January 10, 2017- Gunderson Dettmer Stough Villeneuve Franklin & Hachigian, LLP has announced the promotions of six associates to the partnership, effective January 1, 2017.

“We are delighted to welcome these six, very talented lawyers as new partners,” said Robert V. Gunderson, Jr., Chairman of the firm. “We’ve achieved strong growth in each of our offices and these new partners will help us maintain the responsiveness and quality of service that our clients, which include a significant majority of the most prominent venture capital firms in the world as well as many of the fastest-growing global technology and life science companies, expect and deserve.”

The six new partners are:

Nevin Fox, Corporate and Securities, Boston. Nevin represents a variety of privately held and public companies, counseling them on corporate governance, securities law compliance, venture capital financings, mergers and acquisitions, public offerings and other transactions. He also represents a variety of leading venture capital funds and other investors on investment transactions in the United States and internationally.

Katherine Gardner,Intellectual Property, New York. Katie represents emerging growth companies in all aspects of their day-to-day businesses. Her practice focuses on negotiating commercial and licensing agreements as well as advising clients on intellectual property protection and strategy, privacy compliance, and strategic alliances. Katie also represents clients in the commercial, intellectual property, and privacy aspects of their financing and M&A activities. Katie is a Certified Information Privacy Professional (CIPP), holding the U.S. private-sector privacy certification granted by the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP), the global standard in privacy certification.

Gina Marek,Intellectual Property, Silicon Valley. Gina specializes in corporate partnering, strategic alliances, technology protection, licensing and commercialization of intellectual property and technology assets, privacy compliance, and advising venture capitalists and companies on intellectual property, technology, and privacy aspects of venture capital financings and merger and acquisition activities. She is also a CIPP, holding the U.S. private-sector privacy certification granted by the IAPP, the global standard in privacy certification.

Melissa Marks, Corporate and Securities, New York. Melissa represents technology companies in a variety of industries throughout their life cycle on matters including corporate governance, venture capital financings, mergers and acquisitions, and other strategic transactions. Melissa also regularly advises leading venture capital firms in their U.S. and international investments. She previously served as the General Counsel of Boxee, a video technology company acquired by Samsung Electronics.

Christi Niehans, Fund Formation and Corporate and Securities, Silicon Valley. Christi’s fund practice focuses on the representation of venture capital and private equity funds and their management entities throughout their lifecycles. Christi counsels fund managers on all aspects of the formation, organization, fundraising, and operation of private funds. In her corporate practice, Christi’s representation of venture funds extends to advising funds on their investments in private and public companies. Christi also represents technology companies, counseling them on corporate governance, financing transactions, and mergers and acquisitions.

Jon Novotny, Corporate and Securities, San Francisco. Jon represents a variety of technology companies in all phases of their life cycle. His practice focuses on corporate governance, securities law compliance, venture capital financings, mergers and acquisitions and other transactions. Jon also regularly advises many venture capital firms in their investments.