By Elizabeth Lampert | #askasiliconvalleylawyer | Louis Lehot

L2 Counsel attorney Louis Lehot is used to working in his office, but since mid-March, he’s been working at home like so many in the legal industry, helping businesses and ventures with compelling technologies reach their growth objectives with sound legal strategies and solutions. And he’s been doing it in a full house whose members include his wife, two children, three cats and a dog.

Photo by Ken Tomita from Pexels

A quick discussion with Louis Lehot

Question: With millions of licensed attorneys in the United States, how does a startup or established business faced with a legal problem choose an attorney is best suited to advise the company and help resolve the issue?

Louis Lehot: Choosing an attorney for your startup business is one of the most consequential decisions you can make given today’s litigious climate. If you are launching a new venture, pivoting to reposition your current business, or having a business challenge, finding the lawyer who fits your unique situation is critical.

Question: Selecting the right attorney is a necessary process. Once you’ve found that lawyer, do you stick with him or her throughout the process?

Louis Lehot: Depending on your unique situation, counsel could change from who you started with at the formation to when your company pivots or scales in size. You want to partner with an attorney capable of helping a business grow and someone who can fix the legal issues as they arise.

Question: As with all things, asking the right questions is critical. What are some questions a startup should ask their lawyer?

Louis Lehot: Just as you would not see an oncologist for a heart condition, there are different lawyers for various problems? Below are some important considerations every entrepreneur should contemplate before engaging counsel to ensure the best fit for the problem to be solved.

• Availability: Your lawyer should respond to your phone calls and emails promptly and have a team that can service your matters on demand.

• Expertise: Your lawyer should be well known within the industry. He or she should have experience and formed hundreds of new start-ups. You want someone who has helped startups obtain financing, achieve revenue, enabled scaling, and brought them to exit, whether via IPO or sale.

• Network: Your lawyer should have a deep network of colleagues who can address most of the legal issues your company may encounter.

• Clients of your size and stage of growth: Whether your company is at formation, hypergrowth, or getting ready for exit, the lawyer you choose should have experience serving companies with your problem set.

• Fees: When choosing a lawyer, the discussion will inevitably turn to billing and fees. You’ll want a thorough explanation of the attorney or firm’s billing procedures.

Louis Lehot: This list will not and is not intended to cover every situation or to be exhaustive. There will be other factors relevant to individual circumstances. Nevertheless, this brief list should serve as a guide in selecting an attorney.

Louis Lehot is the founder of L2 Counsel, P.C. , an elite boutique law firm in Palo Alto, California, established to serve a gap in the market for innovators, disruptors, entrepreneurs and their investors with strategic solutions that make sense. Whether your company is two people just getting off the ground, or a large publicly traded company, Louis Lehot’s team has the experience and expertise to serve your interests. L2 Counsel specializes in representing high growth, innovative companies, helping them at all stages of development. From assisting with formation to financing, from seed or venture capital investors, to preparing for an exit, a public financing on a major international joint venture, Louis takes pride in assisting companies as they grow. Helping a business get big, go public, or get acquired, is his specialty. Louis has worked across sectors, from artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, fintech, enterprise software, real estate, life sciences, to clean energy technologies and projects. His broad experience uniquely positions him to provide tailored advice to drive outcomes for his clients. Louisis widely known for his expertise in cross-border transactions and has been a prominent business and legal leader in Silicon Valley. L2 Counsel is positioned to serve innovators across a wide range of sectors and Louis welcomes conversations to help ideas reach their growth objectives.

Public and private companies, financial sponsors, venture capitalists, investors and investment banks seek out Louis Lehot for smart counsel and skill in forming, financing, governing, buying and selling companies. He uses his extensive experience to benefit a wide variety of businesses at all stages of development — from two founders and a laptop through venture capital financing to IPO and beyond. Drawing on his background advising non-US multinationals looking to access US capital markets, he is also uniquely positioned to assist companies with cross border transactions.

About L2 Counsel, P.C.

L2 Counsel, P.C. is an elite boutique law firm designed to serve entrepreneurs, innovative companies and strategic investors with sound legal strategies and solutions. We serve businesses in all stages of growth, from the garage to global, utilizing best-in-class technology-enabled services and vendors that allow us to remain nimble and effective. We have significant expertise and experience working with technology, healthcare, and clean energy companies at all stages of growth.

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