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Chris D.
With over 15 years of legal experience, I was admitted to the bar in 2008 and have since cultivated a diverse legal background. My expertise spans family law, estate planning, healthcare regulatory matters, and business law. I have a particular knack for crafting meticulous contracts. My approach is client-centric, ensuring that every individual receives personalized, knowledgeable guidance tailored to their unique situation. Partner with me, and let's navigate the complexities of the law together. www.downslawla.com
Daniel K.
I graduated from Yale University magna cum laude, served as a Fulbright Scholar in Italy and attended UC Berkeley School of Law. In 2023, I was named a "Legal Visionary" by the Los Angeles Times. I have broad experience in corporate transactions and in serving as outside general counsel to clients. I started my legal career in Silicon Valley and Hong Kong working on large equity and debt financings and matters for private wealth clients. After returning home to Los Angeles, I advised startup companies with formations, acquisitions and day-to-day matters such as sales contracts and licensing. More recently, I have focused on data, IT and SaaS contracts for both providers and customers. My clients include NASDAQ-listed companies, a top ranked children’s hospital and local startups.
September 6, 2023
Peter H.
Haber Law Firm, APC, is a transactional business law firm with a focus on small/mid-market business purchases and sales, outside general counsel, and start-up assistance for businesses in their early stages. Peter Haber started Haber Law Firm, APC after several years as a legal executive at Popcornopolis, a gourmet popcorn brand sold at groceries and stadiums nationwide. In this role, Peter served as the company’s sole in-house legal advisor as it related to all functions of the company’s operations, including dispute resolution, compliance, and employment law, to name a few. With his help and guidance, the company relocated its entire corporate and manufacturing operation, developed a new factory and warehouse, and was successfully acquired by private equity. Prior to this, Peter was a litigator and business attorney with distinguished Los Angeles litigation boutiques. Such matters included the representation of numerous businesses in litigation and in the resolution of pre-litigation disputes as well as the representation of professionals in liability defense matters, including hospitals, physicians, and brokers.
September 8, 2023
Gina O.
see resume.
October 5, 2023
Gina S.
Experienced business attorney in the field of real estate, construction, and design.
October 5, 2023
Melissa T.
Having more than ten (10) years of experience in commercial law, I have garnered both relevant in-house and law firm experience. With more than a combined seven (7) years in-house experience, I have gained valuable insight in balancing the business needs with the legal risks and applying the legal skills I have acquired to various fields. I have specific experience with SaaS, vendor contracts, customer contracts, and general marketing agreements. Moreover, my law firm background has taught me to be detail-oriented and to be an effective negotiator in all types of commercial dealings.
October 12, 2023
James D. F.
Unique Hybrid Background ➲ Deep Legal, Tech & Commercial Experience More by pure chance than design, I arrived late in life to pursue a career in law. My background spans more than 3 decades across Information Technology, entrepreneurship & the legal profession supporting my claim to being a 'Deep Generalist'. What is a 'Deep Generalist'? 'The professionals who develop into really great client advisors are deep generalists.' Quote from Warren Bennis. From 2013 I worked for established boutique property, finance & commercial law firms + an award-winning #newlaw firm of senior lawyers (formerly Nexus Law Group, now merged with Arch.law) before founding my digital law firm Blue Ocean Law Group in 2017. I also worked part-time for 2 years as a freelance online expert across all aspects of Australian Law with JustAnswer (H.Q. in San Francisco) and volunteered at the Caxton Legal Centre to give back to the community. Now I offer pro bono (free) legal assistance at my discretion. My achievements in the law are best reflected in the high number of settlements where civil litigation has been avoided, court judgements (incl. successful appeals) in my clients' favour & [90+] testimonials which can be seen on the blueocean.law [700+] page website which offers tons [585+] of both free & paid innovative legal products & resources. My personal experience as a client on the other side of legal matters affords me a unique perspective and goes some way to explaining my passion for the reinvention of the delivery of legal services. I am an early adopter of technology + gadgets, an avid reader and an animal lover. In January 2023, I joined the IAPP – International Association of Privacy Professionals and became a Certified Information Privacy Professional – United States by gaining the highly valued gold-standard ANSI-Accredited CIPP/US credential. I followed this up in August 2023, by obtaining the Certified in CyberSecurity qualification form ISC(2). Pre-Law Background From 1992 to 2002, I worked for Accenture as an IT Project Manager across APAC (including long-term project assignments in New Zealand & Singapore). I started a small business side hustle in 1997 and in 2003 I left Accenture to become a full-time entrepreneur in the transport industry. I later expanded into the mezzanine property development finance market as well as venturing into small-scale property development.Unique Hybrid Background
November 5, 2023
Dawn K.
