Silicon Valley Law Group

Focus and practice areas

The firm handles business and corporate law from a single office in San Jose, California. Its clients include businesses and individuals across Silicon Valley, the wider San Francisco Bay Area, and the rest of the state. Work reaches past California too, according to the firm's own description.

The named practice areas cover a wide span of commercial work. They include business litigation, corporate and securities matters, mergers and acquisitions, employment, environmental law, financial services, and real estate and land use. The list also names intellectual property protection and licensing, along with criminal defense. In my opinion this mix reads as a firm built to keep a company's legal needs under one roof.

Breadth of this kind has a practical value for a growing company. The same office can draw up a formation document, review an office lease, handle a hiring dispute, and defend a lawsuit, so a client keeps fewer outside relationships to manage. Corporate and securities work leads the list, and the litigation and regulatory areas support it.

Deal work and transaction size

Mergers and acquisitions form part of the firm's transactional practice, and it has represented both buyers and sellers. The firm states that these deals have ranged from $2 million to $200 million in value.

That range tells a reader something useful about the client base. It points to mid-market companies and their owners, the kind of clients who buy and sell businesses in that price band. Corporate and securities advice runs alongside this deal work, which fits a client that needs help forming, financing, and eventually selling a business.

A deal of this size follows familiar stages. Buyer and seller sign a letter of intent, lawyers run due diligence on contracts and liabilities, and the parties negotiate a purchase agreement before closing. Counsel on both sides shapes the price adjustments, warranties, and indemnities that decide who carries the risk after the sale. Handling that work across a wide value range asks for lawyers who can scale the paperwork to the deal.

Technology, privacy and data security

Technology companies make up a natural client base for a San Jose firm, and the practice covers that ground. The firm advises on information technology law, data privacy, and information security. Its stated work includes compliance with the California Consumer Privacy Act and the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation.

Privacy compliance has become steady work for firms that serve technology clients. Both the CCPA and the GDPR set rules on how companies collect, store, and share personal data. A business that trades with customers in California or Europe often needs counsel who can read those rules and apply them to its systems. The firm names this as part of what it does.

Intellectual property protection and licensing rounds out the technology side. For a young company, the code, the brand, and the trade secrets often hold most of the value, so licensing terms and confidentiality agreements carry real weight. Placing this work next to corporate and litigation practice lets one firm register rights, license them, and enforce them if a dispute follows.

How the team is built

The website lists ten attorneys. Stephen S. Wu carries the title of shareholder, and George M. Schisler is listed as of counsel. The other named attorneys are Laurie Berger, William L. Bretschneider, Cole Elliott, Jeffrey Lawson, Michael W. Stebbins, Marc G. van Niekerk, and Bernard Vogel III.

A group of this size can staff a matter with more than one lawyer while staying small enough for partners to stay close to the work. The firm does not publish a founding year, though it states that it has practiced for over 30 years. As a reviewer, I read the of counsel role as a sign that senior experience is available to the team without a full-time partner commitment.

The criminal defense practice

Ed Kraus leads the firm's criminal law practice. He served as a Deputy Public Defender in the Santa Clara County Public Defender's Office from 1995 to 1998. The firm states he has tried many jury and bench trials.

Time in a public defender's office gives a lawyer courtroom volume early. Public defenders carry heavy caseloads and appear before local judges often, which builds trial reps that private practice can be slower to provide. For a business firm to hold a criminal and white collar defense practice makes sense when corporate clients face investigations or charges tied to their work.

What the record shows

The firm's public record includes a stated history of over 30 years and a practice that spans commercial litigation, deals, employment, environmental, and technology work. It keeps one office and serves a regional client base out of San Jose. The firm points to a deal history in the low millions up to $200 million and to a named leader for its criminal work.

For a business owner weighing counsel, the useful signal here is breadth held by a small group. One firm can handle a company's formation, financing, contracts, and eventual sale, and can stand with it in court if a dispute or charge arrives. By its own account, the firm has offered these services for more than three decades.