Sarah K. Solum

In 2018, Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP was one the top three law firms to help companies make the leap from privately-held to publicly-traded. Without question, the firm's accomplishment is due in part to Solum.

Not only is she involved with the highly anticipated initial public offering of Uber Technologies Inc., according to Securities and Exchange Commission filings, but she was one of the lead attorneys advising in two of the largest IPOs by California companies last year.

Solum, a co-founder of Davis Polk's Menlo Park office, represented the underwriting syndicate in DocuSign Inc.'s $724 million IPO.

"They went public in April 2018 and within less than six months, they did both a follow-on common stock offering and a very large convertible debt transaction, which I'm pretty sure has not been done before," Solum said. "It's pretty rare for a company to have the ability to do two large transactions, and in particular a convertible note transaction, within that period."

Pivotal Software Inc., relied on a Davis Polk team co-led by Solum, in its $603.1M IPO.

Solum also handled many other types of capital markets deals last year, in addition to IPOs. For example, she had a role in deals for Chegg Inc., Etsy Inc. and Pandora Media Inc. She also continues to work with many of the companies she helped take public, such as Coupa Software Inc. and Splunk Inc.

"It's fun for me to see companies that I had helped take public, in some cases recently like DocuSign, in other cases a long time ago like Splunk, be able to tap those markets," Solum said.

There's also a trend she's noticed in some tech companies going public: the occasional and notable move away from a dual class stock system.

"If you look at DocuSign, it does not have dual class stock. The trend among tech companies definitely is to have [it]," Solum observed. "Dual class is a conversation that every company will have, but whether or not it makes sense for them depends a lot on whether the founders are still involved and whether there's a controlling stock quota...it's all very interesting."

The successful attorney has words of wisdom for future lawyers.

"I would say the same thing to a woman or a man starting out today: learn as much as you can about the business of your clients. That's the most important thing," Solum said.

"Don't be afraid to ask dumb questions, because often they're not dumb questions," she added. "I was pretty shameless about it early on and then it definitely benefits - you learn a lot more that way. It disarms people."

-- Dan Heching