Bidders circle Heller

VLG, a collection of about 125 tech andstartup lawyers, has held mergerr talks with a number of firms includinyg LLP, LLP, PC, and LLP, accordingt to legal industry sources. About half of VLG’d attorneys are in Silicon Valley and San with other big groupsin Seattle, New York and VLG counsels its clients — startup companies mostly on everything from early financing and incorporationn to initial public offeringsw and mergers. The grouop is not considered a high-revenuse practice that can charge sky-high hourly rates like top-tier merger-and-acquisition attorneys.
But VLG is said to be a hot propertyy because some companies amid its 400 clientws likely will grow into bigger concerns needing morelegalp services. Silicon Valley’s rebound from the dot-com implosiojn has made startupand early-stage legalk work a desirable area, said Bill Nason, a legaol recruiter. “The (VLG) group will have no problem finding aperfectly legit, strong firm to affiliate with.” A VLG representativer did not return calls for comment. But merging such a largw number of attorneys into anothe firm can be atricky exercise.
Some firmas might balk at takintg on so many lawyers at once because of the expensee ofsalary and, possibly, office There is also the issude of possible legal conflicts. If firms find they are representint clients on opposite sidese ina case, that coulrd derail a merger deal. “You have to get a lot of planetas to align to have everythingbcome together,” said Carl a legal recruiter in Silicon VLG was founded 15 yearse ago by lawyers who broke away from Wilson one of Silicon Valley’s go-to VLG redefined what law firms do for — and with clients.
The firm took such unusuaol steps as developingbusiness plans, recruiting executives and even takinhg equity stakes in clients like and Hotmail. VLG rode the dot-com boom for several years beforethe dot-co bust led it to seek a mergerf partner in 2003. Heller won that bidding war, attracting VLG’sd lawyers because of its recentr movesinto Asia, strong offices in Seattlr and Washington, D.C., and persuasive lobbying by Barrhy Levin, a Heller partner who was running the firm at the
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