Any law firm/practice group for int'l +tech clients? Forum

[Anonymous User]

Does anyone know any law firm or practice group that mainly serve int'l plus tech clients or any international clients within a corporate transactional group? Dont care about the regions. No science background and no interest in patent lit but can do it if part, but not all, of the job requires it. Thanks.

[Anonymous User]

This is kind of a strange question that makes me think you're a 0L. Every prominent firm has "international clients", both in the sense they're incorporated outside of the U.S. and definitely in the sense of a company owning subsidiaries abroad. And most prominent firms definitely have cross-border transactions groups. And most firms have tech clients too... and you don't need a science background to do tech transactions. And no one working in a corporate, M&A, or tech transactions group will ever ever ever be allowed to come close to patent litigation, so I really don't have any idea what you're talking about there.

So if what you're really asking is who works with "international" clients (answer: everyone) and "tech" clients (answer: also everyone) roughly simultaneously, then its tough to think of any specific answers. I guess Michael Gillespie of Debevoise has that type of practice. Morrison & Foerster and Baker McKenzie also fit the bill, because they have tech clients and decent cross border transactional practices. But again, it's a very strange question because any big firm will basically have both international clients and tech clients being serviced by every practice group.

ETA: Apparently Skadden, Latham, Gibson, and Dentons do tech transactions for big international clients too.

[Anonymous User]

So if what you're really asking is who works with "international" clients (answer: everyone) and "tech" clients (answer: also everyone) roughly simultaneously, then its tough to think of any specific answers. I guess Michael Gillespie of Debevoise has that type of practice. Morrison & Foerster and Baker McKenzie also fit the bill, because they have tech clients and decent cross border transactional practices. But again, it's a very strange question because any big firm will basically have both international clients and tech clients being serviced by every practice group.

The OP is asking who/which practice group "mainly serves" the international tech clients, not international OR tech clients. Of course, everyone serves them to some extent, but who is the major player? Which practice group is heavily skewed toward them? is the question. For instance, does the corporate practice group in SV deal with a lot of international tech clients, like 70% of billing hours?

[Anonymous User]

So if what you're really asking is who works with "international" clients (answer: everyone) and "tech" clients (answer: also everyone) roughly simultaneously, then its tough to think of any specific answers. I guess Michael Gillespie of Debevoise has that type of practice. Morrison & Foerster and Baker McKenzie also fit the bill, because they have tech clients and decent cross border transactional practices. But again, it's a very strange question because any big firm will basically have both international clients and tech clients being serviced by every practice group.

The OP is asking who/which practice group "mainly serves" the international tech clients, not international OR tech clients. Of course, everyone serves them to some extent, but who is the major player? Which practice group is heavily skewed toward them? is the question. For instance, does the corporate practice group in SV deal with a lot of international tech clients, like 70% of billing hours?

Second poster here. Well OP asked what law firms "mainly serve int'l plus tech clients OR any international clients within a corporate transactional group", so that wasn't my interpretation of the initial question. And its tough to say who is the "major player" in the "international tech" scene because it's so poorly defined and not commonly thought of as a distinct industry. I could easily tell you what law firms are a "major players" in the M&A world or committee-side bankruptcy work, because those are very clearly defined worlds. I'm not sure I (or anyone else) could do that for "international tech". My firm even does a lot of cross-border transactions for tech companies, and I wouldn't say we encounter a regular set of firms every time. We've dealt with everyone from Cravath to shitty regional law firms. That being said, all the firms I mentioned in my initial post have a lot of tech clients and strong cross-border transactional groups.