Expertise and Focus

Tamara Thompson is a California lawyer and English law advisor who works with venture capital and private equity firms, corporate investors, companies, entrepreneurs and law firms. She provides excellent service and high quality advice to her clients in a commercially practical, timely and efficient manner. Tamara serves as external counsel to some clients, and works with others as, or as a part of, their in-house legal team. Tamara provides advice in the following areas:

In-House And Law Firm Experience

Tamara has in-house as well as law firm experience. She has worked in-house at start-ups, mid-sized and large corporations, as well as at venture capital funds in the United States and in Europe. For in-house assignments, she is available to work with clients on an ongoing basis or on an interim basis to provide coverage (e.g., during notice periods, leaves and vacations) and handle special projects, if and as needed.

US, UK and International Experience

Tamara has over fourteen years of experience representing, working with and working opposite publicly traded/listed companies, private equity and venture capital firms, corporate investors, start-up entities and investment banking firms. She has practiced in the San Francisco Bay Area and in London, advising numerous clients in the US and Europe on mergers and acquisitions, divestitures, venture capital, private equity and debt transactions. She has worked on over 40 public offerings and has counseled publicly traded companies and funds on SEC reporting requirements and in the case of companies, associated stock exchange compliance matters. Tamara has also negotiated and drafted a wide range of commercial and intellectual property agreements.

Current Representative Clients

Tamara has worked with her clients to accomplish their commercial objectives on an independent consulting basis since February 2000. During that time period she has expanded her team to include three other senior attorneys, as well as document processing, legal support and operations staff. Some current representative clients with whom Tamara works include:

Intel Capital – M&A, Divestitures; Venture Capital Transactions; Other Matters
Accel Partners (Europe) – Venture Capital Transactions and Other Matters
Cipio Partners GmbH – M&A, Venture Capital Transactions and Other Matters
European Founders Fund GmbH – Venture Capital Transactions and Other Matters
Advent Venture Partners LLP – Venture Capital Transactions; US SEC Advice
Doughty Hanson Technology Ventures – Venture Capital Transactions and Other Advice
Clearpace Software, Inc. – General Corporate Matters, Financings and Licensing Matters
SenSage, Inc. – English and European Law Advice on Commercial Contracts and Other Matters
Adept Technology, Inc. – M&A; Licensing Matters and Other Commercial Contracts

Other Background

Tamara began her legal career at Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison LLP in San Francisco in 1994. She moved to Venture Law Group in Menlo Park, CA in 1997, where she practiced until 1999. Clients Tamara worked with while at Brobeck included Flextronics International Ltd., Biochem Pharma, Cygnus, Inc., Cyanotech, Morgan, Stanley, Lehman Brothers, Alex Brown, Montgomery Securities and Cowen & Company. At Venture Law Group, clients Tamara worked with included Intel Capital, Weiss Peck & Greer, Oracle, Credit Suisse First Boston, Resolute Software and Chromatic Research. In London during 1999 and 2000, Tamara applied her experience to international transactions, focusing on venture capital work and advising multinational clients on US securities law compliance matters and stock exchange compliance and listing requirements while at Mayer Brown & Platt LLP. Her largest client in London was Intel Capital. She also worked extensively with Marconi plc. After her return to the US, Tamara served as general counsel of an e-commerce company, the Tomorrow Factory, Inc., and then on a consulting basis as general counsel and corporate secretary of Xcert International, Inc., which had offices in the Bay Area, Canada and England. Xcert was acquired by RSA Security, Inc. in February 2001. After the acquisition, Tamara worked on a consulting basis with RSA and with a number of other clients as well, many of whom she continues to do work for today.

Qualifications and Education

Tamara earned her Bachelor of Science from the University of Southern California (Finance and Business Economics) (1991) and her Doctor of Jurisprudence (J.D.) from Northwestern University (1994). While at Northwestern she served as Articles Editor on the Journal of International Law & Business and participated in the Julius H. Miner Moot Court Competition. Tamara is qualified to practice law in California and also advises on English law matters.

Contact Details and Additional Information

For more information about Tamara, please contact her directly.