When you start a company, you want to surround yourself with excellent advisors. Tech startups come with their own quirks and gotchas so it’s useful to work with someone who is not just a good corporate attorney, but has a passion for working with startups and the experience to match. Back in 2010, after a back-and-forth with VC Mark Suster and a few other entrepreneurs, I created this list. It was built from direct 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. As this list gets older, some of the names might move or retire, but I think you’ll find that these firms are solid ones.
For a great post on working with a startup lawyer, see Mark Suster’s blog here. When looking, talk to more than one and pick the lawyer that is not just great at his/her job, but is also a good personality fit.
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)
Atlanta
Nelson Mullins
Douglas Spear, Partner
Austin
Egan Nelson
José Ancer
Extra comments: “While being lean and responsive, via legal tech, is a big part of their value proposition, another thing that makes his firm unique is that they don’t represent a single Tech VC.”
Boston
Goodwin Procter
David Cappillo, Partner
Morse Barnes-Brown Pendleton
Mary Beth Kerrigan, Member
Boulder / Denver
Rubicon Law Group
Ryan Howell
Los Angeles
DLA Piper
David Young, Partner
Reicker, Pfau, Pyle & McRoy (Santa Barbara)
Michael Pfau, Partner
Walker Corporate Law Group
Minneapolis
Soffer Lehrman Law Group
Bradley Lehrman
Montreal
BCF
Frédéric Dionne
New York
Cooley LLP
Jim Fulton, Partner in Charge
Egan Nelson
Jeremy Raphael, Partner
Extra Comments: “They’re super transparent, honest, and helpful. Incredibly responsive as well and he and his team really care about our success.”
Gunderson Dettmer
Steven Baglio, Partner, M&A
Ken McVay, Partner
Linson Law
Camille Linson, Of Counsel
Philadelphia
Taney Legal
Frank Taney, Principal
Extra comments: “He works very hard to keep billed hours to a minimum, and is always willing to go the extra mile for his clients.”
Pittsburgh
Cohen & Grigsby
David Kalson, Director
Seattle
McNaul Ebel
William Carleton, Partner
Extra Comments: “has been a fantastic attorney for us”
Silicon Valley
Cooley LLP
Matthew Bartus, Partner
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
Matthew Quilter, Partner
Sayre Stevick, Partner
Gunderson Dettmer
Scott Dettmer, Partner
Extra comments: “great startup advisor who also happen to be lawyer”
Latham & Watkins
Patrik Polhen, Partner
Orrick
Mitchell Zuklie, Partner
Extra comments: “great advisor”
Pillsbury
Jorge del Calvo, Partner
Tom Thomas, Partner
Silicon Legal
Andre Gharakhanian
Wilson Sonsini
Yoichiro Yaku, Partner
Seattle
Egan Nelson
Kevin Chou, Partner
Toronto
Hyndman Law
Rob Hyndman
Extra comments: “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.”
Labarge Weinstein
James Smith, Partner
Washington D.C.
Cooley Godward
Mike Lincoln, Partner
Holland & Knight
Eric Wechselblatt, Partner (Northern VA)