Venture Capital & Emerging Technology Growth Companies

Our specialist lawyers, working across venture capital, private equity, capital markets, intellectual property, employment and incentives, data protection, commercial and regulatory are able to support all stages of growth and support successful decision making at every step. Our knowledge of issues at later stages of funding and exits and complex cross border transactions help to frame the structure that should be built from the start and pre-empt due diligence processes. We have global offices with international reach including London, New York, Palo Alto, San Francisco, Syndey, Dubai and across many European jurisdictions; like technology we work without boundaries.

Growth Journey

The journey from start-up can be bewildering and daunting with many obstacles to be successfully navigated. None more so than when sourcing debt, raising equity capital, steering through the maze of regulatory compliance, and ensuring the protection of key assets. 

The varying expectations of founders and investors, the complexity and volume of documents and the perceived prohibitive costs of securing the best advice, leave many young companies exposed. In the absence of experienced team members or advisors, key assets can be easily and unwittingly put at risk and contractual or legal liability may leave the business vulnerable, which can in turn thwart attempts to raise much needed funding.  

Why Choose Squire Patton Boggs Venture Capital Lawyers? 

Our specialist lawyers, working across venture capital, private equity, capital markets, intellectual property, employment and incentives, data protection, commercial and regulatory are able to support all stages of growth and support successful decision making at every step. Our knowledge of issues at later stages of funding and exits and complex cross border transactions help to frame the structure that should be built from the start and pre-empt due diligence processes.  We have global offices with international reach; like technology we work without boundaries.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI)

As a leading global law firm, we take seriously our responsibility to call out and help eradicate inequality and discrimination in all its guises. We are intentional
about doing so both within our own firm with and in the communities where we practice. Some of our highlights include:

• Established a global DEI team of nine, who set and work towards a global strategy, with local relevance.
• Achieved against UK diversity targets set for gender, ethnicity, social mobility, disability and LGBT+.
• Achieved a top 10 ranking in the Social Mobility Foundation’s Employer Index, placing ninth.
• The only law firm to be recognised at the BPP awards for the Large Employer of the Year’ category for our Apprenticeship Programme.
• Winners of ENEI’s Putting Intersectionality into Practice award.
• Awarded Mansfield Rule Plus certification in the US.
• Recognised as a Disability Confident Employer.
• Best Place to Work for LGBTQ Equality for the 14th consecutive year on the Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s 2022 Corporate Equality Index.
• 54% of our global board are people of colour or women.

We take our own ESG very seriously and outline below how we “walk the walk” in these areas. We also regularly advise boards of directors on ESG matters for their respective companies, advise B-corp clients and assist fund managers and family offices with impact investing.

Both at a firm-wide level and locally through our 45 offices, we invest extensive time, know-how and funds to advance our corporate responsibility in five core areas:

• Inclusion and Diversity – A commitment to inclusion and diversity is at the very heart of our culture. It is a commitment that covers everything we do – our approach to recruitment, through to training and development, progression and succession planning, and the general wellbeing of our people.
• Opportunity and Education – Whether through workplace experience, skills training and mentoring, or supporting educational programmes and wider access to legal and professional careers, we look to unlock individual talent and foster opportunity.
• Communities – We support disadvantaged individuals and communities through our pro bono advice, volunteering and charitable fundraising, and we collaborate with our clients and charitable and professional organisations in joint initiatives.
• Health and Wellbeing – A key priority of our business is the physical and mental health and wellbeing of our people. In addition, more widely through sponsoring charities and organisations, we also support medical research, therapies and innovations that can cure or treat serious diseases or aid those with disabilities.
• Sustainability – We have recently released our UK-wide ESG strategy which sets out the firm’s ambitions to be net zero by 2035, and to incrementally reduce our carbon emission by 15% each year from a 2019 baseline. We use 100% renewable electricity and gas to power our offices, and we are introducing carbon literacy training for employees across the firm. Our offices have a low carbon footprint we recently moved to new premises in London which was awarded BREEAM Excellent’ status.