Chan Punzalan LLP

William R. "Billy" Chan, who would become Chan Punzalan's senior partner, met his future colleague Mark L. Punzalan at a Filipino Bar Association of Northern California event while Punzalan was attending Santa Clara University School of Law.

"I was a law student trying to find my way through the wilderness of attorneys. He'd been practicing for a few years. We really hit it off," Punzalan said.
Chan, a master networker, was president of the Filipino association and president of the Asian American Bar Association. He has served as chair of the solo and small firm committee of the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association and is a founding member of the National Filipino American Lawyers Association.

The two men stayed in touch as Punzalan graduated in 2006, worked on securities and antitrust litigation at the firms now known as Finkelstein Thompson LLP and Berman Tabacco. In 2012 he founded a solo firm, Punzalan Law PC in Redwood City, where he focused on trade secret cases, trademark matters and complex business disputes.

Chan, meanwhile, owned and operated Law Offices of Billy Chan for nearly a dozen years, practicing business transactions, contracts and outside general counsel services. A 2001 graduate of UC Berkeley School of Law, his web of contacts stemmed from his deep involvement in pro bono activities, including serving as general counsel of the Hawaiian Chamber of Commerce of Northern California and general counsel of the Young Filipino Professionals Association.

When Chan and Punzalan joined forces in 2018 to found Chan Punzalan, Chan stepped back a bit to focus on business transactions and largely let Punzalan do the talking.

"Everyone wants to talk with Mark," Chan said, "and that's both a blessing and a curse. It would be very easy to feel ignored, but instead I just try to appreciate his popularity and his willingness to handle spokesman duties."

Both agreed that the coronavirus pandemic hasn't much slowed them down. "We've always run lean, with low overhead, and we've been very selective about the attorneys we have hired," Punzalan said. Beside themselves, the firm roster currently stands at two of counsel and an associate. They go to contract attorneys as required. "We think about growing, but at the moment we like who we have."

Added Chan: "I've saved a ton of commute time during Covid, and I've exchanged it for time spent checking in with people. We try to promote happiness and satisfaction at the firm, and I try to track that for our attorneys, staff and clients. When we're in the office or at events or meetings, I'm able to monitor that visually very easily. But without that live interaction, I have to reach out more and make sure I'm asking the right questions."
Punzalan specializes on IP matters; Chan performs transactions and outside general counsel services. Their clients include Advanced Risk Managers LLC, Jadoo TV Inc., Lensa Inc., ET Solar Inc., Magtarget LLC, Saratoga Data Systems Inc., Mission National Bank, Bayhealth Inc., Modern Construction Inc. and others.

In the massive showdown between Waymo LLC and Uber Technologies Inc. over Anthony Levandowski's illicit transfer of self-driving car trade secrets, Chan Punzalan represented an Uber employee who successfully sought to remain outside the prosecutors' cross-hairs.

"We never appeared as counsel of record," Punzalan said. "We represented an employee who went with Levandowski to Uber. Navigating that delicate situation wasn't easy, but our client was never charged and no adverse action was taken against him. We were very happy to accomplish what we did for him."

Chan said his clients appear to value the close attention he pays them. "For most of our clients, it's a privately owned business and I'm working directly with the owner or the founder. Some are doing tech work in the Valley, but a majority of them are in more traditional industries like services, retail, product, restaurant, furniture and healthcare. They rely on me to understand them and their business, and I work hard to do that. I'm able to serve them better when I have that kind of understanding about them, and all of them seem to appreciate it."

-- John Roemer