Alan Mendelson is a partner in the firm's Silicon Valley office and the Co-Chair of the firm's Emerging Companies Practice Group. He joined the firm in May 2000, bringing a wealth of practice and management experience in the areas of corporate and securities law.
Mr. Mendelson's practice is primarily targeted toward the representation of emerging and public growth companies, with strong emphasis on companies in the life sciences, technology and cleantech industries. He has handled and supervised a variety of major business transactions, including venture capital financings on behalf of companies and investors, private placements and public offerings on behalf of companies and leading investment banking firms, mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures and other strategic collaborations, R&D limited partnerships and commercial transactions.
As counsel to Amgen from its inception in 1980 through 2006, Mr. Mendelson handled numerous transactions, including its initial public offering in 1983; its joint venture with Kirin; a number of major research and development partnerships; its European convertible debt deal; and its co-promotion agreement for Europe with F. Hoffman-La Roche. From April of 1990 through April of 1991, he served as Amgen's Secretary and Acting General Counsel.
Mr. Mendelson currently serves as principal outside or general counsel to numerous emerging and public life sciences companies including Bayhill Therapeutics, CV Therapeutics, Geron Corporation, Intuitive Surgical, Inc., Kai Pharmaceuticals, OncoMed Pharmaceuticals, Plexxikon, QLT and Ulthera; many emerging and public technology companies, including Mellanox Technologies, Mevio and Tivo; as well as emerging cleantech companies such as Codexis and SolFocus.
In the public offering arena, Mr. Mendelson has been counsel to a number of investment banks in offerings for emerging growth companies, including CIBC World Markets, CSFB, Goldman Sachs, Jefferies & Co., Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, Pacific Growth Equities and SG Cowen. As company counsel he has handled public offerings for such notable biotech companies as Amgen, Axys Pharmaceuticals, Aviron, CV Therapeutics, Geron Corporation, Intuitive Surgical, InterMune, Mellanox Technologies, Pharmacyclics, Qualcomm, Renovis, and Tivo. Mr. Mendelson has been a member of the Emerging Companies Section Governing Body of the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) since 2004 and is a member of the BayBio board of directors. He serves as the corporate secretary for many public and private companies. Mr. Mendelson served as acting General Counsel of Cadence Designs Systems, Inc., a leading EDA software and services company.
From 1991 through 1994, he served as the President of the Board of Directors of the National Kidney Foundation of Northern California, Inc. and served as a member of the Major Gifts Council for the Lucile Packard Foundation for Children's Health. Mr. Mendelson is currently a member of the Board of Advisors for the UC Berkeley Department of Chemistry. He also serves as a member of the Board of Trustees of the UC Berkeley Foundation, as a member of the Board of Overseers Visiting Committee of Harvard Law School and as a member of the Board of the American Friends of Rambam Medical Center in Haifa, Israel. Most recently, Mr. Mendelson was elected to a 2-year term as President of the California Alumni Association, where he previously served as Vice President and board member.
Since 1993, Mr. Mendelson has been listed in editions of "The Best Lawyers in America." IPO Vital Signs lists him as one of the top 100 lawyers from 1998 to 2003 in its 2003 IPO Lawyer Yearbook. Mr. Mendelson was recognized as one of America's 100 most influential lawyers in the 1994, 1997, 2000 and 2006 editions of the National Law Journal and as one of "California's 100 most influential lawyers" in the 1998 and 1999 editions of California Law Business. San Francisco Magazine named him a 2004 Northern California Super Lawyer for 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008. In addition, he was named as one of the World's Leading Lawyers for Business in the 2003 through 2009 editions of Chambers Global and Chambers US. In the Chambers US 2008 guide, Mr. Mendelson was described as having a "nationwide reputation" and is a "a go-to person for commercial work…" and is further recognized as being "a gentleman lawyer" and "a strong force" in the field. Recently, Mr. Mendelson was listed in the 2010 Best Lawyers in America survey in the categories of Biotechnology Law, Corporate Law, Leveraged Buyouts and Private Equity Law, Mergers & Acquisitions Law, Securities Law and Venture Capital Law.