About Me

I am a patent attorney and business advisor with over 10 years experience in law firm, consulting, and in-house corporate legal positions.  Innovation and entrepreneurship are at the core of everything I do.  For more on my professional background, please see my Attorney Profile.

 

My mission is to provide easy-to-use and cost-effective legal services to innovative companies to help them identify, manage, and resolve legal issues that might otherwise limit their growth.

Fixed Fee Projects

I structure my services as Fixed Fee Projects.  Example Fixed Fee Projects can be found here and include:

A fixed price for the complete project with a milestone-based payment plan.  No billable hours.  No mysterious expenses or nickel and dime photocopy, telephone, or postage charges.  Clients can budget and plan without fearing a surprise legal bill.
A defined objective, deliverable, and expected return on investment (ROI) for the project.  Before the project begins, the client helps define the objective, knows exactly what the deliverable (letter, memo, patent application, etc.) will be, and can calculate an ROI based on the fixed-fee and the business value of the objective.
Written plan for the project that defines all included tasks, milestones, and delivery dates.  For projects that depend on contributions or responses from other parties, such contingencies will be identified in the project terms.
   

Customer Service

I am committed to providing great customer service to my clients.  As a solo practitioner, I have both the responsibility and flexibility to truly partner with my clients and be a part of their business team.  My commitment to customer service includes:
24 Hour Response.  I will respond to telephone, e-mail, fax, or mail as soon as I receive them to confirm receipt and with a more substantive response within 24 hours.  Obviously, most issues can’t be resolved in 24 hours, but clients have the right to know that they have my attention and what my plan is for helping them resolve the issue.
No Business Value, No Charge.  I will work with my clients to define the business value of any project.  If I can’t deliver that value, I won’t charge for the project.  This is not a guarantee of results—much of the law is uncertain.  It is a promise that we will agree on the business objective and evaluate performance of the project against that objective.
Approachable, Flexible, and Easy.  Starting and growing a business is hard enough without your professional advisors being evasive, dismissive, or condescending.  Ask me anything and I will try to help.  If I can’t help, I will try to point you to a resource that can.  I enjoy teaching and coaching, so I’m happy to be a resource for entrepreneurs and executives who are venturing into new territory.
   

Virtual In-House Counsel

Large companies use in-house counsel to proactively control legal risks and associated costs.  By establishing a regular pattern of onsite or virtual “office hours”, executive reviews, and integration with my clients’ business processes, I can offer similar value on an as-needed basis.  As my clients’ Virtual In-House Counsel I can:
Triage legal issues to quickly resolve minor issues and identify larger issues that require additional resources
Manage other attorneys to give clients access to legal specialists while controlling costs, project scope, and ROI for the business
Efficiently handle recurring tasks like contract negotiation and management, intellectual property development and management, corporate recordkeeping, and employee training and compliance
   

For clients with strategic legal issues, I can also participate as Virtual General Counsel on the executive management team on a project basis or through regular attendance at executive staff meetings.

Featured Client Resource

Attorney Profile

 

Summary:

  • Registered patent attorney with over 10 years experience in protecting and using intellectual property to serve client’s business interests

  • Drafted and negotiated hundreds of contracts, from simple non-disclosure agreements to complex technology licenses, development agreements, and other commercial transactions

  • Business advisor active in supporting startups and growth companies of all kinds: independent inventors, local small businesses, venture-funded technology companies, etc.

 

This Client Resource is a 1 page PDF summarizing my professional background. To go directly to the PDF rather than the landing page, click here.