Further expanding its market-leading Emerging Companies and Venture Capital practice, Pillsbury has recruited veteran startup lawyer Matt Kirmayer as partner in the firm’s San Francisco office. Kirmayer was previously a partner at Perkins Coie.
Kirmayer has more than 30 years of experience working with emerging technology companies nationwide, as well as with the diverse investors who fund them. Often serving as outside general counsel for clients, he helps them navigate from formation to angel and venture capital investment through exit, providing wide-ranging legal advice that addresses a variety of legal, financial and operational issues. Kirmayer has handled numerous seed and venture financings for companies across a range of industries, including software, educational technology, digital media, social media, artificial intelligence systems, robotics and life sciences. He also has significant experience guiding more mature clients through securities offerings and mergers and acquisitions.
“Just like Pillsbury, Matt has decades of experience at the heart of the emerging company and venture capital ecosystem,” said Justin Hovey, Pillsbury’s Global Technology, Media & Telecom (TMT) Industry Leader. “He has an excellent reputation nationally, a wealth of sector experience, and maintains solid relationships with the incubators, accelerators and investors that are driving innovation.”
Kirmayer is a mentor at the Berkeley-Haas Entrepreneurship program at the University of California Berkeley and a Sky Advisor at SkyDeck, the unique startup incubator and accelerator at UC Berkeley. He is also an adjunct professor at the Integrated Innovation Institute at Carnegie Mellon University, which has a campus at Moffett Field in Silicon Valley, and sits on the advisory board of Astia, a nonprofit that invests in companies with women in positions of equity and influence.
“With a market-leading technology practice in the Bay Area and around the world, Pillsbury is a perfect fit for my practice and my clients,” Kirmayer said. “The firm’s sterling reputation, exceptionally talented lawyers and deep connections to the startup community will be invaluable to my clients as they progress from formation to exit and beyond.”
With one of the largest and most diversified Emerging Growth & Venture Capital practices in the industry, Pillsbury helps entrepreneurs, emerging companies and investors drive the innovation that changes our world. The firm’s lawyers take shoestring startups to market-leading positions, serving clients as trusted advisors every step of the way. Pillsbury’s long and storied history includes involvement in the formation, venture financing and IPOs of groundbreaking technology companies such as Intel, WebEx and other “unicorns.” Refinitiv ranked Pillsbury among the Top 3 most active law firms worldwide for VC financings based on full-year quantitative data, and Pitchbook counted the firm among the Top 10 most active in the world (for company representation) and in the United States, as well as in two of the fastest growing startup segments: Biotech and Energy.
Kirmayer is the third new partner to join Pillsbury in the Bay Area since September. Laura McDaniels, an accomplished Executive Compensation & Benefits practitioner with an established reputation in Silicon Valley, recently joined from White & Case. She plays a crucial role in supporting public and private client transactions, particularly in the technology industry. Adam Goldberg joined Pillsbury as a litigation partner based in the firm’s San Francisco office. Goldberg has extensive experience in Asia-related investigations, litigation, arbitrations, regulatory counseling and M&A compliance due diligence, with a particular focus on Greater China. He joined the firm from Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP, where he was a partner and had been practicing in Hong Kong for a decade.
