Michael Glaser

Michael Glaser is a partner in both the San Francisco and Seattle offices. He serves as Co-Head of the Emerging Companies + Venture Capital Practice and is the Seattle Office Managing Partner.

Described as “one of the finest venture capital lawyers I have ever worked with” by a client in Chambers USA, Michael brings more than two decades of experience advising entrepreneurs and investors in starting and scaling technology companies in the San Francisco Bay Area. With the 2026 launch of Morrison Foerster’s Seattle office, Michael splits his time between the two regions.

Michael represents startups from formation through exit across a wide range of industries, including consumer e-commerce, artificial intelligence, interactive entertainment, digital media, consumer products, sharing economy, cloud services, enterprise software, fintech, and digital health. His work spans the full lifecycle of a company, from early architectural decisions through growth financing, strategic partnerships, and liquidity events, allowing him to advise clients with a systems-level perspective on risk, governance, and long-term value creation.

He has represented startups in hundreds of venture capital transactions with pre-money valuations ranging from the millions to the billions, and his clients have been backed by leading venture capital firms including Sequoia Capital, Greylock, Benchmark, Accel, Andreessen Horowitz, Kleiner Perkins, and Khosla Ventures. Michael also advises companies in mergers and acquisitions, including numerous high-value exits with repeat acquirers across the technology sector.

In addition to client work, Michael is an active industry thought leader. He has served on the Model Document Working Group of the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA), the Corporate Committee of the Business Law Section of the State Bar of California, and the ABA Working Group on Legal Opinions. Michael helped Standard Capital in developing their unique closing process and streamlined financing agreements. He also brings significant management experience to his role at the firm. Prior to joining Morrison Foerster, Michael co-chaired another international law firm’s largest practice group, overseeing ten subgroups, more than 300 lawyers, and a practice with a P&L in the hundreds of millions.

Michael serves as a trustee for two independent schools in the Bay Area and sits on the board of the National Center for Learning Disabilities.

Michael is consistently recognized by leading legal publications, including Chambers USA, The Legal 500, Best Lawyers in America, and Martindale-Hubbell, where he is rated AV Preeminent®.

Selected Exit Transactions

Represented AddLive in its sale to Snap (NYSE: SNAP).

Represented Applifier in its sale to Unity Technologies (NYSE: U).

Represented Amino Health in its sale to Judi Health / Capital Rx.

Represented Candywriter in its sale to Stillfront Group.

Represented Cloudup in its sale to Automattic.

Represented CourseRank in a merger with Chegg (NYSE: CHGG).

Represented Fictiv in its sale to MISUMI Group.

Represented Freeverse Inc. in its sale to ngmco.

Represented GlobalMotion Media Inc. (publisher of EveryTrail.com) in its sale to Trip Advisor (Nasdaq: TRIP).

Represented Hackpad in its sale to Dropbox (Nasdaq: DBX).

Represented Jambool in a merger transaction with Google Inc. (Nasdaq: GOOG).

Represented Liquid Audio (Nasdaq:LQID) in its sale of technology assets to Microsoft (Nasdaq:MSFT).

Represented Originator in its sale to Spin Master (TSX:TOY).

Represented PullString in its sale to Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL).

Represented Rupture.com in an acquisition by Electronic Arts (Nasdaq: ERTS).

Represented Snapcentric in its sale to Verisign (Nasdaq:VRSN).

Represented TenMarks in its sale to Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN).

Represented Wondery in its sale to Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN).