Alan C. Smith

Office

Seattle

Practices

Industries

Education & Admissions

J.D., Stanford Law School
Order of the Coif

B.A., Stanford University

Admitted to practice in Washington State

As a strategic advisor to founders and company executives, Alan assists clients with financings, founder disputes, M&A, tender offers, hostile takeovers, shareholder activism, and board management concerns.

Alan brings over 20 years of experience guiding startups through growth into leading public companies, particularly in technology, biotechnology, and medical devices. He assists clients at every stage, from early funding to capital raises and exit opportunities. For example, Alan’s work with Smartsheet spans from its inception to its IPO and beyond, continuing to support the company in its public life and most recently in its $8.4 billion acquisition by Blackstone and Vista Equity Partners. Similarly, his guidance of Redfin started with their Series A and continues beyond the IPO, advising the company on ongoing public company matters, and most recently in its pending $1.75 billion acquisition by Rocket Companies.

Recognized as one of the nation’s leading lawyers for corporate, M&A, capital markets, securities, and venture capital, Alan also assists companies with regulatory compliance, employee relations, and governance requirements. He serves as chair of Fenwick’s corporate group.

Alan dives deep into a range of technologies, including e-commerce, hardware, software/SaaS and cloud computing, mobile and wireless, data storage, and consumer products.

He also represents biotech companies developing therapeutics for oncology, immunological, neurological, and other indications, and medical device companies pursuing cardiac, neurological, and surgical indications, and diagnostics and drug delivery devices.

With strong ties to both the venture community and emerging companies, Alan’s most rewarding career moments involve connecting innovative entrepreneurs with interested investors and helping their startups grow into established companies that revolutionize technologies and industries.

Clients rely on Alan for thoughtful, strategic, and practical advice that takes into account both business and legal challenges. He focuses his attention on the entire business—from the concept, founders, investors, and board of directors to the marketing strategy and the company’s relationship with important partners and vendors.

Alan is frequently sought as a speaker on a wide range of corporate finance topics, including the initial public offering process, venture capital and angel financing, and mergers and acquisitions. Alan currently serves on the advisory board of TheCorporateCounsel.net, which assists the publication in further developing its corporate and securities law community.

Another of Alan’s passions is mountaineering, specifically high-altitude mountaineering; Alan has successfully climbed all 20 Cascade Volcanoes (and skied down most of them) and has summited Orizaba, Aconcagua, and most recently Denali and The Eiger. When not scaling and skiing the peaks, Alan enjoys ski racing, cycling, ice hockey, waterskiing, wakesurfing, and spending time outdoors in the Pacific Northwest with his family.

Represented Redfin, a customer-first real estate brokerage, in its pending $1.75 billion acquisition by Rocket Labs, its initial public offering, its $70.9M venture financing, and its acquisition of Walk Score. Currently providing ongoing counseling to the company.
Represented Smartsheet, a leading SaaS company, in its $8.4 billion acquisition by Blackstone and Vista Equity Partners, its $175M initial public offering, its $52M Series F financing, and in previous financing rounds.
Represented Cray, a global leader in supercomputing, in its $1.3B acquisition by Hewlett Packard Enterprise and the $140M sale of Cray’s interconnect hardware development program to Intel and its approximately $22M acquisition of Appro International.
Represented buuteeq, one of the leading digital marketing platforms for hotels, in its acquisition by The Priceline Group, and its previous $10M Series B financing round.
Represented Twelve Labs in its $30M funding round, including investments from Databricks, SK Telecom, Snowflake Ventures, HubSpot Ventures, and In-Q-Tel (IQT), and in its $50M Series A.
Represented Impel Pharmaceuticals Inc. (OTCQX: IMPL), a commercial-stage biopharmaceutical company, in its sale to JN BIDCO LLC.
Represented CommerceIQ, a retail ecommerce management platform, in its $115 million Series D financing, bringing its valuation to more than $1 billion.
Represented Act-On Software, a leading marketing automation provider for small and mid-market enterprises, in its $42M venture financing. Currently providing ongoing counseling to the company.
Represented OncoGenex Pharmaceuticals, a biopharmaceutical company developing new cancer therapies, in its merge with Achieve Life Science and its $50M public stock offering. Currently providing ongoing counseling to the company.
Represented Qumulo, an enterprise data storage company, in its most recent $30M Series C prime financing and in previous financing rounds. Currently providing ongoing counseling to the company.
Represented Cascadian Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company dedicated to developing innovative product candidates for the treatment of cancer, in its $41.8M concurrent at-the-market offerings of common stock and Series D convertible preferred stock.
Represented Trupanion, a provider of pet medical insurance, in its initial public offering. Currently providing ongoing counseling to the company.
Represented Swype, a software provider that makes it easier to keyboard information on touch screens, in its $100M acquisition by Nuance Technologies.
Represented Accelecare, a national wound treatment center operator, in its $70M private equity financing and its recent acquisition by Healogics.
Represented leading venture capital firms in strategic investments including Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Clarus Ventures, JAZZ Venture Partners, Madrona Ventures, Trinity Ventures, and Voyager Capital.
Represented both issuers and underwriters on numerous IPOs and other public offerings, including offerings by Boeing, Corixa, Immunex, Icos, ImageX, OncoGenex, Cascadian Therapeutics, Onyx Software, SonoSite, Targeted Genetics, ShopNow.com, Trubion, Trupanion, WatchGuard Technologies, and Zillow.

