Susan Mac Cormac is a partner in the Corporate Department of Morrison & Foerster's San Francisco office. She serves as co-chair of the Cleantech Group.
Ms. Mac Cormac has extensive experience representing start-up to late-stage private companies primarily in the Cleantech or sustainable space. She provides corporate and finance advice in connection with mergers, acquisitions, asset purchases and sales, reorganizations, joint ventures, and equity and debt financings. She regularly advises boards of private and public companies, special committees, and CEOs on corporate governance as it relates to sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility (“CSR”) issues and has joined the faculty (teaching on issues of sustainability and corporate governance) at both the Stanford Director’s College and the Northwestern Corporate Counsel Institute. Ms. Mac Cormac also represents nonprofit corporations involved with Sustainability and CSR, providing advice to their boards on fiduciary issues, conflicts of interest, and other corporate matters.
Ms. Mac Cormac’s representative Cleantech and sustainable clients include Arcadia, ClimateEarth, driptech, EDF Renewable Energy, ElectraTherm, OneSun, Revolution Foods, and Veristeel. Her representative sustainable and social enterprise company clients include Digital Divide Data, Window Farms, and SourceTrace. Her representative public company clients include First Solar, Fujitsu, and Konica-Minolta. Her nonprofit clients include the Biomimicry Institute, Business for Social Responsibility, Goodwill, Natural Heritage Institute, Pacific Forest and Watershed Lands Stewardship Council, and Rising Sun Energy. Her impact investor and venture fund clients include Capricorn/Virgo, Brightpath Capital Partners, Pacific Community Ventures, RSF Social Finance, and OPIC.
After working in New York for three years, Ms. Mac Cormac joined the firm as an associate in 1997 and became a partner in 2001. Ms. Mac Cormac was born in Davidson, North Carolina, and graduated in 1988 from Williams College with a degree in Political Economy. She received her J.D. and LL.M. degrees from Duke University School of Law in 1993. Ms. Mac Cormac lives in the Presidio National Park with her husband and three young boys (Eddie, Alex, and Matthew).
Ms. Mac Cormac was named by California Lawyer Magazine as one of the 2012 California Lawyers of the Year for her effective legislative change in California as co-chair of the Working Group for the Flexible Purpose Corporation. She was recognized by the Daily Journal on several Top Lawyers in California lists including Top 100 Lawyers (2012), Top Female Lawyers (2011 and 2012), and Top 25 Clean Tech Lawyers (2011). Ms. Mac Cormac was named to The American Lawyer's "45 Under 45" list of outstanding women lawyers (2011) and selected by her peers for Best Lawyers in America 2011-2013. She was also recognized by clients in Legal 500 United States 2009-2012 for her expertise working with venture capitalists and emerging companies. Clients say "you cannot get a better corporate counsel," Ms. Mac Cormac "'understands the big picture, could not be more responsive, and understands the business." Ms. Mac Cormac serves as co-chair of the Working Group and has spent 500 pro bono hours over the past three years drafting a new corporate form for California; the Flexible Purpose Corporation (“FPC”). The FPC encourages and expressly permits companies to be formed or converted from other forms to pursue one or more purposes in addition to creating economic value for shareholders, pursuant to lawful acts or activities for which a corporation may otherwise be organized under the California General Corporation Law. She is on the Board of Directors of the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (“SASB”) and the Biomimicry Institute. She is admitted to practice in both California and New York.