Perkins Coie is opening an office in Austin with attorneys from Vinson & Elkins and Wilson Sonsini, The Texas Lawbook has learned.
M&A and venture capital counsel Andy Smetana is joining from V&E, a source close to the situation said. Smetana couldn’t be reached for comment and his bio was no longer on V&E’s website. His outgoing voicemail said he no longer receives calls at his V&E phone number and to reach him at a Perkins Coie email address.
Wilson Sonsini partner Jose Villarreal also is joining the office starting today, another source said. Villarreal’s bio was still on the firm’s website but his outgoing voicemail said he was no longer “actively working for the law firm.”
A Perkins Coie spokesperson said he was looking into Smetana joining the firm but didn’t respond immediately about Villarreal. V&E and Wilson Sonsini couldn’t be reached.
When speculation began brewing about the opening of an Austin office last week, the Perkins Coie spokesman acknowledged that the Texas market was one it was exploring “but we have nothing to confirm at this time.”
The Seattle firm’s launch of an Austin outpost follows its move to Dallas in 2010 and the addition of three partners there last year. They included Richard B. Hankins and Brennan W. Bolt, former labor and employment lawyers at McGuireWoods (joining employment law practice chair Ann Marie Painter), and April Goff, a former JCPenney senior counsel specializing in employee benefits and compensation and cybersecurity.
Dean Harvey, a national expert on technology law and legal issues involving artificial intelligence, machine learning and robotics, is managing partner of the Dallas office, which now has 29 lawyers. The firm has 1,100 attorneys across the U.S. and Asia.
Smetana, who started his legal career at Reed Smith and later worked at Wilson Sonsini before joining V&E in late 2016, was part of the group that advised CryoLife on its $225 million acquisition of German stent graft developer Jotec. He also advised the company on distribution and credit facility agreements with Israel-based Endospan along with an option to purchase Endospan.
The attorney also has advised InforMed Data Systems, known as One Drop, on bridge and equity financing founds (and its strategic relationship with Bayer); GTLA Holdings on its early-stage capital raise; Vyze on financing rounds led by Austin Ventures and StarVest Partners; Razberi on debt and equity financings; and Vapor IO on its initial venture capital, an investment from Crown Castle and later financing from Berkshire Partners (Smetana previously was general counsel of Vapor IO).
Smetana’s other clients have included LiveOak Venture Partners on its investments in Eventador and TeleStax, Tresalia on its investment in Casper Sleep and Energy Growth Momentum on its investment in H2scan.
Villarreal, who has been at Wilson Sonsini for 17 years, specializes in litigation and dispute resolution, strategic intellectual property counseling and licensing, M&A due diligence and intellectual property asset assessment. He has appeared before the International Trade Commission, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and the Patent Trial and Appeal Board.
According to his bio, his clients have included Seattle-based Bungie Inc. and Integrated Silicon Solution Inc., Omnivision Technologies Inc., Salesforce.com, TearLab Corp. and WideOrbit Inc. in California.
Villarreal has represented Salesforce.com on several cases, including a patent litigation one brought by Virtual Agility whose claims were dismissed with prejudice. The other defendants were Dell, Dr Pepper Snapple Group, NBCUniversal, LivingSocial, FedEx, BMC Software, Bank of America and Merrill Lynch.
The attorney also represented Richardson, Texas-based OraMetrix on a patent suit brought by Ormco Corp. that related to international orthodontics systems and computer-aided design. After counterclaiming with multiple patent claims and asserting unexpected affirmative defenses, the case settled on favorable terms for the company, his bio says.