WilmerHale is pleased to announce that Brian B. Margolis has joined the firm as a partner in its Corporate Department. With a broad background in corporate and securities law—focusing on public offerings, private placements, mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance issues and general corporate counseling—Mr. Margolis is a valuable addition to the firm’s New York practice, supporting its plans for significant growth.

“We are very pleased that Brian has joined the firm. He brings to us deep experience and keen insight into corporate deal-making and counseling,” said Steven D. Singer, who is heading up the firm's New York corporate practice and is also the co-chair of the firm’s Life Sciences Group.

Mr. Margolis joins WilmerHale from Proskauer Rose. His practice focuses on the representation of both domestic and foreign issuers and underwriters in public offerings of equity securities. He has acted either as issuers’ counsel or as underwriters’ counsel for more than 40 public offerings, which have raised in the aggregate in excess of $3 billion. Mr. Margolis has extensive experience representing companies and venture capital funds in connection with equity investments in private companies. In addition, Mr. Margolis has represented numerous companies in mergers and acquisitions.

Mr. Margolis has represented a wide variety of companies—from startup to established publicly-traded companies—in the e-commerce, information technology, life sciences, media, software, telecommunications and wireless industries. This, along with his experience representing Israeli companies accessing the US public and private capital markets, further solidifies WilmerHale’s ability to serve its broad corporate client base of companies based in the US, Europe and Israel.

WilmerHale’s Corporate Department is widely known for its representation of technology and life sciences companies in the US and Europe. The firm has handled more IPOs from 1996-2006 for eastern US companies than any other law firm in the US. In the past five years, WilmerHale has served as issuers’ counsel or underwriters’ counsel in more than 250 public offerings and Rule 144A placements raising over $100 billion, including as issuer’s counsel in deals such as CIT Group’s $4.6 billion IPO, the fourth largest in history, and the IPO of Wolfson Microelectronics. Also during the past five years, WilmerHale’s Corporate Department acted as company counsel in more than 750 venture financings raising over $10 billion and advised on more than 800 M&A deals valued in excess of $400 billion.

“The network of talented lawyers and comprehensive practice areas that comprise WilmerHale are truly world class,” said Mr. Margolis. “I am excited to be a part of the firm’s culture and its dedication to providing the highest quality legal services to its clients.”

Mr. Margolis was formerly with Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison LLP and Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP. He holds a JD degree from Harvard Law School, an MBA degree from Harvard Business School, and a BA degree, summa cum laude, from Columbia College.