Axelrad, Fore jump ship

Silicon Valley law firm Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati has lost Jonathan Axelrad and Robert Fore, the co-heads of its fund service practice, to law firm Goodwin Procter.
The departures come amid option backdating scandals that have affected Wilson Sonsini’s clients, including Apple Inc and Brocade Communications.
Counsel Gerald Chacon Jr. will follow Axelrad and Fore to Goodwin Procter. The trio are noted venture capital fund formation lawyers whose clients include major Silicon Valley private equity firms Sequoia Capital, Clearstone Venture Partners, Mayfield, Palomar Ventures, Rho Ventures, Storm Ventures, Trident Capital and VantagePoint Venture Partners.
According to a press release, Axelrad, Fore and Chacon’s practice, combined with Goodwin Procter’s involved almost 20 percent of all the new capital commitments made to venture capital funds in 2006.
The hires come as part of Goodwin Procter’s effort to build a bi-coastal practice in the US. The Boston based law firm has opened five offices in California in the last 18 months; the Palo Alto office, where Axelrad, Fore and Chacon will be based, opened in June 2007.
“We will continue to invest in and develop resources in those geographic and practice areas that provide the greatest value to our clients.
We have made a significant investment in California and are committed to growing on the West Coast as strategically and focused as we have on the East Coast,” said Regina Pisa, chairman and managing partner of Goodwin Procter, in a statement.
In 2005, Goodwin Procter added nearly 100 attorneys from Testa Hurwitz & Thibeault when it dissolved as a partnership. Testa Hurwitz was among the top law firms for East Coast venture capital.
Now over 200 of Goodwin Procter’s 850 attorneys focus on technology, life sciences, private equity and venture capital.
The departures of Axelrad, Fore and Chacon come on the back of investigations into backdating scandals at some of the technology firms that have been advised by Larry Sonsini, chairman of Wilson Sonsini. Sonsini sat on the board of Brocade Communications, one of the first companies to be investigated for backdated share options.
He is also alleged to have advised on the share option grant to Steve Jobs at Apple Inc which is also being investigated.