MEET THE MOFO TEAM

How I Help: I work intensively with early-stage businesses as they form, seek growth capital, and develop their business plans. The work typically involves more than simple legal advice on financing terms, and so I try to holistically address the key needs of the business for the founders and investors.

Favorite app or tech product: Goodreads. Ask me about the books I think every startup founder should read!

Favorite place for client meetings: Anywhere convenient for the client, whether that means visiting their office, a productive business lunch, an early morning or late night phone call, or hopping on a plane.

Life beyond the law: When I’m not in the office, you can find me running along the Embarcadero.

How I help: I help VC funds, PE houses, start-ups, scale-ups and management teams grow their businesses strategically. I have a wealth of experience advising on acquisitions, disposals, investments, joint ventures, partnerships, incentive plans and everything in between, acting for clients all over the world on some of their most important transactions.

Favorite app or tech product: Fitbit; sad but really addictive.

Favorite place for client meetings: Can’t beat a well-stocked coffee house or a good walk by the Thames, although meetings overlooking the Bosporus were not bad.

Life beyond the law: Snooker (real man’s pool) and spending time with my friends and family.

How I help: I assist startups by helping to identify (and protect) their core value proposition, and advise on how best to capitalize on that. Specifically, I work with companies form the beginning to develop a sound IP strategy, protecting their most valuable assets, to help develop a business model (and IP portfolio) that give companies an advantage over competitors and that investors will want to fund. In addition, I assist in developing form contractual arrangements (licenses, sales and services agreements, etc.) to help startups exploit their IP assets while protecting their interests. Most importantly, I help leverage relationships with investors, engineers and other entrepreneurs across Tokyo, Asia and the US to assist in envisaging and executing on growth plans to help realize the commercial potential of a startup’s business.

Favorite app or tech product: Anything AI-related – amazing commercial potential. I’m also very interested in the disruptive effect that blockchain technology can have and how its potential can be realized in a responsible and successful way.

Favorite place for client meetings: It’s always nice to meet clients at their place of business, to get a feel of how they operate. I also like meetings at cafes and restaurants to facilitate informal discussions.

Life beyond the law: I love food, so I’m often visiting new restaurants or spending time cooking for my family. I also enjoy the outdoors (skiing in the winter, hiking/camping/canoeing in the summer).

How I Help: I help startups from formation through acquisition or IPO in matters including capital raising (both angel and venture capital), debt financing, equity incentive compensation and business development. I love to share with my startups the market customs, best practices and forward-thinking strategies that I have learned over the past two decades across multiple industries through several economic cycles. I also put my first career as a software engineer to use through licensing, joint development, distribution and other technology transfer matters.

Favorite app or tech product: My iPhone has just become another appendage, so maybe that doesn’t count. Otherwise, hacking on a Raspberry Pi has been a lot of fun.

Favorite place for client meetings: Given the pace of today’s startups, very few take place in person, but when I do meet with clients in person, I love our new Conference Center in Palo Alto with a view of the courtyard and fountain.

Life beyond law: I sing the National Anthem at sporting events, and have performed at several colleges and universities.

How I help: In addition to helping clients with their corporate formation, financing and mergers and acquisition transactions, I use my experience as a licensing and employment lawyer to provide holistic guidance on the day-to-day issues facing emerging companies. Some of the best value we add is not just in our role as lawyers, but in bringing our varied experience to bear on our clients’ problems.

Favorite app or tech product: Spotify’s “Discover Weekly” playlist has helped discover great new artists and introduced me to new songs by some of my favorite artists.

Favorite place for client meetings: I love the breweries here in San Diego. They are a great place to catch up and chat in an informal atmosphere while sampling the best of what our city has to offer.

Life beyond the law: Running, traveling and cooking.

How I help: I act as a trusted advisor to emerging companies by helping them grow and scale throughout their life cycle. In this role, the spectrum of companies I work with range from those that are just incorporating to those that are getting ready to go public and everything in between. From working with so many companies at all of these various stages of their development, I am able to help advise clients on the best ways to position themselves for future success.

Favorite app or tech product: With three kids and a wife who is a partner at another big law firm, Instacart has been a lifesaver.

Favorite place for client meetings: If it was up to me, always happy to meet on the golf course!

Life beyond the law: I enjoy skiing and trying to improve my golf game. I’m also into poker and made the final table of the World Series of Poker back in law school although I don’t play nearly as much these days.

How I help: I help startups get formed, financed and achieve liquidity through an acquisition or IPO.  I have represented private companies in over $1 billion in equity and debt financings ranging from seed rounds to $100 million plus later stage rounds. I also advise investors (angel, venture capital and strategic) in investments in, and acquisitions of, these companies.  I work with clients to understand their business so that I can provide strategic, practical advice to help them achieve their objectives.

Favorite app or tech product: Google Maps.  Never be lost or late again.

Favorite place for client meetings: Lunch at Karl Strauss. You cannot beat a midday break outside in the sun by a koi pond.

