January 3, 2006

THE DAILY JOURNAL

By Amy K. Spees

Corporate attorney Jacob Schwarz, formerly of Palo Alto’s Thoits, Love, Hershberger & McLean, has joined Kirkpatrick & Lockhart Nicholson Graham as a partner.

Schwarz joined the firm Dec. 15 to offer his emerging-growth clients expanded representation.

Schwarz said Kirkpatrick & Lockhart’s corporate and intellectual property groups were an attractive reason to defect from Thoits.

“The reason I made the move was to have at my disposal a platform where my clients could have access to a scope of practice I could have never offered them at Thoits,” Schwarz said. “At Kirkpatrick, I have an opportunity to build a practice in Silicon Valley that to date is not here.”

Schwarz wants to tailor his practice to emerging-growth companies, offering them venture capital, debt financing and intellectual property counseling.

“Our attorneys are going to be providing emerging-growth companies with general-counsel work, for companies that are not at the point of going out there and spending their discrete funds on a general counsel,” Schwarz said.

Schwarz joined Thoits in 2000 and became a partner in 2004. He previously was an associate with Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe for three years.

Schwarz said his clients have been enthusiastic about the move, but he declined to name them.

Most of Schwarz’s clients include software and technology services companies, while another 15 percent are in the biotech industry. Since 2000, Schwarz has raised $22 million and closed multiple rounds of financings for Zenasis Technologies, which makes software for optimizing semiconductor designs. Zenasis’ lead investor has been Sigma Partners.

Deborah Bailey-Wells, Kirkpatrick & Lockhart’s administrative partner in Palo Alto, said the eight-month-old office has six full-time attorneys including Schwarz.

“Jake brings certainly an entrepreneurial spirit that really is a cornerstone of the Kirkpatrick & Lockhart Nicholson Graham lawyer experience anyway,” Bailey-Wells said. “But he also brings an emerging-company practice area to our Palo Alto office, which is certainly a core area of expansion for us.”

Terrence P. Conner, Thoits’ chief executive officer, said that in today’s legal environment it is not unusual for attorneys to move from one firm to another.

“We certainly wish Jake well at his new firm,” Conner said. “But our firm’s business transactions group remains well-positioned to continue to provide the highest level of client services to its startup and emerging-growth clients.”

Thoits has 22 lawyers in two Northern California offices, while Kirkpatrick & Lockhart has 1,000 attorneys in 12 offices worldwide.