About Our Salt Lake City Office
Wilson Sonsini has built strong relationships with leading technology companies, entrepreneurs, and venture capital firms in Salt Lake City and other thriving parts of the region. The firm represents more than 30 clients headquartered in Utah. Our attorneys have advised more venture capital firms on Utah-related deals and more Utah-based issuers on IPOs than any other firm since 2016, ranking first in each category by a substantial margin. The firm ranks fourth among law firms in advising on Utah-related mergers and acquisitions in the same period.
In November 2021, Wilson Sonsini announced that it was opening its Salt Lake City office with the addition of former Utah Supreme Court Justice Deno Himonas, following his retirement from the bench in March 2022, and the additions of corporate partner Marc Porter (who joined from Holland & Hart) and Matt Squires, a corporate partner who relocated from Wilson Sonsini's Seattle office.
Since 2019, Wilson Sonsini has had a physical presence in Utah through SixFifty, a software subsidiary that develops automated tools that make legal processes—like drafting employee handbooks—efficient and affordable. “The firm has recognized Utah as a site of innovation, and the opening of a firm office here just confirms that,” said Kimball Dean Parker, the CEO of SixFifty and the director of LawX, a legal design lab at Brigham Young University Law School.
In March 2022, Justice Himonas joined Wilson Sonsini’s litigation and appellate practices and his practice focuses on advising companies on complex governance and regulatory issues. He served as a trial court judge in Utah for 10 years before his appointment to the Utah Supreme Court in 2015. Throughout his legal career, he has concerned himself with issues relating to the access and affordability of civil justice in the U.S. court system. Justice Himonas has received widespread acclaim, including distinction by the American Bar Association as a “Legal Rebel,” for his work with Utah attorney John Lund to establish Utah’s Office of Legal Services Innovation and a regulatory “sandbox” allowing entities to explore new ways of delivering legal services. More than 25 innovations are being piloted in the sandbox.
In April 2022, Justice Christine Durham joined the firm’s litigation department as Senior Of Counsel in the Salt Lake City office. With her 35 years of service on the Utah Supreme Court, Justice Durham’s addition fortifies Wilson Sonsini’s appellate practice. Justice Durham’s move also re-connects her with Justice Himonas, who served with her on the Utah Supreme Court.
Marc Porter has developed a leading corporate practice for technology, consumer products, and life sciences companies in Utah, where he has spent much of his professional career, and beyond. He executes a substantial volume of financings and liquidity events each year for early- to late-stage private companies as well as venture capital firms. Before entering private practice, he served a clerkship on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit and graduated from Brigham Young University Law School.
Matt Squires, a Utah native and head of the firm’s Latin America practice, brings significant experience with both domestic and cross-border venture financings, mergers and acquisitions, and public and private capital markets transactions for clients in the technology, software, logistics, clean energy, and other industries.
