Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, the premier provider of legal services to technology, life sciences, and growth enterprises worldwide, announced today that Laurie Smilan has rejoined the firm as Of Counsel. Smilan will be based in the firm's Washington, D.C., and New York offices, and her practice will focus on securities litigation and counseling, SEC and government investigations, and corporate governance matters.
From 1994 to 2002, Smilan was a securities litigation partner at WSGR and served as co-managing partner in the firm's former Reston, Virginia, office. Later, Laurie was a senior partner at an international law firm, where she served as co-chair of its securities litigation group and a member of its corporate governance and M&A task forces. Laurie also was an adjunct professor of law at Georgetown UniversityLaw Center for five years, where she taught corporate governance.
"Increasingly, in addition to representation in securities-related litigation, the firm's clients need advice and guidance on complicated governance and board matters, and Laurie has a wealth of expertise in all of those areas that will be of great value to our clients," said Nicki Locker, a partner at WSGR who leads the firm's securities litigation practice. "Laurie has also earned the confidence of corporate executives and board members alike, in the course or representing sophisticated clients who consider her a trusted legal advisor. We are thrilled to welcome Laurie back to the firm."
Smilan has written and lectured on securities, derivative and M&A litigation, corporate governance, internal investigations, and financial disclosure issues across the country in programs sponsored by the American Bar Association, the Practicing Law Institute, the SEC Institute, the NACD, the NASD, KPMG's Audit Committee Roundtable, and the Center for Professional Education.
Smilan earned her J.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law in 1984, where she was an editorial board member of the UCLA Law Review. She received her B.A. in 1981 from the State University of New York, where she graduated magna cum laude. She is admitted to practice in the District of Columbia, California, and New York. She also is admitted to various U.S. District Courts, the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the First, Second, Third, Fourth, Seventh, and Ninth Circuits, and the U.S. Supreme Court.
WSGR has built a reputation as one of the top securities defense firms in the U.S. The firm has defended cases in 32 states and in all of the federal courts. Between 1999 and 2015, WSGR defended companies in 213 federal securities class actions—more than any other law firm in the country, according to Securities Law360. WSGR was ranked among the top 15 percent of all law firms for securities and finance litigation in the BTI Litigation Outlook 2017 report, based on client feedback from in-depth interviews with corporate counsel at the world's largest companies.
About Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & RosatiFor more than 50 years, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati has offered a broad range of services and legal disciplines focused on serving the principal challenges faced by the management and boards of directors of business enterprises. The firm is nationally recognized as a leader in the fields of corporate governance and finance, mergers and acquisitions, private equity, securities litigation, employment law, intellectual property, and antitrust, among many other areas of law. With deep roots in Silicon Valley, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati has offices in Austin; Beijing; Boston; Brussels; Hong Kong; London; Los Angeles; New York; Palo Alto; San Diego; San Francisco; Seattle; Shanghai; Washington, D.C.; and Wilmington, DE. For more information, please visit www.wsgr.com.
