Legal industry titan Latham & Watkins, soaring from a financially successful 2017 despite the recent and abrupt exit of its former leader, has hired corporate and emerging companies partner Todd Carpenter in San Francisco.

Carpenter spent the past 18 years at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, which he joined straight out of law school at the height of the dot-com boom in 2000. During his nearly two decades at the Silicon Valley stalwart, Carpenter has developed a practice focused on advising high-growth private companies and venture investors in the technology and life sciences sectors.

“This was the right point in my career to make the transition,” said Carpenter, who in 2012 helped Wilson Sonsini launch an office in San Francisco's South of Market neighborhood, a hub for internet and software companies. “My client base continues to become more global and to need broader resources, and the Latham platform presented an amazing growth opportunity, both for my clients and Latham's excellent emerging-company practice.”

Carpenter officially began working at Latham on Monday. His arrival at the firm comes a little more than a year after former Wilson Sonsini co-managing partner John “Jack” Sheridan switched over to Latham in Menlo Park, California. Michael Rubin, a former co-chairman of Wilson Sonsini's privacy and data protection practice, also joined Latham in San Francisco.

“Based on my conversations with other folks, it was all opportunistic,” said Carpenter about his decision to leave Wilson Sonsini, which shook up its leadership in late 2017 after a spate of partner departures. “Nobody left Wilson Sonsini in a begrudging way, but at certain times in our career you are presented with an opportunity that is really great for you, the time and opportunity were right and people decided to pursue that opportunity.”

Carpenter said he looks forward to working with Sheridan to help Latham grow its emerging-companies practice. At the same time, he hopes to expand the scope of that practice to different geographies, regulatory areas and specialties by leveraging Latham's global platform.

“Twenty years ago, if you were raising money, you just drove up and down Sand Hill Road, but now there are many more funds all around the world,” Carpenter said. “A bunch of venture funds have opened offices in San Francisco and the emerging-companies ecosystem is growing around the world, especially in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago and London. The industry is really expanding and I think it is important for us as lawyers to recognize that growth and broaden our practices.”

According to Latham, the 2,436-lawyer firm has more than 215 lawyers stationed in San Francisco and Silicon Valley. Latham also has more than 70 lawyers dedicated to its firmwide emerging-companies practice. For a brief time, Latham enjoyed a record financial year in 2017, exceeding the $3 billion gross revenue mark and watching partner profits climb to $3.25 million. Kirkland & Ellis, however, revealed in late March that it had surpassed Latham last year by reaping nearly $3.17 billion in gross revenue, as partner profits hit the $4.7 million mark.

“Our ability to help companies navigate every growth stage has earned us a position at the top-tier of firms in the geographical centers of entrepreneurship,” said a statement from Silicon Valley-based partner and current Latham co-chairwoman Ora Fisher, who assumed partial leadership of the firm last month following William Voge's ouster over misconduct allegations. “Todd enhances our capabilities in the Bay Area so we can continue to expand our services to the visionaries who've made this region a hotbed for innovation.”

Wilson Sonsini, which on Tuesday welcomed aboard antitrust partner Gorka Navea in Brussels, did not immediately return a request for comment about Carpenter's departure. Wilson Sonsini saw a number of partners head for the door in 2017, and just last week Goodwin Procter picked up antitrust partner Paul Jin in Washington, D.C., a month after Morrison & Foerster hired Wilson Sonsini financial services partner Susan Gault-Brown in the nation's capital.

Cooley also raided Wilson Sonsini late last month for technology transactions partner T'Challa Jabara “T.J.” Graham in Silicon Valley. Wilson Sonsini, however, has continued doing some hiring of its own, grabbing Goodwin Procter corporate partner Andrew Hill in Palo Alto, California, while also welcoming aboard former Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher antitrust partner Joshua Soven and ex-Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom associate Joshua Gruenspecht for its national security practice in Washington, D.C.

As for Latham, the firm took the lead this week for streaming music giant Spotify Technology SA on its initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange. The listing, which valued Spotify at nearly $30 billion, generated more than $5.5 million in legal fees and expenses, according to a securities filing. Latham is working with Luxembourg's Arendt & Medernach and Sweden's Mannheimer Swartling in advising Spotify, whose direct IPO has no underwriters.