Helen Quinn is a partner specializing in corporate and securities law.  Her areas of expertise include corporate formation and governance, venture capital finance, and M&A.  Over the course of her career, Helen has provided corporate counsel to hundreds of companies, the significant majority of which were early stage and venture-backed startups.

Helen has extensive experience with structuring, negotiating and managing corporate transactions.  She advises companies and investors on a broad range of corporate and securities matters, including preferred stock financings, SAFE financings, convertible note financings, corporate restructurings, mergers, stock purchase transactions, asset purchase transactions, the structuring of start-up companies, cap table maintenance, stockholder communications, and day-to-day corporate matters.

Helen began her legal career at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, P.C., a premier legal advisor to technology companies worldwide.  During her tenure at WSGR, she represented clients ranging from entrepreneurs to Fortune 500 companies on M&A transactions, IPOs, corporate governance, equity financings and other transactional matters.

Prior to joining VLP, Helen spent six years in private practice working with start-up and emerging growth companies, investors and entrepreneurs. Among the clients Helen has represented are prominent venture capital firms and companies in the software, internet, consumer tech and biotech sectors.

Helen received her law degree from the University of California at Berkeley, where she was an editor of the California Law Review and won the moot court best oral argument award.  She spent her formative years living in Mexico, where she developed an enduring love of Mariachi music.  Helen is a veteran of the armed forces, having served as an enlisted member in the United States Army Reserves.

Long before I became an attorney, I served as a bio-medical equipment repair technician for the U.S. Army. That’s me in the front row, center.

Education

  • J.D., University of California at Berkeley, 1998
  • B.A., Speech Communication, San Jose State University, 1994 cum laude