Professional services

Palo Alto's office buildings hold more than startups. Behind the tech companies stand the lawyers who incorporate them, the accountants who file their taxes and the brokers who lease their space. Residents need the same services for a home purchase, a will or a tax return. OpenStreetMap, the open map our directory starts from, tags about 50 professional offices inside city limits. Close to half are law offices. The rest are accounting firms, financial and wealth management offices, real estate brokerages, insurance agencies and property managers.

Below this guide, every firm we have verified appears automatically as a card. The guide covers where these offices cluster, how to check a license with the right state agency and how to plan a visit. Nothing on this page or the listing pages is legal, tax or financial advice. For advice about your own situation, talk to a licensed professional.

What this category includes

• Law: large firms, boutique firms and solo practitioners
• Accounting and tax: CPA firms, bookkeepers and tax preparers
• Real estate: residential and commercial brokerages and property managers
• Insurance: independent agents and branded agency offices
• Financial: financial advisors, wealth managers and private banking offices
• Design: a small number of architecture firms

Bank branches and credit unions sit in everyday services. Venture capital firms are not directory listings because their offices are not open to the public. Our venture capital guide covers them firm by firm.

Where the firms cluster

Page Mill Road and Hanover Street

The heaviest concentration of large law firms sits along Page Mill Road and Hanover Street, at the edge of Stanford Research Park. The logic is simple. Their clients are the startups and tech companies in the research park, the venture firms on Sand Hill Road and Stanford's founders. Wilson Sonsini renewed its 190,000 square foot headquarters lease at 650 Page Mill Road in 2022. Several national and international firms keep Silicon Valley offices within a short drive of it, often focused on emerging companies, venture financing, intellectual property and mergers.

University Avenue and downtown

Downtown's upper floors hold a second group of law firm offices, along with private banking and wealth management offices on University Avenue and Lytton Avenue. Real estate brokerages keep storefront offices downtown, close to the homes in Professorville, Crescent Park and Old Palo Alto. See our downtown guide.

California Avenue and Park Boulevard

Small law practices, CPA firms, insurance agents and financial advisors share low office buildings on California Avenue, Park Boulevard and nearby streets, close to the California Avenue Caltrain station. This is where many residents go for a will, a tax return or a homeowner's policy. Our California Avenue guide covers the district.

East Bayshore Road and El Camino Real

Office parks on East Bayshore Road near U.S. 101 house accounting firms and property managers. A few more offices sit along El Camino Real between Stanford and Mountain View.

Lawyers for startups and founders

Startup law is a specialty here. Firms in the Page Mill Road cluster advertise practices built around company formation, equity, venture financings, employment and intellectual property. Founders usually find a lawyer through a warm introduction from another founder, an angel or an accelerator. Before you sign anything, compare engagement terms, ask who on the team will do the day-to-day work and ask how the firm bills early-stage companies. Our guides to term sheet basics and registering a business in Palo Alto explain the vocabulary. They are not a substitute for a lawyer.

Check a license before you hire

California licenses most of these professions and each regulator runs a free public lookup. A check takes two minutes and shows whether a license is current and whether there is any public discipline.

The State Bar of California profile shows a lawyer's license status along with any disciplinary and administrative history. If you do not know where to start, the State Bar also lists certified lawyer referral services. The California Board of Accountancy lookup covers any California CPA or accounting firm. The Department of Real Estate lookup shows whether an agent's license is current and which broker the agent works under.

How to choose a firm

1. Match the specialty. A startup financing, a divorce, an estate plan and a tax dispute call for different lawyers. Read the practice areas on the firm's own site.
2. Verify the license. Use the table above before a first meeting.
3. Ask how fees work. Hourly rates, flat fees, retainers and commissions are all common. Ask for the fee arrangement in writing.
4. Ask who does the work. At larger firms, a partner may lead while associates or staff handle most tasks.
5. Ask about conflicts. Firms that serve many startups and investors may have conflicts with the other side of your deal.
6. Plan ahead for deadlines. Tax preparers are busiest from January to mid-April, so book early.

For financial advisors and insurance agents, ask how they are paid and whether they sell their own company's products. Read any listing or buyer agreement carefully before you sign, including how the commission works. Our real estate guide covers the local housing market.

Appointments, parking and transit

Almost every professional office works by appointment. Reception desks in larger buildings may ask for photo ID and the name of the person you are meeting, so arrive a few minutes early. Many firms also offer video meetings for a first consultation.

Office buildings along Page Mill Road and Hanover Street usually have their own lots. Ask the firm where visitors should park. Downtown offices rely on roughly 20 city garages and lots. The City of Palo Alto parking page has the rules. California Avenue offices have public lots and side streets nearby.

By train, the California Avenue Caltrain station is a short walk from the Park Boulevard and California Avenue offices. The Page Mill Road firms are a longer walk or a short ride away. Downtown offices are a few minutes from the Palo Alto station. VTA Route 22 and Rapid 522 run along El Camino Real. Our getting around guide has more.

How we check professional listings

Every page in this category follows the same process. We start from OpenStreetMap data for the name, location and any posted hours. Then an editor opens the firm's own website and confirms that the Palo Alto office is current, with a live office page or recent dates. Offices that are not open to the public, such as venture firms, do not get pages. If we cannot confirm that an office is open, we do not publish a page.

Each page describes practice areas and the kinds of clients served only as the firm states them. We do not describe outcomes, case results or returns and we do not publish reviews, ratings or rankings. Nothing on these pages is legal, tax or financial advice. Firms cannot pay for a listing or a better position. Every page shows the date it was checked. Location data is © OpenStreetMap contributors, available under the Open Database License.

Browse the professional listings

The verified firms appear below in alphabetical order. Each card leads to a page with the address, nearest Caltrain stop, parking notes and what else is nearby. More are added as editors verify them.

In this section

Frequently asked questions