Marius Domokos

In recent weeks, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati has welcomed back a slew of lawyers who once worked at the Silicon Valley stalwart but then moved on to other endeavors.

Among them are Marius Domokos, who has served as general counsel for several technology companies and now returns to the firm's office in Palo Alto, California, as an of counsel with its technology transactions and fintech group.

“It makes a lot of sense for people who were at Wilson and left to come back for two reasons, one, the firm always nurtures relationships with alumni … as people develop unique skills inside companies, it is a great benefit for a firm to bring them back and leverage those capabilities and knowledge,” said Domokos, noting that Wilson Sonsini's platform allows him to work with companies of all sizes.

In addition to hiring back Domokos, the firm has also welcomed back Domokos' former colleague, Audrey Garfield, as of counsel for its technology transactions group in Palo Alto. In late July, James Jensen, who most recently led Perkins Coie's China emerging company and investment fund formation practice in Palo Alto, also returned to Wilson Sonsini, where he had not worked since 2005. And Andrew Hill, an associate at Wilson Sonsini between 2008 and 2013, also returned to the firm as a Palo Alto-based partner in February after nearly five years as a partner at Goodwin Procter in Silicon Valley.

“We welcome back former attorneys—like Marius, Audrey, Jim and Andrew—who return for a variety of reasons. The timing and roles are specific to each attorney and are part of our ongoing efforts to add talented practitioners to the firm,” said a statement from Wilson Sonsini managing partner Douglas Clark. “Each of these attorneys had numerous career options, but they returned to the firm because they know our practice platform, our people and our position in the market. They also know our clients and like the variety of work we do for innovative and sophisticated companies. We're thrilled to welcome back our former colleagues because each one of them has a significant level of experience—experience that our clients value.”

Their arrivals also come after the departure of a number of longtime Wilson Sonsini within the past year. They include David Segre, who jumped to Cooley, Suzanne Bell, now at Covington & Burling, and Todd Carpenter, who moved to Latham & Watkins.

Domokos, who was a Wilson Sonsini associate from 2000 to 2001 and again from 2008 to 2011, explained that after having been in-house—he worked at Intel Corp. and KLA-Tencor Corp. between 2001 and 2008—the firm was a “natural fit” for the next step in his career due to its capabilities across technology industries and other practice areas.

Prior to his return, Domokos was serving as general counsel role for several technology companies, including Vindicia Inc., a provider of subscription management software acquired in 2016 by Amdocs Inc. Other employers were point of sale system Tray Inc. and Leap Motion Inc., a maker of hand-tracking software and hardware.

As a result of that in-house experience, Domokos has developed expertise in the areas of payment systems, fintech, omnichannel commerce and data analytics, as well as semiconductor and information technology industries. He served as general counsel and vice president of corporate development for Revel Systems Inc., an iPad-based point of sale system, from 2013 to 2016. Before that Domokos was general counsel for another three years at semiconductor startup Shocking Technologies Inc., which closed its doors in 2013.

“Marius has been immersed in the operational and business functions of companies in several tech-driven sectors, and that experience—along with his legal and business strategy expertise—is of great value to our clients,” said a statement from Wilson Sonsini's technology transactions co-leader James Clessuras in Washington, D.C.

Audrey Garfield

Similarly, Garfield also held a number of in-house roles prior to her return to the firm. She was most recently senior corporate counsel for products and privacy at VMware Inc., a Dell Technologies Inc. subsidiary that provides cloud computing and platform virtualization software and services. Before joining VMware, Garfield spent another four years as general counsel and corporate secretary at online management platform AppDirect Inc.

Garfield first joined Wilson Sonsini as an associate in 1999 but left for an in-house role at LSI Corp. in 2002. After several years working at LSI and travel search engine operator SideStep Inc., Garfield ran her own legal consulting firm before returning to Wilson Sonsini as of counsel in 2010. But almost two years later, she left the firm again for AppDirect.

Other new recruits by Wilson Sonsini include a quartet of lawyers hired as “venture counsel,” including Peter Nedeau, who until June served as a cross-border corporate counsel at Tesla Inc., an electric vehicle maker whose board of directors Wilson Sonsini is currently advising on a going-private plan pitched by its CEO Elon Musk. Nedeau, who works out of Wilson Sonsini's San Francisco office, assists on entrepreneurial and startup client issues.

In June, Wilson Sonsini snagged former Squire Patton Boggs corporate and securities partner Kenji “Ken” Funahashi in Los Angeles, while also launching its 15th office worldwide in London.