- Richard Blake Rejoins Wilson Sonsini; Will Continue to Represent Public and Private Companies in Corporate Matters -
PALO ALTO, CA (July 1, 2019) – Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, the premier provider of legal services to technology, life sciences, and growth enterprises worldwide, announced today that Richard C. Blake has rejoined the firm as a partner in the Palo Alto office. He will continue to focus his practice on representing clients in corporate matters with an emphasis on public company representation, corporate governance and public offerings.
Blake represents public and private companies across a broad range of industries, as well as investment banking and venture capital firms, and has been lead counsel on IPOs listed in PitchBook's "Top 10 U.S. VC-backed IPOs" for several years.
Blake has extensive experience preparing private companies for initial public offerings (IPOs) as well as representing public companies. His practice includes all aspects of company representation, including counseling companies and their boards on complex corporate, securities, disclosure and corporate governance matters, fiduciary duties, takeover defenses, insider trading, public company compliance and mergers and acquisitions.
"One reason our firm's corporate practice has maintained its leadership position across several areas is because we have been successful at meeting the increasingly sophisticated transactional and governance needs of our clients," said Doug Clark, managing partner at Wilson Sonsini. "Over the course of his career, Richard has built a broad corporate practice that includes complex transactional and governance matters, and we know his expertise will significantly contribute to the work we do for clients, particularly public and private companies."
Prior to rejoining Wilson Sonsini, Blake worked in the public offerings and public companies practice of a different law firm as a partner since 2013 in that firm's Silicon Valley office. Before that, he was an associate and partner for Wilson Sonsini from 2000 to 2013. During that time, he assisted as counsel to the New York Stock Exchange's (NYSE) Commission on Corporate Governance, which issued its final report in fall 2010. Prior to joining the firm, he clerked for Judge J. Clifford Wallace of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, from 1999 to 2000. He also clerked for Justice I. Daniel Stewart of the Utah Supreme Court, from 1998 to 1999.
"I'm excited about returning to Wilson Sonsini and the opportunity to be working side-by-side with many former and new colleagues," said Blake. "Wilson Sonsini's broad platform and strong brand make it an ideal firm for public companies, and I look forward to helping to continue building a leading public company and corporate governance practice."
Blake received his J.D. from the J. Reuben Clark Law School at Brigham Young University, where he graduated summa cum laude, in 1998, where he was a recipient of the Order of the Coif, and executive editor of the BYU Law Review. He earned his B.A. degree from Brigham Young University in 1995. He is admitted to practice in California.
Blake is a frequent speaker and presenter at conferences and panels including Northwestern Pritzker School of Law's Annual Securities Regulation Institute (SRI), Stanford's Rock Center for Corporate Governance, the Society for Corporate Governance, the National Investor Relations Institute, the Practicing Law Institute, and NYSE Euronext. He was named in the 2017 edition of Legal 500 as a "key figure with expertise in preparing companies for IPOs" and was named a 2009 Northern California "Rising Star" by Law & Politics magazine. He is a director of the Silicon Valley Directors' Exchange (formerly the National Association of Corporate Directors, Silicon Valley Chapter), is on the advisory board of TheCorporateCounsel.net, and is on the planning committee for SRI.
Blake has been interviewed and quoted in numerous business and legal trade media, including Dow Jones/The Wall Street Journal, Law360, The Practical Law Company, The Recorder, and The Daily Journal. He is widely published and is co-author of "By the Numbers: Venture-backed IPOs" in 2013, 2015, 2016, and 2017, as well as a chapter on IPO readiness in the NYSE's book, The Entrepreneur's Roadmap: From Concept to IPO and several chapters on IPOs and public company governance in the widely-used treatise, Venture Capital and Public Offering Negotiation.
About Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati
For more than 50 years, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati has offered a broad range of services and legal disciplines focused on serving the principal challenges faced by the management and boards of directors of business enterprises. The firm is nationally recognized as a leader in the fields of corporate governance and finance, mergers and acquisitions, private equity, securities litigation, employment law, intellectual property, and antitrust, among many other areas of law. With deep roots in Silicon Valley, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati has offices in Austin; Beijing; Boston; Brussels; Hong Kong; London; Los Angeles; New York; Palo Alto; San Diego; San Francisco; Seattle; Shanghai; Washington, D.C.; and Wilmington, DE. For more information, please visit www.wsgr.com.