Marcia A. Hatch

After spending 15 years practicing in Silicon Valley, Marcia led the firm’s effort in establishing a presence in the middle of the country as the founding partner of the firm’s Ann Arbor office. Marcia continues to have an active corporate and securities practice on the coast as well as in supporting our clients in the Midwest.

Marcia serves as a key member of the firm’s Management Committee while leading the Ann Arbor office and participating as a member of the firm’s Investment Committee. She combines a dynamic emerging company practice with a top-tier venture capital investment representation practice, giving her insights, experience and connections relevant to entrepreneurs, companies and investors. Whether it is entrepreneurs needing support for strategic decisions and coaching prior to incorporation, early stage companies looking to raise capital and scale their business or mature companies preparing for public offerings and sale transactions, Marcia’s work with companies spans the entire corporate life cycle. She also routinely represents venture capital firms in their investment activities, related business matters and counseling.

Marcia has tremendous experience working on many large exit transactions for life sciences and technology companies and often works as outside counsel for leading technology and biotech companies, including:

• Representation of early and late stage pharmaceutical companies based in South San Francisco, Southern California, and Ann Arbor in recent successful venture financings
• Representation of leading tech companies across the Midwest, including an Ann Arbor-based autonomous vehicle company in its successful financing and joint venture transactions, AI/software company in the logistics space in Ann Arbor in its equity and debt financing transactions, and representation of Chicago-based healthcare-AI company in its successful venture financings and buy-side acquisitions
• IPO for Theseus in Fall 2021
• IPO for ARMO BioSciences, and subsequent sale to Eli Lilly for $1.6 billion
• IPO for Arcus Biosciences
• Acquisition of client ServiceMax by GE Digital for $915 million
• Acquisition of client True North Therapeutics by Bioverativ  for $825 million
• Acquisition of client Flexus Biosciences by Bristol Myers Squibb for $1.2 billion
• Cross-border acquisition of client Deepfield by Nokia
• Acquisition of many clients by various acquirers, including Oracle, Facebook, VMware, Roche, Gilead, and Nova Measuring Instruments
• Completed hundreds of venture financings, from early stage seed rounds to late-stage mezzanine rounds.

Marcia believes in investing time and energy with entrepreneurs and investors from the incorporation stage onward. She truly enjoys working with companies at the very beginning of their life cycle, thinking through strategic decisions with the founders and investors to keep the company on the path to success. This model has proven out many times. For example, over only two years, Marcia incorporated Flexus Biosciences, handled all three rounds of financing, worked closely with the team and board, and led the sale transaction to Bristol Myers Squibb for $1.2 billion in 2015. Similarly, Marcia incorporated ARMO BioSciences in 2012, helped the company raise $295 million over five financing rounds, including the IPO, and represented the company in its 2018 sale for $1.6 billion to Eli Lilly. In another example, Marcia incorporated Arcus Biosciences, handled every financing, including its IPO and secondary offering, and continues to represent the company after its IPO.

Marcia received her J.D. from University of Michigan Law School and her B.A. in history from University of California, Berkeley, where she played on the women’s basketball team. Prior to joining Gunderson Dettmer, Marcia was a partner at Heller Ehrman and a senior attorney at Venture Law Group. Early in her career as an attorney, Marcia practiced in New York with Sullivan & Cromwell.

A Michigan native, Marcia is thrilled to be leading the firm’s efforts to grow in the Midwest, to bring a differentiated level of experience and expertise to bear for the growing number of extraordinary entrepreneurs and venture capitalists in the Midwest. Since the launch of the Ann Arbor office in 2015, Marcia has been instrumental in earning Gunderson Dettmer the credential of the #1 law firm in the U.S. and the Great Lakes for venture deals.