The firm focuses exclusively on business law and commercial matters for venture-backed and public technology and life science companies and venture capital investors, while performing no litigation work.

[2] Gunderson Dettmer has been consistently ranked as an elite law firm for emerging companies and venture capital, including by Vault.com[3] and U.S. News & World Report.

[5] Gunderson had also earlier worked for Cooley LLP, where in the 80s he had been one of the first associates sent to Palo Alto to start the firm's Silicon Valley venture practice with partner Lee Benton.

In 2011, the Wall Street Journal reported that Gunderson Dettmer had surpassed Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati as the most active law firm in venture capital.

"[11] During the 2022 collapse in emerging company valuations, the firm conducted two rounds of layoffs and deferred the start date of its 2022 class of first year associates.