| Biographical profile |
James C. Gaither has been a central figure in Silicon Valley since the 1970s. After graduating from Stanford Law School in 1964, Gaither served as a law clerk to Chief Justice Earl Warren at the US Supreme Court, as a special assistant to the assistant attorney general in the US Department of Justice, and as a staff assistant in the White House under President Lyndon B. Johnson. In the Johnson administration, he assisted in crafting Johnson’s legislative program, covering areas such as civil rights, education, and health.
In 1971, he joined Cooley LLP, a firm in which his father had worked many years earlier. While at Cooley, Gaither was at the forefront of the venture capital field as Silicon Valley began to grow. He was involved in a number of early venture capital, startup, and biotechnology efforts, helping to lay the legal foundation for Silicon Valley.
Since 2000, Gaither has been a managing director of Sutter Hill Ventures. He has served as the president of Stanford’s Board of Trustees and was awarded the Degree of the Uncommon Man, the Stanford Associates’ highest volunteer service award in 2006. Gaither has also served on the boards of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Nvidia, Siebel Systems, Basic American Inc., Levi Strauss & Co., the James Irvine Foundation, and Makena Capital Management
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