François has been a trusted legal partner to global and Silicon Valley-based technology companies for 30 years, counseling clients from coast to coast. He advises and empowers entrepreneurs, investors, and businesses to navigate the complexities of sophisticated high-tech and cross-border transactions of all sizes and assists in the resolution of disputes when they arise.
François focuses on technology-related transactions, including corporate formation, financing, "flips," international expansion, mergers and acquisitions, licensing, and other commercial issues. He helps emerging companies and entrepreneurs achieve their dreams by resolving the legal obstacles they encounter and managing risk with strategic foresight. He also counsels founders, investors, early-stage venture capitalists, and incubators on their business formation and commercial challenges. He serves as the Co-Chair of the firm's Corporate & Business Transactions group.
Over the past three decades, François has formed hundreds of tech companies, completed scores of mergers and acquisitions and financings as part of a company's growth, and assisted a multitude of startups in their sale to large private or publicly traded corporations. He counsels clients on a wide variety of issues, including:
Technology licensing
Entity formation
Equity financing
US and cross-border mergers and acquisitions
Corporate structure inversions ("flips")
Supporting clients in pre-litigation and litigation matters
Employment
Intellectual property protection
Stock options and international equity incentive plans
Joint ventures
Negotiating and drafting all types of business contracts
A longtime Palo Alto resident, François is licensed to practice in California, Washington, DC, and the European Union and is bilingual in English and French. François counsels clients nationwide in the US—including Silicon Valley, Boston, and New York—and across France on his clients' formation and corporate needs. He has served as the president and is a current member of the Committee of Foreign Trade Advisors (Conseillers du Commerce Extérieur) to the French Ministry of Economy and Finance for the northwestern United States. He was also a co-founder of the French Tech Networking Society "DBF" and past president of the French-American Chamber of Commerce in San Francisco. He served for over 10 years as an Adjunct Professor of International Business Law at the HEC School of Business in Paris, where he lectured on entrepreneurship, technology, and international law.
