For more than 25 years, the K&L Gates Portland office has been serving clients with innovative legal solutions to business challenges. The firm and our lawyers are consistently recognized by Chambers USA and U.S. News-Best Lawyers as leaders in areas including antitrust, corporate, commercial transactions, emerging technology, energy, finance, food and agriculture, international, labor and employment, private equity and real estate law. In addition, our Portland office has been recognized with a Global Leader Award at the Celebrate Trade Oregon International Business Awards, and was named the “Most Diverse Law Firm” in the Portland metro area by the Portland Business Journal in 2017.
Portland stands as a critical gateway for international trade and business with the Asia Pacific region. With its unparalleled global reach, our Portland office offers a unique platform for our clients’ most complex international commercial and transactional matters. We provide services to leading national and international businesses in connection with their interests in the Pacific Northwest, as well to regional companies seeking to expand their business onto the national or international stage. Our global reach on five continents is unmatched by any other firm in the Portland legal market.
The Portland transactional team represents clients in connection with significant mergers and acquisitions, asset dispositions, restructuring, and private equity financings. We are the go-to law firm for a number of public and private companies in connection with their corporate compliance and governance, international business affairs, expansion, market entry, restructuring, and exits in the U.S. and globally. Our lawyers also represent middle market and large private and public companies on their commercial transactions (strategic alliance, licensing, and supplier and customer agreements) with their customers, vendors, suppliers, and partners.
Our lawyers regularly work on sophisticated finance deals leveraging the firm's experience in public and private equity offerings, real estate finance, project finance, senior and subordinated secured and unsecured debt transactions, and distressed company finance. For private equity, hedge fund, and venture capital clients, we advise on fund formation and investments, as well as provide portfolio company counsel. Our lawyers represent clients on both the company side and investor/lender side of the finance relationship.
Our growing food and agribusiness practice provides legal services to food and agribusiness clients, including producers, processors and handlers of agriculture products, agricultural cooperatives, and agricultural lenders. Our integrated global platform of cross-practice and cross-office group advises clients throughout the food and agricultural supply chain, providing integrated mergers and acquisitions, real estate, land use, labor and employment, commercial contracts, and litigation services.
We advise on sophisticated real estate transactions, including acquisitions, dispositions, finance, leasing, property management, project finance, joint ventures, and workouts and restructurings of commercial real estate loans.
The Portland office includes a strong renewable energy and utilities practice, advising utilities, independent power producers, transmission companies, and renewable energy sector clients in both the regulatory and transactional arenas. Our lawyers represent clients on siting and development, project financing, environmental compliance, transmission, and interconnection matters, as well as before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Our team is well versed in emerging technologies and trends, including energy storage and corporate energy sourcing.
We represent many start-up and early stage emerging technology companies and work with these companies from formation and through the various stages of their financing activities, in their strategic joint venturing, acquisitions, and disposals and liquidity transactions. In a market full of emerging technology, we seek out, assist, and guide these young companies through important opportunities and challenges both locally, nationally, and globally.
Our litigation experience covers a spectrum of commercial disputes and issues, including intellectual property, insurance coverage, antitrust, bankruptcy, contracts, creditors’ rights, employment, environment, shareholder disputes, and tort claims. We practice in the state, federal, and appeal courts of Oregon, California, and Washington.
Our Portland office includes a management-side employment practice, with experience across the spectrum from advice and counseling on daily personnel matters, employment laws compliance and training, transaction due diligence, leave, termination and reduction-in-force, contractor misclassification, employment dispute resolution, including litigation (single plaintiff to class action), and arbitration. With our global platform, we are also able to provide assistance to businesses that need international employment law advice.