San Francisco/Silicon Valley: At Work

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San Francisco
Ropes & Gray's San Francisco office is located at Three Embarcadero Center, a part of one of the premier office and retail complexes in the city, which contains more than 120 national and local shops and restaurants and movie theatres. In addition, the Ferry Building, Fisherman’s Wharf and the historic waterfront, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the exclusive stores and boutiques of Union Square, and dozens of restaurants and parks are all within walking distance of our office. This location allows associates to experience the professional advantages offered by such a setting, along with the incredible array of cultural and leisure activities this diverse city offers.

Three Embarcadero Center, site of Ropes & Gray's San Francisco office, is part of one of the premier office and retail complexes in the city.

We are near the Embarcadero train station, which serves both BART (East Bay and Peninsula) and the San Francisco Municipal Railway lines coming from all around the city (www.bart.gov; www.sfmuni.com). We are also reachable from the San Mateo peninsula via the Caltrain railroad station, from around San Francisco itself via many buses as well as the historic F-Market streetcar and California cable car lines and within easy walking distance of the Larkspur/Sausalito, the Alameda/Oakland and the Tiburon & Vallejo ferry terminals. This proximity to public transportation gives associates who choose to live here easy access to some of the most desirable areas of the city. Our office is easily accessible from the main highways as well.

Rows of ornately-trimmed multi-colored houses and bay windows offer a glimpse into San Francisco's Victorian past (our "Painted Ladies").

Practicing law in San Francisco presents many unique opportunities to our associates. San Francisco is a center of global business. Home to major research institutions such as U.C. Berkeley and Stanford University, the Bay Area has always been at the forefront of technological innovation. Venture capitalists, private equity firms, entrepreneurs and small and large companies alike have thrived and the Bay Area remains central to the development and utilization of capital.

Associates in Ropes & Gray’s San Francisco office have the opportunity to serve an impressive list of clients in five main areas of practice:

Health Care and Life Sciences
Private Equity and Venture Capital
Life Sciences and Technology Companies/Securities
Investment Management
Complex Business Litigation and Government Enforcement

Health Care and Life Sciences
Our health care practice in San Francisco is a key component of the firm’s Health Care group and is rooted in Ropes & Gray's long-standing representation of hospital systems. Our practice cuts widely across a variety of disciplines:

Corporate law
Charitable trust law
Health care regulatory compliance at the state and federal levels
Capital finance
Managed care contracting
Reimbursement

We serve public, non-profit and faith-based community hospitals and academic medical centers, their faculty practices and university affiliates. Drawing on experienced attorneys, our projects have included:

prominent joint ventures among academic medical centers
"de-mergers" separating hospitals from larger health care systems
arbitration of managed care contract disputes
major capital financing in the tax-exempt bond market
day-to-day general counseling on health care matters
acquisitions of private and non-profit hospitals
major national quality of care initiatives

Through close collaboration with attorneys and specialists from the Health Care group resident in other offices, and by calling upon such firm-wide areas of strength as the Tax & Benefits Department, the Complex Business Litigation and Government Enforcement groups in the Litigation Department, as well as the Regulatory/Legislative group in our Washington, D.C., office, we are able to provide a full range of services to our West Coast health care clients.

We also apply our expertise in health care to life sciences companies, adding a dimension to counseling biotechnology and medical device clients that draws not only on our deep knowledge of the health care regulatory environment in which they must operate, but on the full-service capabilities of the firm's Life Sciences and Intellectual Property & Rights Management groups, which range from patent prosecutions and opinions to FDA approvals and public policy initiatives.

Private Equity and Venture Capital
Attorneys in our San Francisco general corporate practice represent private equity and venture capital firms in their investments in and acquisitions of portfolio companies.

Our San Francisco private equity practice has its roots in our broad and deep Private Equity expertise based in Boston and New York and interacts with the partners in this practice area in our Silicon Valley office, as well. Attorneys in our private equity investing practice draw on our firm-wide tax and deal structuring expertise as well as on our corporate deal skills. This part of the practice began with the representation of the West Coast divisions of some of our East Coast clients, and continues to grow.

