Ed's practice focuses on legal representation involving cutting-edge technologies primarily for the defense sector, including missile-defense, space situational awareness and data fusion. He is a 1994 graduate of Harvard College, with honors, and a 1997 graduate of the UC Berkeley Law School. Ed is admitted to practice in federal court and is licensed in California.
No one knows your industry like you do and staying focused on what you do best is essential. I may not always remember the difference between
absorption and adsorption, a neutrino and a quark, or a laser cannon and a photon torpedo. I will always be there, however, to explain the difference
between a complaint and cause of action, jurisdiction and venue, or arbitration and mediation. More importantly, you need an attorney who instinctively
appreciates your need to get the deal done and can speed things up or slow things down appropriately, helping you avoid land mines along the way; an attorney
who is cost sensitive but can bring in focused high heat, at a reasonable, controlled cost, when a competitor or adversary gets out of line; a closer who knows
which legal issues to wave off to get to the bottom line and which issues must be the focus of negotiation. I have serviced a range of clients, from public agencies
with budgets of several hundred millions of dollars per year to three-person startups and close to everything in between. The law is purposefully designed for successful businesses to use. It doesn’t need to be scary; it’s just another tool in your kit. I look forward to talking to you about how to get the most from the legal protections and
opportunities available to you and your company.
You have worked diligently for a long time to create a product or become a subject matter expert and to build relationships with potential partners, customers
and suppliers. You have heard the stories time and again in the press and when you talk to others in your industry of a person or company with a creative solution to a legitimate need
who gets taken to the cleaners by a big corporation, seeing their dream swallowed up in someone else’s glory. Don’t be that person. Don’t be that company. Over almost 20 years, I have
negotiated several hundred contracts with a combined value of several billions of dollars. No attorney can guarantee that you can always get everything you want in a contract or that
there won’t be disagreements or rough patches. How those issues are addressed is largely a function of your leverage, the single most important component of the negotiation. You do, however,
want an attorney who understands the best process for getting to “yes;” the importance of responsiveness and timing; the real legal issues that need to be focused on and, in rare cases, the right
situation and moment to walk away, either temporarily or permanently. At the most basic level, a contract is just an explanation of what parties on either side of a transaction are expecting so that
performance can be measured and issues with performance are addressed ahead of time to minimize any disputes and to get the job done or product delivered in a timely and cost-effective way. I look forward
to talking to you about how to use your current and prospective contracts to achieve your strategic business goals.
In rare cases, despite your best efforts, you find yourself either holding a demand letter in your hand or feeling the need to write one to someone that has disappointed you. Few things
are as disheartening. The best outcome you can expect is to be made whole. A small law firm is not usually going to be your best choice to take your case all the way to the Supreme Court. An experienced litigator
can, however, help you put the situation in perspective, giving you best, worst and likely scenarios; advise you on additional legal tools in your kit that might help you avoid or mitigate the cost and inconvenience
of litigation; and connect you with trusted, specialized litigators, appropriate to the situation, to make sure that those on the other side understand both the seriousness of your resolve and your capacity to make
good on your plans. An experienced litigator can also give you a realistic appraisal of what you can expect your costs to be at various stages of litigation; help you focus your communications with your outside litigation
team to keep the focus on strategic business objectives, rather than litigation for its own sake and provide meaningful review of your litigation team’s bills to help ensure that you are maximizing the value of their services.
I have litigated for most of my career, before juries, judges and administrators in State and Federal courts and other venues. When evaluating how best to proceed through the litigation minefield, there is no substitute for having
someone by your side that knows what it’s like to stand before a jury or judge and cogently and powerfully explaining the rightness of your cause. I look forward to talking to you about how to turn a stressful litigation scenario into
a manageable opportunity to reset your business position to help advance your long term business goals.
To contact me, email [email protected].
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