Mr. Rowles is Chair of the San Diego Corporate Group and Co-Chair of the firm-wide Private Equity and Fund Formation Group. He has over 20 years experience as corporate counsel to public and private companies and the venture funds that invest in those companies. Mr. Rowles has extensive industry experience in both the technology and life sciences arenas.

Mr. Rowles’ practice includes venture capital financings, venture fund formation, public securities offerings and corporate governance counseling, mergers and acquisitions, and licensing and corporate partnering transactions.

Mr. Rowles has served as lead counsel on myriad mergers and acquisitions and securities transactions, including public offerings aggregating in excess of $1 billion dollars in proceeds and over 100 acquisition transactions.

Mr. Rowles received his BA, magna cum laude, from the Northwestern University in 1982 and his J.D., Order of the Coif, from the Boalt Hall School of Law in 1986.

Representative Matters

• Represented Live Nation, Inc., the world’s leading concert promoter and venue operator, in its $354 million acquisition of the House of Blues.
• Advising underwriters JP Morgan Securities, Piper Jaffray, Bear, Stearns and Cowen in the $63 million initial public offering and the $140 million follow-on public offering of Volcano Corporation, a cardiovascular medical device company.
• Representing Smith Micro Software, a communication software provider, in its $72 million follow-on offering with UBS, Unterberg, Towbin and Needham.
• Represented diagnostic company Acon Laboratories Inc. and affiliates in a complex $175 million cross-border acquisition by Inverness Medical Innovations, Inc.
• Represented Crdentia Corp. in multiple PIPE financings raising in excess of $20 Million and 10 related healthcare services acquisition transactions.
• Represented serial entrepreneur Michael Robertson in formation and funding of numerous internet and software ventures, including the $7.7 Million Series B financing of VOIP company SIPphone Inc., and the founding of “Web 2.0” company AJAX 13 Inc.