Recent projects have included:

acquisition of a national restaurant chain
investments in a number of medical device companies on behalf of a Bay Area venture fund
investment in a leading national broadband internet service provider
acquisition of convertible notes in NASDAQ Stock Market, Inc. on behalf of one of the leading Bay Area private equity firms
acquisition and subsequent sale of one of the country’s leading premium pet food manufacturers
bids for various companies across a range of industries on behalf of firm clients

Life Sciences and Technology Companies/Securities
Ropes & Gray’s Life Sciences practice focuses on general corporate work, licensing and FDA regulatory work. Working closely with newly-formed companies, entrepreneurs and investment capital managers, we view ourselves as part of their management teams.

We offer a broad range of services to investment banks and venture capital firms as well as to medical device companies and specialty pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. Our attorneys have extensive experience in general corporate matters, with a particular emphasis on corporate finance, including private and public offerings of equity and debt securities, securities law, mergers and acquisitions, and strategic alliance. In keeping with our “one firm” approach, clients benefit from the breadth and depth of our international experience touching every conceivable industry and market.

Investment Management
The Investment Management practice at Ropes & Gray is among the largest and most diversified of any U.S. law firm. Our practice encompasses all aspects of the needs of clients in the investment management industry:

Initial organizational matters
Regulatory compliance
Debt and equity financing
Other corporate transactions, including acquisitions and reorganizations

Our practice includes the representation of investment advisors, registered investment companies and their trustees, and unregistered investment pools (including private equity funds and hedge funds, both domestic and offshore).

The San Francisco office plays a significant role in the practice of the Investment Management group. For example, our client list includes:

the independent trustees of one of the ten largest mutual fund complexes in the country
a large California-based fund group
one of the country's largest and most successful fixed-income managers
various other investment advisors, hedge funds, and mutual funds

Complex Business Litigation/Government Enforcement Practice
Our San Francisco Litigation and Government Enforcement practice focuses on all types of business litigation. We work with public companies, officers and directors, private equity and venture capital clients, and private companies to address their various civil and regulatory challenges. We are focused particularly on trial work, having tried and arbitrated several dozen cases between the litigation partners in the San Francisco office, but also favorable outcomes through motion practice and negotiated settlements. Our practice involves many of the leading securities, antitrust, and other complex commercial matters throughout the state and federal courts of California. We also have expertise in False Claims Act, Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and related regulatory issues.

Silicon Valley
Ropes & Gray's Silicon Valley office is located in University Circle, a recently developed landmark complex at 1900 University Avenue just off Highway 101, a mere 20 minutes north of San José and 30 minutes south of San Francisco in the heart of Silicon Valley. This prime location allows our lawyers to have direct access to clients in the Valley and throughout the Bay Area.

Ropes & Gray’s Silicon Valley office is located in the University Circle business complex.

The Silicon Valley office is a short distance from dozens of restaurants, art galleries, shops and boutiques that line University Avenue and its surrounding area, including Stanford University and Stanford Shopping Center.

We are located a half-hour's walk, 1.7 miles, from the Palo Alto Caltrain Station: www.caltrain.com/index.html

The Silicon Valley office is easily accessible from Highway 101 and Highway 84 — the Dumbarton Bridge and Highway 92 — the Hayward-San Mateo Bridge, and just 20 minutes away from two major airports, San Francisco International (SFO) and Mineta San José International (SJC).

Lawyers in the Silicon Valley office have the opportunity to work with an impressive list of clients in the following practice areas:

Intellectual Property Litigation
Our Silicon Valley lawyers are primarily engaged in Intellectual Property litigation. We are currently actively involved in cases from coast to coast, as well as helping our clients to coordinate related proceedings in Canada, Europe and Asia. We practice primarily in the federal courts and before the United States International Trade Commission.

Many of our lawyers had extensive scientific and industry experience before they joined us. We work with clients in a wide variety of industries including semiconductors, internet/software, pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical devices. Lawyers in our Silicon Valley office are listed in The Best Lawyers in America and in the Chambers U.S.A. and Global rankings for Intellectual Property Litigation.

IP Corporate/Patent Prosecution
A number of our Silicon Valley associates are part of the firm’s corporate IP/patent prosecution practice. See Intellectual Property & Rights Management. We are continuing to add more capacity in this area on both the engineering and life sciences sides and would be interested in discussing this practice with you in greater detail.

Private Equity Fund Formation
In 2006, we added private equity fund formation to the practices available in Silicon Valley. Clients include leading venture capital funds. This practice is integrated with our fund formation practices in Boston and New York.

Click here to see the 2010 NALP form for the San Francisco and Silicon Valley office