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Bob O'Connor
Partner
Corporate
San Francisco
Los Angeles

D415-947-2123

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  • A Strategic Partner

    Bob serves as a strategic partner to his clients and their boards of directors through a broad range of complex financing and strategic corporate transactions at all stages of their development, from inception through exit.

  • Wide-Ranging Clients

    Bob focuses on the representation of clients innovating in the energy, infrastructure, mobility, consumer products, and sustainability sectors, as well as the representation of venture capital and private equity firms, corporate venture groups, family offices, and impact investors that finance them.

  • Energy Industry Expertise

    Bob founded the firm’s energy and climate solutions practice in 2003, co-leads the firm’s industry initiative today, and is considered to be a thought leader in the field.

  • A Recognized Practitioner

    He has repeatedly been named as a leader in his field by Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business, is annually recognized in Best Lawyers in America, and has been named among California’s “Top Emerging Companies Lawyers” by the Daily Journal.

Robert (Bob) O'Connor is a corporate partner with Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. Bob's global practice focuses on the representation of high-growth enterprises, with an emphasis on those innovating in the energy, infrastructure, mobility, consumer products, and sustainability sectors, as well as the representation of venture capital and private equity firms, corporate venture groups, family offices, and impact investors that finance them. Bob serves as a strategic partner to his clients and their boards of directors through a broad range of complex financing and strategic corporate transactions at all stages of their development, from inception through exit.

Bob is credited with having founded the firm's energy and climate solutions practice in 2003 and co-leads the firm's industry initiative today, which includes a cross-disciplinary team that is widely viewed as being among the preeminent energy and infrastructure practices in the country. Nationally recognized as a thought leader in the sector, Bob is a frequent speaker at prominent industry events nationally, and he is a go-to strategic partner to universities, laboratories, and accelerators committed to technology commercialization directed at energy and infrastructure innovation.

Prior to founding the firm's energy and climate solutions practice, Bob founded and served as managing partner of the firm's Salt Lake City office, during which time he represented many of the leading venture capital and private equity investors and technology enterprises in the region, including Altiris (sold to Symantec), Backcountry.com, High West Distillery, NPS Pharmaceuticals, Omniture (sold to Adobe Systems), Overstock.com, and SkullCandy.

Bob also serves on the board of directors of the Wilson Sonsini Foundation, a philanthropic vehicle for the firm's partners to support charitable and other community organizations.

Experience

Robert (Bob) O'Connor is a corporate partner with Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. Bob's global practice focuses on the representation of high-growth enterprises, with an emphasis on those innovating in the energy, infrastructure, mobility, consumer products, and sustainability sectors, as well as the representation of venture capital and private equity firms, corporate venture groups, family offices, and impact investors that finance them. Bob serves as a strategic partner to his clients and their boards of directors through a broad range of complex financing and strategic corporate transactions at all stages of their development, from inception through exit.

Bob is credited with having founded the firm's energy and climate solutions practice in 2003 and co-leads the firm's industry initiative today, which includes a cross-disciplinary team that is widely viewed as being among the preeminent energy and infrastructure practices in the country. Nationally recognized as a thought leader in the sector, Bob is a frequent speaker at prominent industry events nationally, and he is a go-to strategic partner to universities, laboratories, and accelerators committed to technology commercialization directed at energy and infrastructure innovation.

Prior to founding the firm's energy and climate solutions practice, Bob founded and served as managing partner of the firm's Salt Lake City office, during which time he represented many of the leading venture capital and private equity investors and technology enterprises in the region, including Altiris (sold to Symantec), Backcountry.com, High West Distillery, NPS Pharmaceuticals, Omniture (sold to Adobe Systems), Overstock.com, and SkullCandy.

Bob also serves on the board of directors of the Wilson Sonsini Foundation, a philanthropic vehicle for the firm's partners to support charitable and other community organizations.

Focus Areas
Recent Insights
Client Highlights
Wilson Sonsini Advises Redaptive on $100 Million Equity Investment
On October 22, 2024, Redaptive, a leading Energy-as-a-Service (EaaS) provider, announced it has secured an additional $100 million equity investment from the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments). This strategic capital infusion will support Redaptive to accelerate its growth in projects and enhance its service offering to better serve its rapidly growing customer base and ecosystem of energy performance developers and contractors in their growing demand for decarbonization and drive significant progress toward their net-zero goals. Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati advised Redaptive on the transaction.

Redaptive partners with major corporations to support their net zero goals through fully-funded, end-to-end energy-saving and renewable upgrades. The company's proprietary technology solutions are utilized at over 40 Fortune 500 companies.

The Wilson Sonsini team that advised Redaptive on the transaction includes Bob O’Connor, Melissa Rick, Jocqui Kaup, Viet Nguyen, Michelle Mealer, Kimberley Biagioli, and Jill Fulwiler.
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Client Highlights
Wilson Sonsini Advises Trove in its Acquisition of Recurate to Bolster Recommerce Offering for Brands
On August 13, 2024, Trove, a leader in branded resale and customer trade-in, acquired Recurate, a significant player in the branded resale market. This acquisition strengthens Trove's foothold in the growing recommerce market and underscores its commitment to making branded resale more accessible and scalable for brands. Wilson Sonsini provided legal counsel to Trove for the transaction.
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Recent Events
Affiliated Programs
How ESG Drives Company Growth
Wilson Sonsini will join Nasdaq Entrepreneurial Center and partners for a virtual event, How ESG Drives Company Growth. Public markets and consumers are emphasizing the importance of environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG), which means entrepreneurs can and should build ESG into their company’s foundation from the outset. This event will highlight how to do that, as well as best practices in ESG.
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Affiliated Programs
SPACs in Cleantech
Join Wilson Sonsini and co-hosts Silicon Valley Bank and Cleantech Group for an interactive webinar that will give you expert insight into the impact of SPACs on the global sustainable innovation and investment landscape. Get answers to your pressing questions: How is the 2020 trend evolving in 2021? What are the reports from the people involved? Where are experts looking next? Whether you’re an entrepreneur, investor, corporate change maker or policy expert committed to building the path from chaos to transformation, this interactive webinar will give you:
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