Whiteford has a proven history of helping technology start-ups and other "emerging businesses" meet the special market and legal pressures that such businesses invariably encounter during their formative stages. For example, we stand ready to help our "emerging business" clients to identify, protect and leverage the intellectual properties that often represent their most valuable assets, and to plan for and defend against attacks on their intellectual property rights, such as by former employers, employees and aggressive competitors.
Also, our experience tells us that technology start-ups typically are capital-intensive enterprises that face a continuing need for private financing during the early years. We strive to provide our clients with innovative and practical solutions to address these funding needs. We have extensive experience and contacts in the private equity markets, as well as excellent relationships with investment bankers, venture capital funds, angel investors, and other sources of equity capital and can make introductions where appropriate.
Our proven history of serving the entrepreneurial community also enables us to meet the full range of legal needs faced by a technology start-up, including:
- Choosing, forming and structuring appropriate business entities
- Conducting intellectual property audits and preparing intellectual property protection strategies
- Crafting state of the art technology licensing strategies and documents
- Designing stock option plans and other equity-based compensation strategies
- Addressing employee recruitment, retention and other related human resource issues
- Providing and implementing corporate tax planning and advice
- Designing joint ventures, strategic alliances and other innovative “partnering” transactions
- Implementing corporate restructurings, recapitalizations and other “re-positioning” transactions
- Identifying and implementing capital raising and other funding plans and growth and exit strategies, such as IPOs and mergers and acquisitions
Consistent with our "team approach" to problem solving, our Technology and Intellectual Property lawyers work closely with other Whiteford attorneys from complimentary practice groups, including our Emerging Business and Venture Finance Group, our Corporate and Securities Group and our Employment Law Group to address the myriad of issues that are a key component of structuring a successful technology start-up or other emerging enterprise.