Elena MarshManaging Partner
Daniel OkaforPartner, Head of Litigation
Priya RamanPartner, Head of Corporate
Thomas LindqvistPartner, Head of Real Estate
Marisol VegaPartner, Head of Family Law
Samuel ByrnePartner, Head of Intellectual Property
Aisha MahmoudSenior Associate, Litigation
Caleb NakamuraAssociate, Corporate
Grace O'DonnellAssociate, Real Estate & Family Law
Robert CastellanoChief Operating Officer
Hannah WeissChief Financial Officer
Victor AdeyemiGeneral Counsel
Founders: your contractor agreement either assigns the IP to your company or it doesn't. 'Work for hire' does not automatically cover software in most situations. If the word 'assign' isn't in there, the contractor owns your product. I check this first on every deal. Half the time it's missing.
A founder asked me yesterday what the single most expensive sentence in a shareholder agreement is. It is the one that isn't there. Write down what happens when a co-founder leaves. Write it down while you still like each other.
The second most expensive is 'to be agreed by the parties acting reasonably.'
Forty-one years ago today Margaret Hale and David Mercer left a big firm with one rule: a client should always be able to reach the person handling their matter. We are bigger now. The rule has not changed, and the day it does I will have failed at this job.
Same-day callback rate for September: 99.4%. The 0.6% was a snowstorm in Duluth, so I'm counting it.
The rule is also the reason our conflicts process works. People tell you things when they trust you'll pick up.
Three years since we redesigned the invoice: every entry in plain language, the name of the person who did the work, no codes. Billing disputes are down 67%. Collections are faster. The lesson is not about invoices. It's that people pay for what they understand.
It also made our lawyers write better time entries, which made them better lawyers. Side effect, not an accident.
I send our invoice to clients as an example of what to demand from every professional. Including me.
Walked a 14-acre industrial parcel on the southwest side this morning before reading the survey. Found a drainage easement the survey shows and a neighbour's fence the survey does not. Both matter. Only one was on paper.
Every new matter at this firm goes through a conflicts check before anyone opens a file. This week the check flagged a party name that matched a matter from 2019. It took four hours to resolve, and we declined the engagement. Four hours against a reputation. Cheap.
And the client thanked us for telling them straight. They'll be back with something we can take.
To every parent starting a custody case this autumn: the judge is not deciding who is the better person. The judge is deciding what is best for your child. Argue that, only that, and you will be heard.
And bring the school calendar. Judges love a parent who knows the school calendar.
A founder sent me a term sheet with a 2x participating preferred and asked if it was 'standard.' I sent back a one-page spreadsheet showing what it does at a $20M exit. They understood in thirty seconds. Numbers explain terms better than lawyers do.
And check who owns the code before you worry about the preference.
Deposition prep for a nervous witness, in one sentence: your only job is to answer the question that was actually asked, truthfully, and then stop talking. Everything else is my job.
Won a motion in the Northern District this week on the papers, no argument. Three months of work compressed into 14 pages. The judge cited page 9. That's the one I rewrote six times.
The one you rewrote six times is always the one they cite. Congratulations.
Fourteen pages. The other side filed 38. Length is not an argument.
Sending this to every founder in my inbox. All of them.
And the investors will check it in diligence, so better you find it now.