Great Web Startup Lawyers

When you start a company, you want to surround yourself with excellent advisors.  Finding a good, startup-savvy and startup-friendly lawyer can be tough, so hopefully this can be a useful starting place. This list has been created by recommendations from entrepreneurs across North America.  Most of the lawyers are general corporate attorneys and I’ve tried to list when someone is a specialist for M&A or IP. If you have a comment about a lawyer on this list, or you want to suggest a new name, please email me at giff(dot)constable @gmail.

For a great post on working with a startup lawyer, see Mark Suster’s  blog here.

The referrals on this page are only from entrepreneurs.  Here is the suggested criteria any recommendation should pass:

• has a practice with several Web startups, and understands startup issues
• keeps billable hours reasonable, respecting cash of clients
• is both an excellent lawyer and communicator
• does not lose sight of business needs when thinking through legal issues
• truly cares about representing your business (without conflicts of interests with VCs or other)

DLA Piper
Douglas Spear, Partner
1 positive referral, 0 negative comments

Spross & Associates
Brian Spross
1 positive referral, 0 negative comments
Extra comments: “fantastic work, also helped with negotiations; excellent on contracts and M&A”

Goodwin Procter
David Cappillo, Partner
1 positive referral, 0 negative comments

Morse Barnes-Brown Pendleton
Mary Beth Kerrigan, Member
1 positive referral, 0 negative comments

VC Ready
Michael Cohen
1 positive referral, 0 negative comments
Benjamin Hron
1 positive referral, 0 negative comments

Rubicon Law Group
Ryan Howell
1 positive referral, 0 negative comments

Phillips & Reiter
Aaron Woo
1 positive referral, 0 negative comments

Buchalter Nemer
Donald Lee, Partner
1 positive referral, 0 negative comments

DLA Piper
David Young, Partner
1 positive referral, 0 negative comments

Reicker, Pfau, Pyle & McRoy (Santa Barbara)
Michael Pfau, Partner
1 positive referral, 0 negative comments

Stubbs Alderton & Markiles
Scott Alderton, Partner
1 positive referral, 0 negative comments

Walker Corporate Law Group
Scott Edward Walker, CEO
1 positive referral, 0 negative comments

Lommen Abdo
Bradley Lehrman
1 positive referral, 0 negative comments

blue HF
Frédéric Dionne
1 positive referral, 0 negative comments

Borden Ladner Gervais
Jonathan Dorval, Partner
1 positive referral, 0 negative comments

Gunderson Dettmer
Steven Baglio, Partner, M&A
1 positive referral, 0 negative comments
Brian Hutchings, Partner
1 positive referral, 0 negative comments
Extra Comments: “flexible, experienced, responsive, and a pleasure to work with”
Ken McVay, Partner
1 positive referral, 0 negative comments

Hrbek Law
Camille Linson, Of Counsel
1 positive referral, 0 negative comments

Lowenstein Sandler
Peter Fusco, Of Counsel
1 positive referral, 1 negative comment

Buchanan Ingersoll
Frank Taney, Partner
2 positive referrals, 0 negative comments
Extra comments: “big firm, but Frank tries hard not to overbill; excellent litigator”; “He works very hard to keep billed hours to a minimum, and is always willing to go the extra mile for his clients.”

Cohen & Grigsby
David Kalson, Director
1 positive referral, 0 negative comments

McNaul Ebel
William Carleton, Partner
1 positive referral, 0 negative comments

The Point Law Group
Louis Carbonneau, Founder, IP Law
1 positive referral, 0 negative comments
Extra Comments: “Louis thinks like a businessman, and thinks of ways to get to ‘yes.’ He communicates well with both sides of the table, and is a good strategic advisor.”

Dorsey & Whitney
Matthew Bartus, Partner
2 positive referral, 0 negative comments
Extra Comments: “not only is he strategic and shrewd as a chief counsel, but he has honestly become one of our most important advisors and a true friend of our team… I’m certain Matt only bills 1/5th of the hours he invests in us.”; “I’ve worked with Matt on a number of transactions as an investor and entrepreneur and he’s always been blindingly quick to respond, shrewd in his analysis, and an all around good guy.”

Fenwick & West
Sam Angus, Partner
1 positive referral, 0 negative comments
Matthew Quilter, Partner
1 positive referral, 0 negative comments
Sayre Stevick, Partner
1 positive referral, 0 negative comments

Fortis General Counsel
Robert Dang, Partner
1 positive referral, 0 negative comments
Joyce Lan Kim, Of Counsel
1 positive referral, 0 negative comments
Joey Tran, Partner
1 positive referral, 0 negative comments
Extra comments: “most startup-friendly lawyers I have found”

Gunderson Dettmer
Scott Dettmer, Partner
1 positive referral, 0 negative comments
Extra comments: “great startup advisor who also happen to be lawyer”

Latham & Watkins
Patrik Polhen, Partner
1 positive referral, 0 negative comments

Orrick
Mitchell Zuklie, Partner
1 positive referral, 0 negative comments
Extra comments: “great advisor”

Pillsbury
Jorge del Calvo, Partner
1 positive referral, 0 negative comments
Tom Thomas, Partner
1 positive referral, 0 negative comments

Silicon Legal
Andre Gharakhanian
2 positive referral, 0 negative comments

Wilson Sonsini
Yoichiro Yaku, Partner
1 positive referral, 0 negative comments

Hyndman Law
Rob Hyndman
8 positive referrals, 0 negative comments
Extra comments: “great understanding of the tech start-up process and has been legal council on key aspects of our corporate structuring and capital raising initiatives”; “Rob knows my issues inside and out (tech IP, HR, etc) from the point of view of the tech industry; Incredibly easy to work with, much more reasonable rates; Can’t say enough good things.”; “invaluable in the creation and organization of our start-up. His advice excels in that it is both legal-smart and people-smart.”

Labarge Weinstein
James Smith, Partner
1 positive referral, 0 negative comments

Venture Law Associates
Suzanne Williams, Partner
1 positive referral, 0 negative comments

Cooley Godward
Mike Lincoln, Partner
1 positive referral, 0 negative comments

Holland & Knight
Eric Wechselblatt, Partner (Northern VA)
1 positive referral, 0 negative comments

Pillsbury
Joseph Tiano, Partner
1 positive referral, 0 negative comments