My Backstory

Words matter. It's a common thing for people to say these days, and seems obvious, but when we're talking about legal documents, words not only matter -- they take on an almost magical quality. Words DO things. They mean the difference between a deal that MAKES a company and one that breaks it. That's what I love about the law.

Let's get this out of the way: I am not the kind of lawyer who is going to present you with a list of boogeymen at every turn and suggest that you live your life in constant fear of lawsuits. As a former startup founder myself, I know that your life is full enough of fear and uncertainty. A good lawyer knows not only when to worry but, more importantly, when NOT to worry. My job is to help you do the things you need to do to make your company successful, to do it intelligently and, if at all possible, to get it done quickly.

I started my legal career working at one of the biggest and most respected international law firms in the world. I loved my work, worked insanely hard, and learned a ton. After moving to Denver, Colorado to have a family, I found a great regional law firm where I could continue to practice law at the highest level and with the highest caliber of lawyers I could find. Again, I worked hard and learned.

When I started my own practice, I decided I wanted to focus on bringing my "big law" experience to startups and small businesses. I love being a trusted advisor on transactions that really matter, and I wanted smaller, early-stage companies to have the benefit of the same great legal representation that big companies have.

I started the Independent Law Group to bring together a bunch of solo attorneys with big-law backgrounds similar to mine, to share expertise and collaborate on bigger transactions that require lawyers with different specialties, including tax, intellectual property, real estate, privacy and data security, employment law, and litigation.

Then, in 2016, I caught the startup bug myself, and set out to form my own startup -- an on-demand platform, like Uber and Lyft, for helping parents find great babysitters. From 2019 until 2022, I took a break from my law practice to focus on my startup. We participated in 2 accelerators (Quake Capital and 500 Startups), and raised over $2 million in outside capital. Once again, I worked insanely hard and learned an immense amount -- this time about the founder side of things. I've pitched to over 200 VC and angel investors. I believe I have "cold" emails down to a science. My technical co-founder jumped ship during the height of the COVID pandemic, so I had to marshal all my personal and professional resources to figure out how to deal with that. I sometimes believe that with just one startup I faced every obstacle a founder could face. But the important thing was, I learned -- more than I did in my top-tier law school and more than I would have in any MBA program -- about the business realities that all my legal work is meant to support.

In 2022, I sold my startup and went back to the practice of law, this time armed not only with a decade of "big law" and startup law training, but now with a clearer understanding of what my clients are really going through -- because I've been there myself.

At the end of the day, what I like most about being a lawyer is being able to help my clients think through the problems they're facing and find the best "win-win" solution for everyone involved. Not only do my clients get what they want, but they get to close a transaction (which often involves an ongoing relationship with the other side) with both parties believing they got the better part of the deal. To me, that's what business -- and business law -- is all about.