Wilson Sonsini

Wilson Sonsini Goodrich and Rosati (WSGR) is a leading US law firm headquartered in Palo Alto, founded in 1961 and closely associated with Silicon Valley technology and life-sciences clients. It is among the top legal advisers to technology companies on regulatory, M&A and public-markets work, with a substantial European practice focused on EU digital regulation.

The firm entered the Lowdown record when its analysis of the Cloud and AI Development Act (CADA) assessed the act's practical scope as considerably wider than the Commission's headline claim. While the Commission stated that only approximately 1% of public services fall under CADA's strictest sovereignty tier, Wilson Sonsini concluded that obligations also catch sectors subject to NIS2 (the EU network-security framework), including energy, healthcare and digital infrastructure. That reading, if borne out in trilogue, would pull in a substantial share of critical national infrastructure rather than just the four explicitly named workload categories.

The firm's role here is that of informed outside counsel interpreting a legislative text in transit, not a regulator or party to the legislation. Its reading is advisory and contested; the final scope will be determined by the European Parliament, Council and Commission in trilogue. US tech clients with European public-sector contracts have material exposure to whichever interpretation prevails.