The Firm's corporate and securities practices offer essential support to our clients that are growing and emerging companies. Our Firm's size and style are uniquely suited to assisting young companies as they expand and require more sophisticated representation. In any number of areas, including employment, equity incentive arrangements, real estate, intellectual property, financing arrangements and dispute resolution, our lawyers assist clients in implementing scalable solutions that support and facilitate their profitable growth. The Firm's lawyers are able to lift most legal issues from the shoulders of the often overburdened managers of emerging companies, freeing them to focus on the demands of growing the business, forging strategic alliances and raising capital.

We act as both general business counsel and securities counsel to advise emerging companies from initial start-up through the various tiers of venture capital and public financing, all the while providing practical guidance in operational matters. Some of our startup clients have limited experience in the fundamentals of starting and building a company. We can assist these clients in identifying and understanding the fundamental issues they need to be aware of, making intelligent choices as to the issues to be addressed at the outset and those that can be postponed, and generally establishing strong legal foundations for their companies.

Emerging companies, dependent as they often are on alternative sources of funding and angel and VC financing, are understandably focused on the need to contain legal costs. So are we. Through strategies such as staging legal work over time and identifying activities that can be performed in-house, we work closely with our clients in an effort to manage and control their legal budgets. We strive to keep our fees at a level comparable to many solo attorneys, while offering the depth and breadth of experience to take companies from formation through an exit. An initial meeting with our corporate lawyers is always free of charge.

Beyond our legal services, we are very active in the New York technology startup community. Paul Ellis is a founding board member of the New York Technology Council and frequently speaks on and moderates panels on legal topics of interest to technology companies. We have a significant network of investors and accountants, bankers, consultants and other service providers who have expertise in working with emerging companies. As a result, we are often able to refer our clients to specialists who have a clear understanding of the challenges and opportunities faced by emerging companies, and who can offer direct and immediate assistance in achieving their business objectives.