Represented Redfin, a customer-first real estate brokerage, in its pending $1.75 billion acquisition by Rocket Labs, its initial public offering, its $70.9M venture financing, and its acquisition of Walk Score. Currently providing ongoing counseling to the company.
Represented Smartsheet, a leading SaaS company, in its $8.4 billion acquisition by Blackstone and Vista Equity Partners, its $175M initial public offering, its $52M Series F financing, and in previous financing rounds.
Represented Cray, a global leader in supercomputing, in its $1.3B acquisition by Hewlett Packard Enterprise and the $140M sale of Cray’s interconnect hardware development program to Intel and its approximately $22M acquisition of Appro International.
Represented buuteeq, one of the leading digital marketing platforms for hotels, in its acquisition by The Priceline Group, and its previous $10M Series B financing round.
Represented Twelve Labs in its $30M funding round, including investments from Databricks, SK Telecom, Snowflake Ventures, HubSpot Ventures, and In-Q-Tel (IQT), and in its $50M Series A.
Represented Impel Pharmaceuticals Inc. (OTCQX: IMPL), a commercial-stage biopharmaceutical company, in its sale to JN BIDCO LLC.
Represented CommerceIQ, a retail ecommerce management platform, in its $115 million Series D financing, bringing its valuation to more than $1 billion.
Represented Act-On Software, a leading marketing automation provider for small and mid-market enterprises, in its $42M venture financing. Currently providing ongoing counseling to the company.
Represented OncoGenex Pharmaceuticals, a biopharmaceutical company developing new cancer therapies, in its merge with Achieve Life Science and its $50M public stock offering. Currently providing ongoing counseling to the company.
Represented Qumulo, an enterprise data storage company, in its most recent $30M Series C prime financing and in previous financing rounds. Currently providing ongoing counseling to the company.
Represented Cascadian Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company dedicated to developing innovative product candidates for the treatment of cancer, in its $41.8M concurrent at-the-market offerings of common stock and Series D convertible preferred stock.
Represented Trupanion, a provider of pet medical insurance, in its initial public offering. Currently providing ongoing counseling to the company.
Represented Swype, a software provider that makes it easier to keyboard information on touch screens, in its $100M acquisition by Nuance Technologies.
Represented Accelecare, a national wound treatment center operator, in its $70M private equity financing and its recent acquisition by Healogics.
Represented leading venture capital firms in strategic investments including Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Clarus Ventures, JAZZ Venture Partners, Madrona Ventures, Trinity Ventures, and Voyager Capital.
Represented both issuers and underwriters on numerous IPOs and other public offerings, including offerings by Boeing, Corixa, Immunex, Icos, ImageX, OncoGenex, Cascadian Therapeutics, Onyx Software, SonoSite, Targeted Genetics, ShopNow.com, Trubion, Trupanion, WatchGuard Technologies, and Zillow.