Drinker Biddle's Emerging Company and Venture Capital Practice consists of a highly experienced group of lawyers specifically focused on providing legal services to emerging companies, entrepreneurs, and venture capital funds and other investors making investments in start-ups and emerging companies.   With forward-thinking transaction leadership and a hands-on approach to counseling, combined with Drinker Biddle's extensive industry knowledge and capabilities in other critical legal disciplines, we deliver a unique level of service, advice and value to our clients.  With offices in California, Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, Princeton and Washington, DC, we are able to effectively service clients in any part of the country.

Your Business Partner
Every attorney in Drinker Biddle's Emerging Company and Venture Capital Practice approaches client relationships as partnerships.  By investing the time to understand their businesses and the industries in which they serve, we provide our clients with strategic advice, access to sources of capital, deal flow and business development opportunities to help achieve their goals. We work in teams customized to meet each client's needs and deliver expert guidance and advice in an efficient and cost-effective manner.  We simplify the delivery of legal services and advice to our clients in a variety of ways to facilitate and expedite transactions and decision-making and to manage legal costs for each client.   And we bring an unparalleled degree of focus, integrity and discipline to all of our representations, earning and maintaining each client's trust and confidence as a key strategic advisor that delivers the highest quality legal service and practical business advice at an exceptional value.

Emerging Companies
Drinker Biddle has represented hundreds of technology-based and high growth companies in a broad range of industries, including Life Sciences, medical devices, information technology, clean technology, consumer products, media, communications, Internet and e-commerce, retail and manufacturing.  We provide the full range of services an emerging company will need throughout its life cycle, including:

  • providing essential business advice and guidance in connection with entity formation;
  • help in drafting effective private placement memorandums, business plans and investor presentations;
  • introductions to sources of capital and negotiating venture capital transactions;
  • developing, acquiring and protecting intellectual property;
  • negotiating strategic alliances, joint ventures, licensing arrangements and other critical transactions
  • structuring equity and non-equity employee compensation incentives
  • establishing an effective corporate governance structure
  • structuring and negotiating mergers and acquisitions
  • completing initial public offerings and follow-on offerings

Venture Capital
Drinker Biddle represents numerous venture capital and private equity funds, a number of corporate venture arms of large corporations and numerous angel investors.  We also actively represent several large institutional investors in connection with their alternative investment strategies, including investing in venture capital and private equity funds.    We provide the full range of services a venture capital fund or a corporate venture arm will need in connection with executing its investment strategies, including :

  • venture fund and corporate venture arm fund formation
  • evaluating and structuring initial and follow-on investments
  • evaluating intellectual property portfolios of target companies
  • counseling partners on corporate governance relating to portfolio company boards
  • advising on continuing relationships with portfolio companies
  • developing and executing exit strategies

The lawyers on our Emerging Company and Venture Capital team bring a significant depth of experience to the fund formation and venture investment process.   Through our experience, we have developed a deep understanding of market standards and how to negotiate and structure transactions to build long-term, successful relationships between venture capitalists and emerging companies and between venture capitalists and their limited partners.

Integrated Services
Drinker Biddle's Emerging Company and Venture Capital team coordinates the provision of integrated and seamless service and strategic advice to our emerging company and venture capital clients across multiple disciplines; including: