Search PillsburyLaw.com
  • All
  • Lawyers
  • Capabilities
  • Insights

Service

Technology

Contact

Justin D. Hovey
Partner, San Francisco
T: +1.415.983.6117
See All Professionals

Areas of Focus

Pillsbury helps innovators, entrepreneurs and disruptors drive the innovation that changes our world. Our global Technology industry team brings together leading practitioners across all sectors, geographies, and disciplines to help clients emerge, adapt and advance in an ever-changing market.

Pillsbury has been inextricably entwined with the technology sector since its founding and continues to build on that well-earned reputation today. In recent years, we have completed more than $400 billion in M&A transactions, over $20 billion in venture financings and nearly 100 IPOs.  We have led in excess of 1,000 strategic outsourcing and technology transactions worth more than half a trillion dollars in contract value, and filed approximately 30,000 patents for more than 1,000 clients—almost all of them technology companies.

With more than 300 industry-focused lawyers across the United States, Asia and Europe, Pillsbury provides the comprehensive advice required to meet the progressive needs of technology companies around the world. Our expansive industry knowledge and experience covers virtually every aspect of the technology sector. From new technologies that are shaping the future of our client’s business to more mature ones that are continually evolving—and even some future innovations yet to be fully realized—our global Technology team has you covered.

View More

We bring market leading strengths to technology clients focused on:

Capabilities and Representative Experience

  • Inphi’s sale to Marvell Technology Group for $10 billion—the 3rd largest semiconductor deal and one of only two mega-deals led by women in 2020.
  • BioLegend's acquisition by PerkinElmer for $5.25 billion.
  • Coursera’s $519 million IPO.

