Genentech, Inc. is an American biotechnology corporation headquartered in South San Francisco, California. It operates as an independent subsidiary of holding company Roche. Genentech Research and Early Development operates as an independent cent ...

and

Amgen Amgen Inc. (formerly Applied Molecular Genetics Inc.) is an American multinational biopharmaceutical Corporation, company headquartered in Thousand Oaks, California. As one of the world's largest independent biotechnology companies, Amgen has a ...

public. In the late 1980s, the firm relocated its offices from San Francisco to

Palo Alto Palo Alto ( ; Spanish language, Spanish for ) is a charter city in northwestern Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a Sequoia sempervirens, coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto. Th ...

. In 1989, the firm (then Cooley, Godward, Castro, Huddleson & Tatum) facilitated the IPO of

Qualcomm Qualcomm Incorporated () is an American multinational corporation headquartered in San Diego, California, and Delaware General Corporation Law, incorporated in Delaware. It creates semiconductors, software and services related to wireless techn ...

. The firm incorporated

NVIDIA Nvidia Corporation ( ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California, and incorporated in Delaware. Founded in 1993 by Jensen Huang (president and CEO), Chris Malachowsky, and Curti ...

in 1993 and later took the company public in 1999. In 1995, two former partners of the firm, Robert Gunderson and Scott Dettmer, formed the law firm of Gunderson Dettmer. On October 31, 2006, the firm (then Cooley Godward) merged with Kronish Lieb Weiner & Hellman, which resulted in the firm growing from 440 lawyers to 550. In the announcement of the merger, ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' referred to Cooley as a "Leading

Silicon Valley Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that is a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical area of the Santa Clara Valley ...

law firm". Like many other law firms, Cooley laid off 114 people in 2009 from its offices, citing "the uncertain economy". After aggressive hiring to meet "soaring demand" in 2020 and 2021, Cooley concluded that several of its practices were "substantially overbuilt" as demand for the firm's services did not grow as much in 2022. Cooley responded by laying off 150 employees in late 2022, instituting a hiring freeze, and delaying the start date for incoming associates from November 2023 to January 2024. Cooley then offered incoming associate hires for its corporate practice the option to start in January 2024, or to delay their start date by another year in exchange for a $100,000 stipend.

Offices

Cooley has offices in ten U.S. cities,

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, Shanghai, Beijing, Brussels, and Singapore. Cooley launched in London in January 2015, creating a 55-lawyer practice and the firm's first office in Europe. Its lawyers were hired from the London offices of

Morrison & Foerster Morrison & Foerster LLP (also known as MoFo) is an American multinational law firm headquartered in San Francisco, California, with 17 offices located throughout the United States, Asia, and Europe. History In 1883, Alexander Francis Morrison ...

and

Edwards Wildman Palmer Edwards Wildman was an AmLaw 100 law firm. It was formed from the 2011 merger of Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge and Wildman, Harrold, Allen & Dixon. Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge had been formed by the 2005 merger of Edwards & Angell LLP and Palmer ...

, raiding the latter's entire office. The office is run by Justin Stock who headed the corporate department of Morrison & Foerster's London office before joining Cooley. The firm launched its Beijing office in 2018.

Recognition

The American Lawyer ''The American Lawyer'' is a monthly legal magazine and website published by ALM Media. The periodical and its parent company, ALM (then American Lawyer Media), were founded in 1979 by Steven Brill. Top Legal 500 and the ''

National Law Journal ''The National Law Journal'' (NLJ) is an American legal periodical founded in 1978. The NLJ was created by Jerry Finkelstein, who envisioned it as a "sibling newspaper" of the ''New York Law Journal''. Originally a tabloid-sized weekly new ...

s NLJ 250 has ranked Cooley's practice areas from second through eighth tier in its national survey of law firms. In addition, '' U.S. News & World Report'' nominated Cooley as the 2011–12 law firm of the year in

biotechnology Biotechnology is a multidisciplinary field that involves the integration of natural sciences and Engineering Science, engineering sciences in order to achieve the application of organisms and parts thereof for products and services. Specialists ...

law. In 2011, Cooley LLP was named

U.S. Tax Court The United States Tax Court (in case citations, T.C.) is a Federal judiciary of the United States, federal trial court court of record, of record established by US Congress, Congress under Article One of the United States Constitution, Article ...

Firm of the Year by the ''

International Tax Review ''ITR'', previously known as ''International Tax Review'', is a business-to-business publication focused on news analysis of tax policy and tax advice from around the world. This remit includes transfer pricing, corporate tax and indirect tax, par ...

''. Cooley was recognized as one of Law360's Capital Markets Practice Groups of the year for 2015, and 2019. In 2016, Chambers UK recognized Cooley as being a leading practice in six practice areas along with singling out sixteen lawyers for their performance. In 2018, Cooley was named by ''U.S. News & World Report'' as the #1 law firm in the country in both the

law and technology law categories, and the firm was named by The American Lawyer's Recorder publication as the top Venture Capital practice of the year. Cooley has been recognized as one of only five law firms (and the highest ranking of any law firm) to be listed on ''Fortune''s 100 Best Companies to Work For. In 2018,

Crain's New York Crain Communications Inc. is an American publishing conglomerate based in Detroit, Michigan, United States, with 13 foreign subsidiaries. History Gustavus Dedman "G.D." Crain Jr. ( Gustavus Demetrious Crain Jr.; 1885–1973), previously the ci ...

recognized Cooley on its 100 Best Places to Work in New York City list as the #4 best large company and the #1 law firm. In the same year, ''

Fortune Fortune may refer to: General * Fortuna or Fortune, the Roman goddess of luck * Luck * Wealth * Fate * Fortune, a prediction made in fortune-telling * Fortune, in a fortune cookie Arts and entertainment Film and television * ''The Fortune'' (19 ...

'' recognized Cooley on its Best Workplaces in New York list, designating the firm in the top 10 of all large companies in the state. In 2019,

Law360 Law360 is a subscription-based, legal news service based in New York City. It is operated by Portfolio Media, Inc., a subsidiary of LexisNexisSabroski, Suzxanne (May 1, 2012) LexisNexis goes 360, ''Onliline'' and delivers breaking news and analys ...

Names Cooley 2018 Capital Markets Practice Group of the Year. In 2024, the firm held a strong presence, placing 25th among U.S. firms in the ''

'' NLJ 500, 19th in ''The'' ''American Lawyer's'' ''AM Law 200'', and 25th globally in the

Global 200 The Global 200 is the list of ecoregions identified by the World Wide Fund for Nature ( WWF), the global conservation organization, as priorities for conservation. According to WWF, an ecoregion is defined as a "relatively large unit of land or w ...

survey of the world's highest grossing law firms.

References

{{reflist, 2 Law firms based in Palo Alto, California Law firms established in 1920 1920 establishments in California Multinational law firms

History

Offices

Recognition

See also

References