Jeffrey D. Saper

Corporate lawyers are no strangers to multi-tasking. For partner Jeffrey D. Saper at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati PC, who specializes on representing companies during their investment stages, 2014 has been a busy year.

"It was a very strong capital markets year for the firm. I, myself, and a lot of us here at Wilson were very active on both the company and investment banking side." he said.

In the last 18 months, Saper helped Sequoia Capital invest in WhatsApp Inc. and represented Go Daddy Inc., Barracuda Networks Inc., RingCentral Inc., and Gigamon Inc. as those companies planned and executed public offerings. He also helped Palo Alto Networks Inc. acquire Cyvera for $200 million and advised the underwriters for Nimble Storage's IPO.

Saper was most proud of his work for Barracuda, a data storage and content security services provider that has been a client of his firm since 2004.

"It's an edgier company but they are gaining a lot of ground in Silicon Valley," he said.

Saper worked closely with Barracuda's general counsel Diane C. Honda as well as the CEO and the company's board.

"I don't want to boast," he said, "but we became very close legal and business advisors."

Saper's challenge was to describe Barracuda's sales model and its focus on fast growing segments within the security and storage markets. He was pleased by the strong market reaction that the IPO recieved.

"I landed on the account about a year before the company went public," he said. "I tried to ensure that the investment side was in place and that all regulatory affairs were handled. The fact that the company has gained so much from the process is a testament to the careful attention that everyone paid to getting the details right."

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