Legal Advice for Growing Your Startup

Have you ever wished that you had your own team of legal experts that could advise your startup and answer your burning legal questions? Experts from three prominent law firms in Columbus have teamed up to do just that. This session will focus on the needs of startups just beginning and through growing and selling their businesses.

What You’ll Learn:

• Forming a company and dealing with founding partners

• Building a team

• Raising money

• Protecting intellectual property

• Growing and selling the company

Brett Thornton, Partner, Porter Wright Morris & Arthur LLP
A resourceful facilitator for startup company owners, Porter Wright partner Brett Thornton helps entrepreneurs with the multitude of formation, growth and business operational issues confronting early stage companies, such as capitalization, fundraising, third-party vendor relationships, contractual agreement review, securities law and due diligence. Assisting clients through all stages, Brett connects entrepreneurs with proven industry leaders to help establish their business profile, advises as companies expand, and works to ensure owners exit on their own terms.

Jonathon Vinocur, Partner at Thompson Hine LLP
Jonathon is a partner in the Early Stage & Emerging Companies group at Thompson Hine LLP.  He spends all of his time working with high-growth, emerging technology companies and their investors, which include venture capital funds, economic development organizations, angel investors and public and private companies that make venture-style investments. He advises company-side clients from their pre-startup stages, through formation and funding, to exit, and he specializes in preserving value for founders where excessively complex capitalization structures need to be reconciled with investors’ return objectives. The companies with which Jonathon works are primarily software, hardware and medical device companies that sell into a wide array of industries.

Alex Brown, Partner at Dickinson Wright PLLC
Alex is legal counsel to privately held companies, focusing on tech and software startups. He helps clients with capital raising, commercializing and protecting intellectual property, e-commerce, and mergers & acquisitions. He is also a member of Ohio TechAngel Funds IV and V. Alex’s law firm, Dickinson Wright, has 18 offices in the United States and Canada.