Katharine A. Martin

She can’t pinpoint exactly why, but it was sometime in the third grade when Martin decided to become a lawyer.

That elementary school goal evolved into an illustrious career. Today Martin is the legal mind behind many profile deals, including one of the most influential IPOs of the year.

Rideshare company Lyft Inc. was one of the first tech “unicorns,” or private companies valued at over $1 billion, to go public this year. Lyft was setting the tone for other unicorns looking to start trading on public markets, but that didn’t scare Martin or her team.

“I’ve been practicing law for a long time. When you work on IPOs, particularly high profile ones, they’re always of keen interest to a lot of different eyes,” Martin said. “You need to put your best foot forward cause it’s a really important event ... but especially so because it’s so public.”

Several aspects of the deal made it unique. Martin said one factor was Lyft’s maturity as a company.

“It’s not like a lot of unicorns in that, by the time it went public, it was a very sophisticated company with a very sophisticated business,” Martin said. “It was a very young but mature enterprise all at the same time. It makes for a very interesting process.” Martin is also chair of the board of directors at Wilson Sonsini.

“I have a long term investment in this firm, and I’m highly loyal, and I love the place,” Martin said. “The transition from our first-generation founding partners to the next generation was something of personal importance to me.”

One key component of being a leader in the firm for Martin was the ability to enact change in the work Wilson Sonsini is already doing to create a more inclusive and diverse work environment.

“In the 32 years I’ve been practicing law, I’m sad to say that we haven’t moved the needle as far as we need to,” Martin said.

“The whole time I’ve been at the firm, we’ve been a highly diverse firm, and that’s something that we highly value. But we want to try and do even better. We’re being a lot more focused and determined to pave even a better path for inclusiveness and equality and all the things that we strive for in our firm.”

— Nicole Tyau