Dawn K Kennedy has been licensed to practice law since 2015, but has been an entrepreneur since 2011. She uses her extensive project management and business background to support small and mid-sized businesses with contracts, negotiations, and other matters relating to the operation of a successful business venture.
November 7, 2023
Boris K.
With over 10 years experience as a Real Estate Broker and an attorney, I can help you with all your residential real estate needs such as For sale by owner transactions and drafting grant deeds
November 17, 2023
Alexandra I.
I am a licensed attorney in California specializing in consumer contract law. My areas of expertise include contract law and employment law, including independent contractor compliance, work-for-hire compliance and general corporate law. I appreciate getting to know my clients and enjoy providing legal guidance, whether they are large corporations, young start-ups about to take off, or just one person in need of legal advice. Some of my recent work has included the drafting of corporate purchase and sale agreements, independent contractor agreements, nondisclosure agreements, and software as a service (SaaS) agreements. I am well-versed in intellectual property law and have successfully obtained trademarks for former clients. My passion for learning, reading and writing has proved advantageous in my practice. I complete continuing education courses to stay current on industry best practices. I take great satisfaction in offering precise and helpful legal advice free from fancy terminology. I look forward to discussing your particular needs and supporting you in achieving your objectives. Please get in touch to learn more about my approach and see whether we are a good fit.
November 21, 2023
Jana B.
I am a Silicon Valley tech lawyer with over 13 years of in-house experience and additional years in BigLaw. I provide tech licensing, data privacy, employment, international expansion, go to market, and other corporate and commercial legal services to clients in software, SaaS, bio-tech, cryptocurrency, financing, and construction business. I currently run my own practice concentrating on transactional, commercial, corporate or employment matters. Prior to starting my own practice, I joined as the first in-house counsel to lead the global legal strategy to bring tech products to market, increase revenue, decrease exposure to risk, and raise venture funding for HashiCorp Inc., currently an unicorn technology company with evaluation over $5 billion and venture funding over $350 million; Sysdig Inc., a technology company with venture funding of $195 million; and Anaplan Inc., currently a publicly traded company on the US Stock Market. Furthermore, I acted as in-house counsel advising leading technology enterprise companies such as HP, VMware, and Genentech and currently act as member of strategic advisory boards to several technology companies located globally
December 4, 2023
McCoy S.
P. McCoy Smith is the Founding Attorney at Lex Pan Law LLC, a full-service technology and intellectual property law firm based in Portland, Oregon, U.S.A and Opsequio LLC, an open source compliance consultancy. Prior to his current position, he spent 20 years in the legal department of a Fortune 50 multinational technology company as a business unit intellectual property specialist; among his duties was setting up the free & open source legal function and policies for that company. He preceded his in-house experience with 8 years in private practice in a large New York City-based boutique intellectual property law firm, working simultaneously as a U.S. patent litigator and U.S. patent prosecutor. He was also a patent examiner at the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office prior to attending law school. He is licensed to practice law in Oregon, California & New York and to prosecute patent applications in the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office; he is also a registered Trademark and Patent Agent with the Canadian Intellectual Property Office. He has degrees from Colorado State University (Bachelor of Science, Mechanical Engineering, with honors), Johns Hopkins University (Masters of Liberal Arts) and the University of Virginia (Juris Doctor). While in private practice, and continuing into his in-house career, he taught portions of the U.S. patent bar exam for a long-standing and well-known patent bar exam preparation course, and from 2014-2020 was on the editorial board of the Journal of Open Law, Technology & Society (JOLTS), and starting in 2023 will be on the editorial board of the American Intellectual Property Law Quarterly Journal (AIPLAQJ). He is the author or co-author of chapters on open source and copyright and patents in “Open Source Law, Policy & Practice” (2022, Oxford University Press). He lectures frequently around the world on free and open source issues as well as other intellectual property topics.
