Kathleen M. Wells
Partner
Silicon Valley
kathleen.wells@lw.com
+1.650.463.2677
PRACTICES
- Capital Markets
- Emerging Companies & Growth
- Mergers & Acquisitions
- Public Company Representation
INDUSTRIES
- Entertainment, Sports & Media
- Healthcare & Life Sciences
- Retail & Consumer Products
- Technology
EDUCATION
- JD, Stanford Law School, 2001
- BA, University of Arizona, 1996
LANGUAGES SPOKEN
PROFILE
Kathleen Wells advises public and private companies in, venture capital firms, and investment banks on a full spectrum of corporate governance, securities law, and transactional matters, with a particular focus on the life sciences and technology sectors.
Drawing on extensive experience across multiple industries, Kathleen guides clients of all sizes — from startups to mature public companies — and their boards, investors, and investment banks on a range of matters, including:
- Capital markets transactions, including initial public offerings (IPOs) and follow-on offerings
- Mergers and acquisitions
- Venture capital financings
- Corporate governance matters
- Public company disclosure issues
- Federal and state securities law compliance
- Equity incentives and employment matters
- Company formation and startup matters
A recognized leader at the firm, Kathleen was Co-Chair of the Silicon Valley Corporate Department from 2011-2019 and has served on the Mentoring, Recruiting, Women Enriching Business (WEB), and several industry group committees.
EXPERIENCE
Kathleen’s experience includes representing:
Capital Markets
- Airbnb in its IPO
- Alkami in its IPO
- Amplitude in its direct listing
- Annexon in its IPO, PIPE, and at-the-market offering
- Blackhawk Network Holdings in its IPO and spin off from Safeway
- The Cheesecake Factory in its convertible note offering and concurrent follow-on offering
- Ceribell in its IPO
- Codexis in its follow-on offerings
- Corcept Therapeutics in its follow-on offering
- Corvus Pharmaceuticals in its IPO and follow-on offering
- Eargo in its IPO
- e.l.f. Beauty in its IPO and secondary offering
- Eventbrite in its convertible note offering
- lntermune in its follow-on offering
- Mellanox Technologies in its IPO
- OpenTable in its IPO and follow-on offering
- Prothena in its follow-on offerings
- Raptor Pharmaceutical in its at-the-market offering and follow-on offering
- Renovis in its IPO
- Wag! Group Co. in its follow-on offering
- Zosano Pharma in its follow-on and at-the-market offering s
Mergers & Acquisitions
- Aduro in its merger with Chinook
- Bella Pictures in its sale to CPI Corp.
- CV Therapeutics in its sale to Gilead Sciences
- Delivery Agent in its acquisition of Billion Dollar Babes
- Mellanox Technologies in its acquisition of Voltaire
- OpenTable in its sale to Priceline and acquisitions including GuestBridge, Just Chalo, RezBook, Table Maestro, toptable.com, and Treat Technologies
- Raptor Pharmaceutical in its sale to Horizon Pharma pc
- ReCAPTCHA in its sale to Google
- Relievant MedSystems in its sale to Boston Scientific Corporation
- The Cheesecake Factory in its acquisition of Fox Restaurant Concepts
- Twitch in its sale to Amazon
- ViVu in its sale to Polycom
Venture Capital Financings
(Companies and Investors)
- Alkami
- Annexon
- ARCH
- Babylist
- Bella Pictures
- Bessemer Venture Partners
- Cambrios
- Canaan Partners
- Cascade Asset Management Company
- Ceribell
- Claret Medical
- Corvus Pharmaceuticals
- CuraSen Therapeutics
- Delivery Agent
- Eargo
- Freeborders
- Fresco Kitchen
- Frontier Medicines
- Gate Bioscience
- Intuity Medical
- Joby Aviation
- Joyful Habits
- Kymeta
- MediaTek
- Mentor Graphics
- Mercator MedSystems
- Myoscience
- Nexus India Capital Omada Health
- ooyala
- Postmates
- Proterra
- Relievant MedSystems
- RIPPL Care
- Salma Health
- Sana Biotechnology
- Siluria Technologies
- Silver Lake
- Stir Money
- Tenvie Therapeutics
- U.S. Venture Partners