Life beyond the law: Surfing, camping and chasing after my kids.

How I help: I help startups during all stages of their lifecycles, whether it’s company formation and general corporate counseling during the early stage, raising rounds of venture capital as they scale, or selling the company when the time is right.

Favorite app or tech product: I can’t get a self-driving car fast enough. In the meantime, I enjoy listening to my five-year-old say, “Alexa, play ‘I Wanna Rock’ by Twisted Sister on Spotify.”

Favorite place for client meetings: I like seeing the client’s office but understand that they might be bored by it, so then I like taking clients out for sushi.

Life beyond the law: A perfect day is BBQing from morning to night on my smoker while tinkering with my daughters on our tropical fish tanks.

How I Help: I have extensive experience representing startup to late-stage private companies primarily in the clean technology, renewable energy and sustainability space. I counsel on corporate and finance matters in connection with equity and debt financings, mergers, acquisitions, asset purchases and sales, reorganizations, and joint ventures. I’m frequently called upon for my expertise in new corporate forms, hybrid of “tandem” structures with non-profits and for-profits, and alternative debt and equity instruments. I also regularly advise boards of private and public companies, special committees, and CEOs on corporate governance as it relates to sustainability and CSR.

Favorite app or tech product: Strava. I love tracking the miles I run each week.

Favorite place for client meetings: A walk in the Presidio

Life beyond the law: When I’m not preaching to the world about the power of corporate form, I spend my time outside the office with my three young sons. I currently coach my youngest’s little league team. Go Pirates!

Intro sentence: The work I do for growing tech-based companies is like watching technology evolution in action. It’s great to see next generation technology fueling business growth.

How I help: I help companies to protect and monetize their technology, through IP protection to contractual arrangements with investors and customers. Often the greatest challenge is identifying the likely areas for protection, exploitation and risk mitigation for a technology development not clearly covered by existing legal or contractual standards.

Favorite app or tech product: Even after 30 years living in London, I still sometimes need help getting around – so Citymapper is my favourite app. And the fact that it works equally well when I’m visiting clients around different European cities is a real bonus.

Favorite place for client meetings: If I can combine a client meeting with a visit to the client’s technology development site, that’s my preference. But last year’s visit to a client’s (completely legal!) cannabis farm in the English countryside was also a highlight!

Life beyond the law: Ideally, I’d be playing sport. But, in reality, most weekends I spend driving my kids around and then usually standing watching behind a football touchline, cricket boundary rope or a squash court – and often all in the same day.

How I help: I help VC fund managers form and operate their funds. I also help VC firms navigate the regulatory changes that are impacting the venture capital industry.

Favorite app or tech product: Loving Just Ahead – a travel app offering audio tours through National Parks (that works without cell service). Perfect for finding the road less traveled.

Favorite place for client meetings: Anywhere for lunch with great coffee nearby.

Life beyond the law: When I’m not at the office, you can find me outside – skiing, hiking, horseback riding or camping.

How I Help: I advise emerging growth companies backed by venture capital and private equity firms on all corporate, transactional and financing matters.

Favorite app or tech product: Wunderground. The best weather app there is.

Favorite place for client meetings: At the client’s office.

Life beyond the law: Tennis is my sport. I played the junior circuit and now play with my kids. It’s the highlight of my weekend. I can still beat them, but barely.

How I can help: Certain critical elements of expertise can only be garnered through experience. As a leader of MoFo’s venture practice, I have logged my 10,000 hours in problem solving for, communicating to, counseling and negotiating for entrepreneurs and investors in ways that create value.

Favorite app or tech product: DraftKings

Favorite place for client meetings: The golf course.

Life beyond the law: Voracious reader, avid golfer and proud father.

How I help: From formation to acquisition or IPO and everything in between (for example, commercial agreements and debt or equity financings) I always aim to provide practical advice to help founders build a successful company. My experience representing companies also informs my work with investors so that I can help them stay focused on the issues that are most relevant to strengthening companies and protecting their investments.

Favorite app or tech product: I’m currently obsessed with my Vive (bonus that I get to run it on the rig I just built up myself).

Favorite place for client meetings: With clients based everywhere from Shanghai to New York I’m just as likely to be having a client meeting on Skype as at one of the Philz coffees in Palo Alto.

Life beyond the law: I’m an avid soccer fan, former competitive cyclist (now just a normal cyclist) and love seeking out a good meal.

How I help: I represent emerging growth, private and public companies across sectors and industries, with a particular focus on helping companies with business models that leverage data through technology. I help clients structure and negotiating complex partnering arrangements, working closely with my colleagues on regulatory issues across sectors such as data privacy, data security, mobile payments, and financial services.

Favorite app or tech product: I like Dashlane as I’m always looking for secure means for generating and managing complex passwords. I also am finding apps and services recently developed and released that help people to organize collectively, such as Slack and Hustle are super interesting. I am still a Facebook junky—I have a broad circle of friends with whom I’d not be in close touch without it. And Spotify is still my “go to” for music.

