Mike S.L. Heath

Mike is a partner and co-founder of Gunderson Dettmer’s Los Angeles office. For over 15 years, he has helped founders and boards form, finance, and sell companies and served as outside general counsel on day-to-day legal matters.

Mike prioritizes efficiency in all his work, building teams that scale as his clients grow, from the founder with an idea on a napkin to multibillion-dollar companies on the verge of an IPO. He invests in trust-based relationships by providing candid advice in complex and ambiguous fact patterns, backed by his experience advising hundreds of start-ups throughout their growth journeys.

His representative matters include:

• Representing FloQast in its journey from a scrappy startup at a local accelerator to one of LA's unicorn success stories, including as ongoing outside general counsel and in all of its financings;
• Representing venture capital firms like Susa, Expa and Kindred Ventures in a variety of their investments in market-leading companies;
• Representing Optimism Labs in its Series A and B financings, totaling more than $175M for the Layer-2 crypto project;
• Advising Wish from formation through their Series H financing;
• Counseling Seismic from their formation through their Series G investment from Permira. 

Mike brings Gunderson’s industry-leading experience and proprietary knowledge and tools to his representation of high-growth companies in their financings, IPOs and M&A transactions. He also represents several well-known venture capital and growth equity funds in their investments.

Legal 500 recently named Mike a "Next Generation Partner," quoting clients saying he is "incredibly knowledgeable, responsive and always helpful" and "my favorite external counsel of all of the attorneys that we work with." Super Lawyers also recognized him as a 2022 and 2023 Rising Star.

Mike graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law. He earned his bachelor’s degree just down Bancroft Avenue at the University of California, Berkeley. Even if they have to play in the Atlantic Coast Conference, he hopes the Cal Bears will make the Rose Bowl in his lifetime.