Alan C Smith

I've worked with Alan on corporate structure issues, venture capital deals, public offerings, M&A and all manner of corporate governance issues. Alan has a rare combination of practical business common sense and an ultra-technical understanding of the law. You actually get answers with Alan rather than hedging. He has counseled me through some very tough issues, and he just never gets flustered (or stumped). He also has an uncanny ability to negotiate successful outcomes in the toughest of situations without resorting to tactics that can put key relationships at risk. He’s truly one of the best negotiators I’ve ever seen (lawyers and non-lawyers included). Pound for pound, Alan is the best corporate attorney you will find–on either coast. You get the benefit of a skill-set usually only found (and even then rarely) with gray-haired uber-partners (that in truth typically wouldn't do much work on your deal anyway) without the stratospheric billing rate and with real attention to your deal. In the end, Alan is the corporate attorney I would hire if it was my personal company and my own hard-earned cash on the line.

I've worked on financings, acquisitions and IPOs with attorneys at Skadden Arps, Cooley Godward and Wilson Sonsini but Alan is the best. He is extremely thorough, intelligent, judicious, ethical, knowledgeable and pragmatic. His bills are reasonable. His negotiating skills are formidable, without ever crossing the line into sumo puffery. Unusual for someone with Alan's experience, he is also sympathetic to all the difficulties faced by entrepreneurs at startups. In our particular case, Alan sorted through innumerable irregularities that had piled up in our corporate records after several years of bootstrap operations. When we were struggling to meet new investors, Alan called on his partners across the West Coast to arrange over a dozen meetings for us. Alan also provides lots of advice on board management and corporate governance which has been both wise and savvy. Alan is teamed with a paralegal who will be a godsend for you if you end up working with Orrick; her name is Ellen Welichko. She knows everything, never misses anything; she is just terrifyingly good, too.