View More

  • Venture capital raising and debt financings
    • NetSkope’s $300 million investment round as well as its $350 million investment round.
    • Eat Just’s $270 million debt funding round as well as its $170 million fundraise to help expand its subsidiary, GOOD Meat. 
    • SecurityScorecard’s $180 million Series E financing.
    • Flutterwave’s $170 million Series C financing.
    • Accellion’s $120 million funding round.
    • Manticore Games’ $100 million Series C financing.
    • Tomo Networks’ $70 million series seed.
  • Public listings, including SPACs
    • Sinclair Broadcast Group subsidiary Diamond Sports Group in obtaining $3.95 billion in senior secured credit facilities to partially finance the acquisition of 21 regional sports networks and Fox College Sports.
    • Nikola’s merger with VectoIQ Acquisition Corp. and listing of common stock on the Nasdaq Global Select market for $3.3 billion; its $550 million PIPE as part of its merger with a SPAC; and its $300 million equity line offering.
    • SYNNEX's Rule 144A/Regulation S offering of senior notes for $2.5 billion.
    • Rockley Photonics' business combination with SC Health, resulting in Rockley becoming a publicly traded company on the NYSE, for a total deal value of $1.2 billion.
    • Invitae's 144A convertible senior notes offering for $1.15 billion.
    • 1stdibs' $132 million IPO.
  • Mergers & acquisitions
    • Hoya's investment in a consortium led by Bain Capital to purchase Toshiba's flash memory chip business for $17.8 billion.
    • SYNNEX’s merger with Tech Data for $7.2 billion.
    • Idec Pharmaceuticals' merger with Biogen for $6.4 billion.
    • WebEx Communications’ sale to Cisco Systems for $3.2 billion.
    • Genomic Health's merger with Exact Sciences for $2.8 billion.
    • Invitae's acquisition of ArcherDX for $1.4 billion.
    • Nuvia's acquisition by Qualcomm for $1.4 billion.
    • AT&T's sale of its anime business Crunchyroll for $1.175 billion.
  • Intellectual property protection
    • Secured an $18 million settlement payment to Toshiba Corp. in a patent infringement action against a Taiwanese competitor over DVD technology, and later won a $13 million arbitration award, confirmed on appeal, for further royalties due under the settlement agreement.
    • Secured permanent injunction for LG Electronics Mobilecomm, preventing a former employee and his new employer from using misappropriated trade secrets and obtaining an agreement to destroy all material taken.
    • Defeated on summary judgment a motion trademark infringement claim against Facebook’s Oculus VR seeking a share of the $2 billion price Facebook paid to acquire Oculus.
    • Hyundai Motor America and Hyundai Motor Company of Korea on an ITC victory stopping importation of illegal, gray-market service and repair parts using the Hyundai trademarks.
    • HM Electronics in a trademark infringement and unfair competition dispute with R.F. Technologies, winning a permanent injunction, a finding of contempt and obtaining court-ordered sanctions for the client.
  • High-stakes disputes
    • Secured a multimillion-dollar jury award for AOL — the full amount spent on its primary contract with consultants — when the Order-to-Cash system that consultants recommended wholly failed to meet AOL’s needs.
    • Secured a preliminary injunction preserving Lyft/Bay Area Motivate’s right to be the exclusive operator of a San Francisco bike-share program—protecting a $35 million investment.
    • American Media on the successful appellate defense of a summary judgment dismissing $1.4 billion in claims of civil and criminal cartel price-fixing, concluding almost a decade of litigation.
  • CFIUS implications
    • Dozens of U.S. and non-U.S.-based emerging technology companies on implications of new CFIUS pilot program.
    • A U.S. company on CFIUS matters in connection with acquisition of a foreign technology company — this matter presented unique CFIUS issues as the foreign seller could potentially obtain an ownership interest in the U.S. buyer as compensation for the transaction.
    • Successfully obtained CFIUS approval for a U.S.-based cloud contact center software firm — assisted the seller in conducting a review of its export control classifications and procedures in order to facilitate the CFIUS review process and enhance the company’s export compliance.
  • Regulatory compliance issues
  • Executive compensation agreements
  • Licensing negotiations
  • Cybersecurity, data protection and privacy law guidance
  • Patent optimization and monetization
    • Cystic Fibrosis Foundation’s sale of its drug rights to Royalty Pharma for $3.3 billion.
  • Antitrust and competition laws
    • HM Electronics in a trademark infringement and unfair competition dispute with R.F. Technologies, winning a permanent injunction, a finding of contempt and obtaining court-ordered sanctions for the client.
  • Technology procurements
    • Kasasa Ltd., an Austin based FinTech, in a number of key, strategic technology matters, including the application of new product lines and in connection with licensing requirements and sales practices to achieve licenses for all 50 states.
    • One of the world’s largest institutional global banks in connection with strategic, technology-based matters including cryptocurrency, blockchain, smart contract, digitization and cloud-based agreements, and in connection with Artificial Intelligence software licenses to automate specific bank processes.
  • Employment concerns
  • State and local (SALT) and federal tax law and controversy

Practice Area Highlights

  • Recognized by Chambers USA for Technology: Nationwide (Band 3) and Technology: New York (Band 4), (2024).
  • Ranked by The Legal 500 U.S. for Technology Transactions (2024). 
  • Ranked by The Legal 500 UK for TMT (2025).

Technology Ambassadors

Allison Leopold Tilley

Silicon Valley

Ronald Fleming

New York

Edward Cavazos

Austin

Justin Hovey

San Francisco

Steven Kaplan

Washington, DC

Jenny (Jia) Sheng

Beijing

Christian Salaman

San Diego

Nancy Fischer

Washington, D.C.

Industry Insights and Resources

We are thought leaders, both actively engaged in matters regarding evolving technologies and exploring emerging issues related to them. Our regular, close proximity to startups bringing disruptive technologies to market allows us to identify issues that have yet to fully surface and leverage those insights and experiences in real-time.

Climatetech: Investment Trends & the Rise of CVC

A Report from Pillsbury + PitchBook

Pillsbury Propel

Set Your Startup in Motion

Internet & Social Media Law Blog

Is VC for Me?

Pros and Cons of
Venture Funding

Global Trade &
Sanctions Blog

Related Insights

View More
View All