Cooley promotes Wilson Sonsini joiners after summer raids

Cooley has elected 18 of its lawyers to partnership including four who joined the firm earlier this year as part of two wider groups from Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati.

The promotions are effective from 1 January next year with the lawyers located across eight of Cooley’s 12 offices. All 18 are based in the US, with UK partnership promotions expected to be confirmed in 2018.

“As next-generation leaders, our new partners bring a diversity of backgrounds and experiences to our partnership, and we are extraordinarily pleased to welcome them,” said Joe Conroy, Cooley’s chief executive officer.

“They represent the best of Cooley through their talent, passion and commitment to our future, and we are confident they will meaningfully contribute to the success of our clients and our firm for many years to come.”

In July this year Cooley hired a team from Wilson Sonsini that primarily boosted its offices in New York and Washington. More recently in September Cooley also raided Wilson Sonsini for corporate partners Jon Avina and Calise Cheng in Palo Alto and Rachel Proffitt in San Francisco.

The four lawyers who joined from Wilson Sonsini less than six months ago and have now been promoted to partner are: Joshua Holleman (M&A, Washington, DC); Jeff Laretto (corporate, New York); Bradley Libuit (corporate, San Francisco); and Gerard O’Shea (employment, New York).

The East Coast team hired from Wilson Sonsini featured New York partners Adam Dinow and Sacha Ross, whose practices focus on high-growth tech companies, and partner Robert Sanchez, based in both Washington DC and New York. Sanchez works with tech and other growth companies on M&A and public and private financing work. In total the group featured in excess of 20 lawyers.