Trail-blazing Silicon Valley boutique Venture Law Group (VLG) has rebuffed a proposed takeover by Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe to agree an 11th-hour tie-up with San Francisco’s Heller Ehrman White & McAuliffe.

The closely watched deal, which was confirmed in a partners’ vote on 9 September, brings to an end a frantic period of merger talks for the respected boutique, which has been hit hard by the two-year collapse in California’s technology economy.