About Our Salt Lake City Office

Wilson Sonsini has built strong relationships with leading technology companies, entrepreneurs, and venture capital firms in Salt Lake City and other thriving parts of the region. The firm represents more than 100 clients headquartered in Utah. Our attorneys have advised more venture capital firms on Utah-related deals and more Utah-based issuers on IPOs than any other firm since 2016, ranking first in each category by a substantial margin. The firm ranks fourth among law firms in advising on Utah-related mergers and acquisitions in the same period.

In November 2021, Wilson Sonsini announced that it was opening its Salt Lake City office with the addition of former Utah Supreme Court Justice Deno Himonas, following his retirement from the bench in March 2022, and the addition of corporate partner Marc Porter.

In March 2022, Justice Himonas joined Wilson Sonsini’s litigation and appellate practices and his practice focuses on advising companies on complex governance and regulatory issues. He served as a trial court judge in Utah for 10 years before his appointment to the Utah Supreme Court in 2015. Throughout his legal career, he has concerned himself with issues relating to the access and affordability of civil justice in the U.S. court system. Justice Himonas has received widespread acclaim, including distinction by the American Bar Association as a “Legal Rebel,” for his work with Utah attorney John Lund to establish Utah’s Office of Legal Services Innovation and a regulatory “sandbox” allowing entities to explore new ways of delivering legal services. More than 25 innovations are being piloted in the sandbox.

Marc Porter has developed a leading corporate practice for technology, consumer products, and life sciences companies in Utah, where he has spent much of his professional career, and beyond. He executes a substantial volume of financings and liquidity events each year for early- to late-stage private companies as well as venture capital firms. Before entering private practice, he served a clerkship on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit and graduated from Brigham Young University Law School.

Jess M. Krannich is a seasoned trial lawyer who leads significant intellectual property, unfair competition, patent, and general commercial matters for a wide range of clients in the technology, life sciences, medical device, consumer products, and financial services sectors. Many of his clients are major industry leaders in the Rocky Mountain West. His practice spans multiple types of complex commercial litigation, but focuses on competition disputes ranging from trade secret and restrictive covenant litigation to intellectual property disputes, unfair competition, and antitrust litigation. Jess has repeatedly been recognized as one of the top 500 litigators in America and one of the top 100 lawyers in the Intermountain West, and is a go-to litigator for high-stakes and “bet-the-company” cases throughout the United States.