Fenwick Welcomes New Partners
As we enter the New Year, Fenwick would like to celebrate the 12 new partners added in 2019. We continue to invest in key practice areas and grow in important cities for technology and life sciences, adding talent this year in Silicon Valley, Santa Monica, New York and Seattle.
The firm elected to the partnership Stephen Fisher, Elizabeth Gartland, Marshall Mort, Eric Shedlosky and Ryan Slunaker in the corporate practice and Todd Gregorian in the litigation practice.
In addition to six newly-elected partners, Fenwick welcomed six lateral partners this year in Santa Monica, New York and Silicon Valley. Evan Bienstock, Sarah Chambless, Nancy Chen, Josh Geffon and Einat Meisel joined the corporate practice and Andrew Klungness joined the intellectual property practice.
The new partners represent Fenwick’s commitment to strategically growing and developing talent, and reflect practice areas such as executive compensation and benefits, mergers and acquisitions, startup and venture capital, patent litigation and technology transactions.
The newly-elected partners are:
Steve Fisher focuses on mergers and acquisitions, complex strategic transactions, corporate governance and general corporate matters. His experience includes domestic and international transactions, public and private company mergers, stock and asset sales and purchases, divestitures, tender offers, exchange offers, investments and joint ventures.
Elizabeth Gartland focuses on compensation and employee benefits matters for public and private companies that arise in connection with corporate governance, mergers and acquisitions, initial public offerings and compensation design. Liz also advises clients regarding structuring their compensation arrangements, including compliance with Section 409A, Section 280G and other related tax and securities laws.
Todd Gregorian concentrates on complex commercial and intellectual property litigation at the trial and appellate levels. Todd has represented clients—ranging from startups to some of the largest technology companies in the world—in patent, trade secret, copyright, trademark, false advertising, antitrust and unfair competition matters, and also counsels clients on issues relating to advertising and anonymous speech on the internet.
Marshall Mort focuses on compensation and employee benefits matters. He particularly enjoys developing creative solutions that support attractive compensation plans. Working with both private and public companies, Marshall excels in navigating complex tax, securities and accounting issues within the equity and executive compensation environment.
Eric Shedlosky focuses on debt finance transactions, private equity, and mergers and acquisitions. He regularly represents companies, ranging from early startups to mature public companies, on a variety of secured lending and other corporate financing transactions.
Ryan Slunaker focuses on a broad variety of corporate matters to support clients in the technology and life sciences industries. He represents startups, from inception through the exit process on all corporate matters, including financings; strategic transactions; joint ventures; day-to-day corporate, HR, and tax matters; corporate governance; secondary liquidity and other equity-related matters.
The lateral partners are:
Evan Bienstock counsels companies in all stages of their lifecycles, from the seed of an idea to eventual exit. He works closely with founders, investors, boards and entrepreneurs across a wide range of technologies. Evan serves as a mentor to the startup community, writing, speaking and leading seminars on legal and business issues for various groups, incubators and accelerators in and around New York City.
Sarah Chambless focuses on technology companies, specifically in the areas of startup company formation, early- and growth-stage finance, and mergers and acquisitions. She advises emerging companies in the digital media, technology, consumer products and social enterprise sectors, and is active in the Los Angeles startup community, regularly acting as a mentor and speaker at incubators, accelerators and universities.
Nancy Chen focuses on executive compensation and employee benefit matters for startup companies and public companies. She advises clients on the tax, securities and employment issues related to equity-based compensation and designs plans and arrangements for stock options, restricted stock, restricted stock units and deferred compensation programs.
Josh Geffon, co-chair of the American Bar Association’s Private Equity and Venture Capital Committee, is a strategic partner to entrepreneurs, investors, executives and in-house legal teams, collaborating with emerging growth companies and VC funds throughout their lifecycles. He advises technology, life sciences and consumer product companies, as well as investors, on venture capital and debt financings, strategic initiatives, commercial arrangements, and mergers and acquisitions.
Andrew Klungness focuses on intellectual property and technology transactions in a variety of tech verticals. Leveraging nearly two decades of legal and business experience, he helps clients navigate the opportunities and risks related to innovation and disruption. Andrew is an enthusiastic member of the Silicon Beach community, having practiced technology law in Santa Monica since the “dot com” era.
Einat Meisel, co-chair of Fenwick’s Israel practice, is a recognized leader in cross-border corporate and transactional matters involving Israel. She advises international clients on their investments and operations in Israel, as well as Israel-based clients on their cross-border growth, financing and transactional matters. Her clients range from emerging growth companies to mature global companies in diverse technology sectors.
In 2019, Fenwick was named a Law 360 Powerhouse—an honor recognizing the firm’s technology and life sciences work, including significant M&A and investment deals and several major litigation wins—as well as one of America’s Top Trusted Corporate Law Firms by Forbes. Fenwick was also named one of the finalists for Tech Litigation Department of the Year in The Recorder’s California Leaders in Tech Law and Innovation Awards.