As the U.S. IPO market continues its upward trajectory in 2025, building on the steady gains and renewed momentum of 2024, companies at every stage face both promising opportunities and evolving challenges. Stabilizing interest rates, a robust pipeline of high-profile listings, and increased private equity activity have created a favorable environment. Yet shifting valuations, stockholder dynamics, and market volatility remain persistent factors shaping the path to public markets.
The 2025 IPO Conference is designed exclusively for General Counsels and Chief Legal Officers at early, growth, and late-stage private companies. Whether you’re laying long-term groundwork or preparing for an imminent listing, this event offers the strategic insights and legal guidance needed to navigate today’s evolving IPO landscape.
Topics will include market timing, raise sizing, managing late-stage investors, dual-track and SPAC considerations, and sector-specific momentum in areas like technology and AI. Sessions will explore the practical realities of going public—balancing internal pressures, investor expectations, and the judgment calls legal leaders are uniquely positioned to make.
This is a space for candid discussion and high-trust exchange among peers. Through real-world perspectives and shared experience, attendees will gain not just a clearer view of the current market, but a sharper understanding of how to lead through it.
→Forecasting the GC Role Post-IPO: Scope, Influence & Evolution
→IPO or Not: Navigating Strategic Pivots Without Losing Your Bearings
→Leading Through the Unknown: The GC’s Role in IPO-Adjacent Crisis Management
→Readiness Benchmarks: How to Know if You’re Actually IPO-Ready
→Secondaries, Liquidity & the Pressure Cooker
→The First 90 Days Post-IPO: Avoiding Landmines and Setting a Steady Tone
Pre-Conference Workshop:
→ Anatomy of a Pricing Meeting
This session will take participants inside the high-pressure final stretch of the IPO process, where valuation, timing, and market coordination converge. After a short primer on the cadence of pricing and key legal considerations, attendees will work through scenarios in small groups to surface strategies for managing disclosure calls, board dynamics, and late-stage surprises. The workshop will draw on real-world war stories and peer insights, highlighting how legal can keep communication flowing between bankers, executives, and the board in the final hours before the bell. Participants will leave with a sharper view of legal’s role in navigating control, governance, and real-time decision-making under market pressure.
Pre-Conference Workshops:
→Tension Points: Navigating Secondaries, Expectations, and Exit Timelines
In today’s market, pressure for insider liquidity often collides with the discipline required for a successful IPO. This interactive reverse roundtable, led by Goodwin partners, will dive into the messy realities of secondary transactions in the run-up to an S-1. Through rotating peer discussions, GCs will explore how to balance founder and fund demands with IPO narrative control, structure or rework secondary activity with governance and disclosure in mind, and manage conflicting shareholder incentives when timelines slip. The conversation will also surface strategies for keeping dual-track options open without undermining IPO readiness. Goodwin partners will seed each discussion with real-world examples and close with insights gathered from across the room, ensuring both practical takeaways and a candid exchange among peers.
→Fix It Now or Fight It Later: Preparing Your Governance for Public Life
This workshop will place participants in the GC seat of a late-stage technology company racing toward an IPO amid market uncertainty, board pressure, and a high-profile CEO. Through a detailed case study and small group discussion, attendees will surface the five most critical readiness issues and chart concrete 30-, 60-, and 90-day responses. The session will highlight practical strategies for tackling governance gaps, disclosure risks, and equity complications while balancing credibility with the CEO, board, and investors. Participants will leave with a sharper view of how to set priorities when IPO urgency collides with operational reality.
A "Proper" Gathering: Conference Welcome Dinner
Join us for dinner at the iconic Proper Hotel in the landmark Flatiron building. We'll start with cocktails on the open-air patio before moving inside for dinner in the stunning Villion & Lounge. We'll close out the night on Charmaine’s Rooftop for dessert, live jazz, and sweeping views of the city lights. This is the perfect opportunity to relax, mingle, and connect with your peers before kicking off Wednesday's programming.
Mainstage Session
Trade-Offs and Tough Calls: Critical Decisions on the Road to IPO
Every IPO involves a series of high-stakes decisions with no easy answers. From early choices about governance and hiring to questions of dual class, lock-up, float, anchor investors, and advisor strategy, legal leaders are at the center of guiding boards, executives, and investors through the process. This session will focus on the practical trade-offs companies must navigate at each stage of the IPO, how to manage uncertainty in volatile markets, and what matters most in preparing teams for the spotlight of public-company life.
Mainstage Session
The Legal Narrative: Shaping Market Perception Before an Exit
A successful IPO starts long before the prospectus is filed. In this session, legal and finance leaders will unpack how to craft a compelling growth narrative that aligns with investor expectations while staying within regulatory guardrails. We’ll explore how legal helps shape the story behind the metrics, from defining KPIs early to pressure-testing forward-looking statements and working with external advisors on disclosure strategy. Speakers will share lessons from recent IPOs and late-stage prep, including how to navigate internal alignment across finance, IR, and the board. Whether you're in active planning or building optionality for the future, this conversation will give you a sharper lens on legal’s strategic voice in shaping the company's story.
Mainstage Session
The Offering Isn’t the End: Protecting the Company and Yourself Pre- and Post-IPO
Going public marks the beginning of a new legal chapter that reshapes how the company operates and how the GC shows up. The work does not begin on listing day. The final stretch of preparation brings its own make-or-break decisions on governance, disclosure, and board dynamics. And once public, the pace only accelerates. From preparing for earnings calls and managing new committees to balancing structure with agility under investor scrutiny, legal leaders face a complex mix of strategic and personal pressures. This session explores how GCs can protect both the company and themselves through the transition, including defending against shareholder activism, maintaining voting control, and mitigating liability as the role becomes more public and exposed. It is a candid conversation for leaders navigating the realities of an IPO from the weeks before the bell to the many chapters that follow.
Please note that the conference room block at the Parc 55 is now full.
Please see below for some additional hotel options in the vicinity.
This is a very busy week in the city of San Francisco, making your hotel reservations as soon as possible is recommended.
Availability and rates current as of August 13, 2025:
140 Ellis Street
<5 Minute walk
Rates starting at $350
717 Sutter Street
10 Min walk
Rates starting at $518
1075 Sutter Street
20 Minute Walk / 15 minute drive
Rates starting at $359
440 Post St
10 Minute Walk
Rates starting at $608
334 Mason Street
<5 Minute Walk
Rates starting at $618
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