( L to R) Raj Judge and Craig Sherman, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati

Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati's Steven Bernard teamed with partner Daniel Glazer in London to represent payments company Checkout.com in a $230 million Series A funding round, Europe's largest fintech Series A round ever. Bernard and partners Steven Bochner and Andrew Hoffman represented Dutch search engine company Elastic B.V. in its U.S. initial public offering. And partners Yoichiro Taku and Adam Bloom teamed with Gary Greenstein in Washington, D.C., to represent social broadcasting platform Caffeine in its $100 million round of funding from 21st Century Fox. That body of work landed Wilson Sonsini one of two finalist spots for the Startup Firm/Emerging Company Law Firm of the Year in The Recorder's California Leaders in Tech Law and Innovation Awards. The Recorder recently asked partners Raj Judge and Craig Sherman about the firm's interdisciplinary approach to representing emerging company clients.

The Recorder: What are the distinguishing characteristics of lawyers at Wilson Sonsini who work with startups and emerging company clients?

Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati has helped to lay the groundwork for some of the world's most innovative technology, life sciences and growth companies. As the nation's leading firm representing venture-backed companies, our attorneys have counseled thousands of entrepreneurs, helping them grow their companies into highly successful, mature businesses.  Indeed, Wilson Sonsini has represented hundreds of companies from their earliest stages through their IPOs and beyond, including Google, Netflix, Tesla and GoDaddy.

When a startup client comes to your firm for representation, what can they expect?

Wilson Sonsini serves as a strategic adviser through each stage of a company's growth. The firm takes an interdisciplinary approach to counseling entrepreneurs and young companies, offering deep expertise in a variety of areas, including finance, intellectual property, employee benefits and compensation, corporate governance, employment litigation, tax, real estate, M&A and antitrust. Our attorneys provide entrepreneurs with the information and opportunities they need to develop into the next generation of industry leaders. Wilson Sonsini's resources are extended to all entrepreneurs and emerging company executives who establish a relationship with the firm. For example, we invite contacts to networking events, workshops and other programs covering a wide range of topics designed to help entrepreneurs focus their ideas, develop a business strategy, build the right relationships and access capital.

What are the biggest challenges your team faces in representing emerging company clients in the current deal climate?

The only constant with emerging companies is change, and lawyers representing emerging companies need to be nimble to keep up. Even the most successful startups face constant legal challenges as they grow (or stall or pivot or fail), and our team needs to rapidly bring the right resources to bear to face those challenges. Over the last several years, we've worked with multiple clients managing hypergrowth, with the accompanying financing, employment, governance, regulatory and other legal issues, and we anticipate that at some point, many of our clients will instead be managing through an economic downturn, with the accompanying financing, employment, governance, regulatory and other legal issues. We need to move fast, and we need to provide the best possible business guidance and legal advice.