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Browse Lawyers NowSecurities Legal Questions and Answers
Securities
SAFE Note
California
SAFE Note interest accrual?
I am a business owner who recently completed a Series A round of funding. As part of this funding round, I issued SAFE Notes to my investors. I am now trying to understand the implications of these notes, specifically regarding interest accrual. I want to make sure I am compliant with all the terms of the SAFE Note agreement and understand the effects of interest accrual on my company's finances.
Thaddeus W.
Thanks for the interesting question. There may be some conflation of issues here. A few points may help to clarify -- 1. A SAFE and a Note are different animals. Notes are debt instruments and, accordingly, usually have an interest component. SAFE's are not debt and so do not accrue interest. Convertible Notes and SAFE's are similar in that they both typically convert into preferred stock when the company **later** issues preferred stock. Also, Convertible Notes and SAFE's are often issued without regard to a company's then-current valuation. 2. You said your company issued SAFEs / Notes "as part of" a Series A funding. That's not legally impossible, of course, but it would be unusual, so it would be helpful to make sure we are using the same "glossary" of terms. Typically, the phrase "Series A funding" refers to a company's issuance of Series A Preferred Stock; such transactions involve putting a value on the company so that the Series A stock can be priced. Series A rounds often are preceded by the company issuing Convertible Notes or SAFE's without a valuation of the company (that is, the company and investors "kick the can down the road" to a later time when the company's operating history can justify a valuation). Then, when the Series A round occurs and shares of Series A are priced based on the company valuation, any pre-existing Convertible Notes and SAFE's convert into shares of Series A preferred stock at a conversion price that is equal to the price paid by the Series A purchasers, minus the discount that the Convertible Notes or SAFE's give to their holders. (NOTE: these days, often there is a round of preferred stock sold BEFORE Series A, called Series Seed. This is not required, but common. Sometimes SAFE's or Notes are issued between Series Seed and Series A, but, again, it would be the odd investor who purchased a SAFE or a Note in the same financing round in which preferred stock is sold.) 3. The implications of SAFE's and notes can be several. One of the biggest is their impact on the company's capitalization table ... that is, on the ownership interests of other shareholders, especially the founders. The terms of each Note or SAFE will determine their impact when they convert, especially if they have a "valuation cap" ... which is a provision by which an effective discount is given to the holder of the SAFE / Note. Valuation caps can result in more dilution to the founders and other pre-existing shareholders than they might expect, depending on the actual valuation of the company when these Convertible Notes and SAFE's do convert. 4. If you issued Convertible Notes or SAFE's as part of a Series A preferred stock round, the investors purchasing the Series A would have to have known about and approved of it. Their lawyers would have certainly raised eyebrows and asked questions. If these Convertible Notes / SAFE's were issued outside of the knowledge of the Series A investors, this would be expected to be problematic for the company, and possibly a breach of the Series A investment documents, or even a violation of certain securities laws. But, if all was approved by the investors, no problem. 5. Another implication worth noting is that since Convertible Notes are debt, they typically would be carried on (shown in) the company's balance sheet. Investors in Series A round always or nearly always have Information Rights to see the company's financial statements and be kept current on changes. Normally the company would have a contractual obligation to provide quarterly, if no monthly, financial reports and updates to Series A investors. These reports should include all information about SAFE's and Notes. 6. It should also be noted that Series A investment documents typically restrict the company from issuing many types of new securities without the approval of what these docs often call the "Requisite Holders." This is a defined term in the Series A investment docs (normally in the company amended and restated Charter), and is defined as the Series A holders that hold at least a stated number (e.g., a majority) of all of the Series A shares sold in the round. Note that these answers are not and should not be taken as legal advice for your particular situation. You should retain qualified legal counsel to have a formal lawyer-client relationship and your lawyer should review all relevant information. But, these concepts here are pretty fundamental. ~Thaddeus Wojcik, Wojcik Law Firm, PC
Securities
Revenue Sharing Agreement
California
How do you fund a restaurant?
