Fenwick Continues Capital Markets Momentum with Major Public Offerings, New Partner Additions

Fenwick recently advised on a string of major going-public transactions, including representing longtime client Coinbase in its pioneering direct listing on the Nasdaq Global Select Market. Coinbase is the first major crypto company to go public and the first technology company to go public through a direct listing on Nasdaq.

“We are honored to have partnered with Coinbase on their groundbreaking direct listing, and are proud of the Fenwick team of leading crypto and capital markets attorneys who advised Coinbase on a multitude of ‘firsts’ throughout the process,” said Alan Smith, Fenwick corporate practice chair. “This direct listing is a major milestone in what has been an incredibly busy and rewarding year to date for the capital markets team as we help clients navigate various options for accessing the public markets, and we look forward to continued growth.”

Fenwick’s other high-profile initial offerings included New York-based Compass, a leading national real estate technology company, in its $450 million IPO – one of the largest real estate technology IPOs to date – and underwriter representation in mobile app developer AppLovin’s IPO, which resulted in gross proceeds of $2 billion. Fenwick is also advising ZipRecruiter on its pending direct listing.

“The Fenwick team is very focused and understands Compass’ business and our priorities, while being efficient and timely. They are available whenever we need them and have the expertise to handle any complexity that may come up,” said Brad Serwin, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary at Compass, Inc. “Fenwick has a wealth of experience taking tech companies public – they work well with founder CEOs and their teams, and work well with the most influential underwriters and their counsel.”

Coinbase Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal told Reuters that he’s become more convinced that Fenwick offers “superior advice and counsel to companies like ours, particularly on novel issues like a direct listing, or companies dealing in new technologies or industries like crypto.”

The firm’s Capital Markets group has had a robust year to date, representing leading technology and life sciences companies on a wide variety of offering transactions. Highlights include representing Proterra in a SPAC merger with ArcLight Clean Transition Corp. to become publicly listed; representing Sema4 in its combination agreement with CM Life Sciences SPAC, valuing Sema4 at approximately $2 billion; representing Veracyte in its $550 million follow-on offering in connection with the $600 million acquisition of Decipher Biosciences; representing Peloton in its $1 billion convertible senior note offering; and representing Nurix Therapeutics in its $160 million follow-on offering.

To meet growing client demand, Fenwick boosted its capital markets and public companies services with the arrivals of new partners Per Chilstrom and Michael Pilo in its New York office. They bring extensive experience representing technology and life sciences companies and investment banks in a full range of capital markets transactions and public company matters.

Fenwick’s Capital Markets team is routinely involved in some of the most high-profile IPOs and other equity offerings for the technology and life sciences industries. The group was named Capital Markets Group of the Year by Law360 in 2019 and listed among California’s leading firms for capital markets in Chambers USA in 2020. Fenwick is currently ranked #1 issuer-side for public offerings in 2021 by deal value, according to Deal Point Data.