Fenwick’s Ran Ben-Tzur Named a Capital Markets MVP by Law360

Law360 has named Fenwick partner Ran Ben-Tzur a Capital Markets MVP for his excellence in securities law, in its annual Law360 MVP list. As part of the recognition, Law360 profiled Ran on his recent achievements, motivations and advice for junior attorneys. Click here to read the full profile.

Ran has steered many top tech innovators through major industry-reshaping capital markets transactions. He told Law360 that his major achievement (and challenge) was in guiding Coinbase through its pioneering direct listing on the Nasdaq Global Select Market. Coinbase was the first major crypto company to go public and the first technology company to go public through a direct listing on Nasdaq. It also had the second largest valuation for ­­a technology company at the time of going public ($100 billion).

As part of the roadshow, Coinbase had the novel idea to host a Reddit “Ask Me Anything” event. The company wanted its roadshow to allow institutional investors to have access not only to the management team "but also retail investors, because that's part of the company's mission, to have a more open financial system," Ran told Law360.

"We wanted to make sure that we didn't cause any regulatory issues that would slow our whole process down, and ultimately came up with an idea of how we could make it work," he said. "We ran it through the SEC, got their blessing and ultimately helped Coinbase bring this concept to life."

Ran’s other recent transaction highlights include: advising SentinelOne in its $1.4 billion IPO, making it the highest-valued cybersecurity company in history at the time of IPO; Compass in its $450 million IPO, one of the largest real estate technology IPOs ever; and Nextdoor in its acquisition by Khosla Ventures Acquisition Co. II, a SPAC, through which Nextdoor will become a publicly listed company.

Ran told Law360 that his "collaborative" personality drew him to working on capital markets transactions, especially initial public offerings or direct listings. “You're not just working with one or two people within an organization, you're working with a broader team—across multiple groups from different firms and constituents—in order to get this process across the finish line."

Ran provides strategic counseling on a wide range of corporate matters to high-growth private and public technology companies, primarily in the software, social networking, fintech, crypto, internet and mobility spaces. He has extensive experience in capital markets transactions and has represented numerous issuers and underwriters on initial public offerings and other equity and debt offerings, as well as corporate governance, SEC compliance and general corporate matters. Fenwick’s Capital Markets group was named a Capital Markets Practice Group of the Year by Law360 for 2019.

The MVP list honors lawyers who have distinguished themselves by securing hard-earned successes in high-stakes litigation, complex global matters and record-breaking deals.