I am looking for an attorney who can help me put together restaurant business proposal to funding to expand my restaurant branch.
Russell M.
There is not a lot of detail here so I am going to assume you are not asking about how to get a small business loan, or you aren't interested or able to get SBA financing for what ever reason. If you have a successful restaurant concept, you might want to look into Regulation CF crowdfunding. I am aware of a number of food and beverage businesses that have leveraged their existing loyal and enthusiastic customer bases and a well executed financial and PR campaign to fund expansion sites.
Securities
Stock Option Agreement
California
Stock option agreement and stock splits?
I am an employee of a company that is planning to offer stock options as part of my compensation package. I am trying to understand what would happen if my company does a stock split. Would my stock options be affected by the split, and if so, how? I want to make sure I understand the implications of a stock split before I accept the stock options as part of my compensation.
Thaddeus W.
Good question! Typically, a stock split will result in an appropriate adjustment to an option award so that, after the adjustment, the option holder (you, in this case) is "made whole" -- that is, you are effectively in the same place economically (as far as this option is concerned) after the split with the option as you were before. If you look at your company's Stock Plan (the plan under which your options were authorized and granted to you), you will probably find a section called "Changes in Capitalization." (Or, you can search to document for the word "split" and may be able to find the governing provision that way.) The provision might be included in your Stock Option Agreement, but typically it is covered in the Plan. Anyway, the provision (wherever it is located in your documents) would normally say something along the lines of the following: "In the event of a stock split (and other events), the following will occur: (i) the numbers and class of shares covered by your option award, (ii) the exercise price per share of each outstanding option, and (iii) any applicable repurchase price per share issued under any option award, will be automatically proportionately adjusted in the event of a stock split (or other event)." (Usually the language is even more "legalesey" but that's pretty much the jist of it.) Of course, its impossible to say for sure in your situation (or in any other specific situation) without seeing the relevant documents and knowing all other relevant details, but that would be the typical approach.
Securities
Investment Contract
California
Investment contract legal requirements?
I am interested in investing in a business opportunity, and the company has presented me with an investment contract. I want to ensure that the contract I am signing is legitimate and meets all legal requirements. I am looking for guidance from a lawyer to ensure that the contract is fair and legally binding.
Thaddeus W.
Happy to discuss, but it seem like maybe you want to post a formal request for bids.
Securities
Convertible Note
Ohio
Convertible note vs. KISS agreement?
I am an early-stage startup founder looking to raise capital. I am exploring different financing options and am trying to decide between a Convertible Note and a KISS agreement. I want to understand the differences between these two financing options, and the advantages and disadvantages of each, in order to make an informed decision.
Paul S.
Probably the primary difference is that a convertible note is debt, with interest and a maturity date. I do a lot of work with startups, and I rarely see convertible notes used anymore, and never see KISS agreements used. SAFEs are much more prevalent. That being said, there are a lot of different variables in all these instruments, and you should never just download a template and use it without customizing to your needs and discussing it with an experienced startup attorney. There are also securities law considerations. Raising financing from investors is not a good DIY project.
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