Katharine A. Martin

Balancing a robust legal practice, Martin also chairs the Wilson Sonsini board of directors.

Last fall, she succeeded the firm’s founding and name partner Lawrence W. Sonsini as board chair.

“It’s definitely a little different from my traditional role,” said Martin, who counts LinkedIn Corp., Twitter Inc. and Seagate Technology PLC as some of the clients she has advised over her 30-year legal career. “I had historically just been focused on client relationships and transactions and things of that sort.”

Around the same time, she was also part of a legal team advising Brocade Communications Systems Inc., a San Jose technology company specializing in data and storage networking products, in its $5.9 billion sale to semiconductor specialist Broadcom Ltd. The deal closed in November.

“We actually had to go a little past behind the drop dead date; there were some things we had to work through on the regulatory side,” Martin said. “The deal managed to close a little later than the originally anticipated timeline.”

Ride-hailing company Lyft Inc. raised $1 billion in its Series H financing round with her legal counsel. The deal brought Lyft’s post-money valuation to $11 billion, according to a news statement.

Her guidance has also helped many companies transition from privately held to publicly traded. Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC and J.P. Morgan Securities LLC led the underwriting syndicate in a deal that allowed Stitch Fix Inc., a San Francisco-based online personal styling service, to launch its initial public offering in November. Martin was one of the lead lawyers for the underwriting syndicate in the deal.

Building relationships with great companies is one of her favorite parts of her job, Martin said.

“We benefit from building long-term relationships with companies and then getting to see them develop over time,” Martin said. “It makes for a very rewarding professional experience.”

— Melanie Brisbon