Favorite place for client meetings: I love a good cup of coffee so am always on the lookout for new coffee places. My latest find is Backyard Brew on California Avenue in Palo Alto.

Life beyond the law: Working on causes that I care about, whether through pro bono representation or through organizing volunteers and engaging in civic life are my passions outside of the office right now. To unwind, I love to spend time in our national and state parks, along our Pacific coast and in the outdoors.

How I help: I help start-ups at all phases of maturity, from advising founders on how to structure the initial capitalization of their company all the way through to an IPO or an acquisition. I think it’s critical for us to really get to know the founders, their technology and their vision for their company to best serve their needs and advise them accordingly. On the investor-side I assist venture capital firms, private equity groups and underwriters with all types of investments, from seed financings through public company offerings and everything in between. Being at the forefront of such innovation in the Bay Area is thrilling and I’m proud to help my clients realize their big ideas. I often tell my friends back home that I live in the future!

Favorite app or tech product: Google Home and Google Home Mini help me organize my life.

Favorite place for client meetings: San Jose Sharks games in the MoFo seats!

Life beyond the law: When I’m not at the office you can usually find me racing (and beating the partners) up mountains on my road bike!

How I help: I represent companies throughout their lifecycles, from entity formation to debt and equity financing to exit alternatives, including initial public offerings and mergers and acquisitions. I also counsel investors in venture financing, late stage / growth equity financing, strategic investments, secondary transactions, and impact investments in private companies in a wide variety of industries. Since I have a background in engineering, I get numbers, and often work closely with executives, finance teams, and financial advisors and analysts to model out complex capital structures, financing scenarios, and liquidity events. In doing so, I help clients analyze what’s possible, understand consequences of various transaction structures, and enhance their economics in deals in value from the tens of millions to the billions of dollars.

Favorite app or tech product: I spend a lot of time these days checking Coinbase, seeing how the market reacts to developments in the cryptocurrency and blockchain spaces.

Favorite place for client meetings: It’s great when you’re close enough with a client to catch up and talk shop at their house!

Life beyond the law: Skiing at Lake Tahoe in the winter, weekends in Dolores Park in the summer, and travel to see family and friends in between.

How I help: I try to help startups begin on the right foot with respect to their human resources and hiring policies and practices, and continue to support them as their personnel needs and business grow and evolve. Being able to quickly triage personnel issues for growing companies is consistently viewed as a key value add. Dealing offensively and defensively with restrictive covenants and trade secrets is my specialty and with the stakes so high, an area in which startup clients continue to need true expertise. From advising potential founders who are thinking about forming a company, to negotiating the employment aspects of multibillion dollar transactions, emerging company clients also seem to appreciate the experience that comes from advising companies big and small in the Valley since the 1990s.

Favorite app or tech product: Anything that helps me to save time. I am currently getting a lot of use out of AdobeScan, Amazon, Waze, LinkedIn, Munchery, and Uber.

Favorite place for client meetings: Ideal location is a client’s office. First, anything that helps me learn more about my clients, what happens day to day, can only help me be a better partner and service provider. Second, most of the clients I work with have better dining facilities on site than we do.

Life beyond the law: When I am not at the office, I am moonlighting as the personal Uber driver for my two toddlers.

How I help: I help startups in Asia and the US from formation through acquisition or IPO in matters including capital raising (angel, venture capital and private equity), equity compensation, and strategic alliances. I love to share with my startups the market customs, best practices, and forward-thinking strategies that I have learned over the past eighteen years in Silicon Valley and Asia through several economic cycles. In particular, my advice often involves bridging market terms and structures between companies and investors in Silicon Valley, on one hand, and Asia, on the other.

Favorite app or tech product: I enjoy making producing short amateur non-commercial videos. There is no shortage of video available on social media, so I try to put some effort into my videos to make them worthwhile for sharing. Videoleap is my go to app in 2019 for editing.

Favorite place for client meetings: I’m old school and prefer to invite clients into my personal office for meetings. This is also serves as a good incentive for me to keep my office clean (and free from attorney-client privileged paperwork) and to keep it stocked with a small but well curated selection of whiskies to sip (at appropriate times)!

Life beyond the law: I began practicing yoga in 2012, which has become an important aspect of my overall lifestyle – offering functional mobility, helping me maintain a calm state of mind, and offering family bonding opportunities with my wife and daughters.

How I help: I help companies build a strong IP position from inception. This involves devising patent strategies as well as defending the company’s IP positions in investor due diligence settings. Brainstorming with entrepreneurs about their cutting-edge technologies and business strategies is a favorite part of my practice. I am creative in addressing sophisticated IP issues and practical in providing strategic advice.

Favorite app or tech product: iPhone.

Favorite place for client meeting: Our new conference center at MoFo Palo Alto provides the best venue for client meetings.

Life beyond law: I serve leadership roles in life sciences organizations, which helps me stay close to the life sciences community. In addition, my two tech-savvy daughters keep me busy and help me stay current on new technology trends.