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Silicon Valley Firm Expands into Texas

April 20, 2021 Brooks Igo

Silicon Valley-based law firm Gunderson Dettmer has launched an Austin office with former Vinson & Elkins partner Wesley Watts.

Watts is described on the firm’s website as a “founding partner” of the Austin office and has changed his LinkedIn bio to reflect the move.

The 275-lawyer firm is the latest national mover in the Austin legal market. On Monday, Kirkland & Ellis officially announced the opening of its office in the state capital. Two weeks ago, Wilson Sonsini signed emerging company deal partner Matt Lyons from Shearman & Sterling.

Gunderson Dettmer’s first Texas office is its 10th office worldwide. The firm, which specializes in representing venture and growth technology and life sciences clients, also has offices in Los Angeles; San Diego; San Francisco; New York; Boston; Ann Arbor, Michigan; Beijing; and Singapore.

Watts, a graduate of the University of Texas School of Law, represents entrepreneurs and investors in the formation, financing and operation of technology and growth companies, as well as strategic transactions such as mergers and acquisitions, recapitalizations, spin-outs, and buying, selling and licensing assets. 

Prior to his nearly five-year tenure at V&E, Watts was a senior associate at another Silicon Valley firm, Wilson Sonsini. The technology deal lawyer led a number of transactions reported in The Texas Lawbook’s Corporate Deal Tracker Roundup last year.

Watts handled the $60 million funding of legal e-discovery firm DISCO; a $30 million funding of Point Pickup, a delivery dispatch firm; an $8 million capital raise by office space provider Swivel; and a $5 million seed funding by Austin-based Ecliptic Capital in Houston startup NanoTech.

In an October interview with The Lawbook, the Austin lawyer identified a couple of the trends causing the shift taking place in the Texas economy: the presence of tech giants Google, Facebook and Apple and the talent they attract and more private equity and venture capital firms expanding from their traditional northeast and west coast boundaries into the state.

The Lawbook has reached out to Gunderson Dettmer for comment but has not heard back.

Brooks Igo

Brooks Igo is the publisher at The Texas Lawbook and covers lateral moves.

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