Cooley

Despite having been in the City for only ten years, Cooley has built a strong brand rooted in technology, life sciences, and venture capital, alongside complex litigation. The London office, Cooley’s first in Europe, has grown significantly since its launch, doubling in size to over 100 lawyers including 36 partners. In 2023, revenue from the London office grew by 8.3% to $103.1 million, healthily rebounding from a flat performance in 2022, which was preceded by a 50% growth in 2021. Similar revenue fluctuations are not uncommon among transactional-focused law firms in London recently due to market uncertainties in an inflationary environment, although Cooley’s exposure to the venture capital market made it particularly prone to market volatility. However, looking ahead, the London Emerging Companies and Venture Capital (or EC/VC) team at Cooley is still actively expanding, having recruited three partners and internally promoted two in 2024. Other areas of focus for internal promotion and lateral hiring in the London office have been technology transactions, competition litigation, and TMT (technology, media, and telecom) litigation - each with one new partner. Out of ten years since Cooley was launched in London, its EC/VC team has been recognised by Chambers for seven years. The practice currently holds a Band-2 Chambers ranking and was shortlisted for the Corporate Team of the Year at the British Legal Awards (2023) alongside well-established London corporate names like Latham, Freshfields, and Slaughter and May. Globally, Cooley serves more than 7,000 high-growth, Silicon Valley-style emerging companies, including NVIDIA (advising on its formation in 1993, IPO in 1999, and serving as its principal corporate and litigation counsel for 28 years), Uber (serving as lead counsel on its IPO and more than $23 billion worth of financings since 2015), and Netflix (handling multiple gaming-related acquisitions). Cooley also acts as primary fund counsel to over 700 asset managers, positioning the firm at the centre of the world’s most expansive venture capital network. This network is a key value-add for its start-up clients, who constantly seek new sources of venture funding and collaboration opportunities, and Cooley’s London team has leveraged this to assist UK and European companies in securing venture funding, particularly from institutional investors in the US. Recent experience included advising Kpler (a data analytics firm focusing on global trade intelligence) on its $200 million growth investment from Insight Partners and Five Arrows, and Synthesia (an AI video creation platform) on its $90 million Series C financing led by Accel. For companies gunning for a listing to access the deep-pocketed US capital market (i.e. a third of European companies’ IPO-ed between 2015 and 2023), Cooley is exceptionally well-positioned. The firm has been ranked No. 1 for US IPOs of European private issuers since 2016, according to Deal Point Data. Cooley’s technology transactions and advisory team further enhances its offering to technology and life sciences clients, enabling the London team to be retained routinely by clients for all commercial matters, rather than just on major corporate M&A and financing milestones. On the transactional side, the team assists clients with commercial matters involving technology and intellectual property, including outsourcing projects, asset sale, distribution and supply agreements, joint ventures, collaboration agreements, and licensing. For example, Cooley’s London Life Sciences Partnering and Licensing practice recently advised Bavarian Nordic in its acquisition of Emergent BioSolutions’ travel vaccines portfolio for up to $380 million. On the advisory side, the London practice offers clients, particularly those in the life sciences sector, patent-related advice including freedom to operate analyses, infringement and validity opinions, due diligence, and management of global technologies. To complete the advisory services offering in London, Cooley also offers product compliance, competition, data protection, privacy and cybersecurity advisory services. Cooley is further recognised in London for its robust disputes practices, particularly in product liability (Chambers Band 2), which sets it apart from other life sciences-focused firms like Goodwin and Ropes & Gray, which are more transaction-heavy. The London team has represented manufacturers in some of the largest global product recalls, involving lithium-ion batteries, consumer electronics, home appliances, sporting goods, and electrical products. Such a strong dispute practice also serves as a valuable counter-cyclical revenue source for Cooley in London, given that its core venture capital practice would usually take the first hit in any market downturn like that experienced in 2022-2024. Reflecting this strategic importance, Cooley has made notable hires in 2023-2024 across areas such as international arbitration, competition litigation, intellectual property, TMT litigation.