A month or so ago, I found out that our partner at Fenwick & West was leaving. It was a bit of a surprise and since we hadn't officially spoken to him, we were left wondering what happened. He's a busy guy so it took a little while to touch base, but we finally got to catch-up. He got an offer he couldn't refuse and after 20 years at Fenwick, he decided he wanted more exposure to global markets. Reed Smith is gigantic - with offices all over the States, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. And he truly sounds like a kid in a candy store. He's already been able to dabble in international affairs and new lines of work, which I thought was pretty cool for someone who's been working in the same profession for 20 something years. It's great to hear people who get to enjoy new opportunities especially after such a long time at one place.
When we initially heard the news, we were inclined to stay with Fenwick. After all, we had chosen Fenwick for both our partner (who is awesome) and also what Fenwick brought to the table - an extensive network in Silicon Valley. And, of course, their reputation as one of the leading corporate counsels in the Bay Area. We thought jumping ship would just cause undue headaches. A few weeks later we were stuck in limbo at Fenwick. They were having trouble matching us to a partner who had the time and the background that would be beneficial to Vyoo. I think they had expected us to go to Reed - which I guess is typical protocol - to follow your partner, but we hadn't been in this position before.
We went to lunch at Reed Smith today to meet with Rob Dellenbach to discuss joining him there. After a great lunch, in which he brought along Tom Quinlan to talk about our business and help us nail down our pitch, we officially decided to move over.
We'll see where it takes us, but if we ever have any international needs or need the power of one of the 15 largest law firms in the world. We got it! And we're still with Rob, who's always been a grand supporter of what we're up to.
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