William M. Kelly is a corporate partner at Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP and a founder of the firm's Menlo Park office. He primarily represents technology companies and their investors and advises in mergers and acquisitions, strategic alliances, corporate governance, and securities law compliance. He has been involved in some of the most significant M&A transactions in Silicon Valley and acts as regular corporate counsel to a number of tech companies. He also acts as special counsel to boards of directors, both tech and non-tech, in takeover defense and other sensitive situations, and is a frequent lecturer in M&A and corporate governance matters. Mr. Kelly is a Director and Chair of the Audit Committee of MIPS Technologies. Before joining Davis Polk, he was General Counsel and held other senior business roles at Silicon Graphics, Inc.

Mr. Kelly is admitted to the bars of California and New York. He earned an A.B., cum laude, from Columbia University and a J.D. from Columbia Law School, where he was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar.