General Counsel
for emerging technology
and life sciences ventures
What’s in a name?
No•vus /nō-vus/noun
Latin for new. The root of innovation.
Innovation is what our clients do.
Our clients are engineers, scientists, founders, entrepreneurs and investors who are developing technologies, science and products that are making a positive impact on our lives and our planet.
G•C /gē-cē/
An abbreviation for General Counsel.
General Counsel is what we do for our clients.
We are part of the client team and take the snap on legal matters. We handle general corporate, financing and commercial legal matters typically encountered by emerging growth companies, help find the service providers to meet other related needs, and provide business-oriented legal decision support and guidance to the team.
OUR APPROACH
We deliver business-oriented General Counsel services at an affordable price by:
tailoring our business processes to the legal needs of venture-backed startups;
selecting our team members with care to ensure that they’re able to deliver on Our Principles of Service; and
deploying best-in-class IT solutions that are on par with the tools used by large firms.
Our Principles of Service
Business Mindset
We strive to deliver technical legal excellence with the mindset of a business person working side-by-side with our clients to bring their products and dreams to fruition.
Keep it Simple
We strive for simplicity and plain English. Contracts should be readable and make sense. On a similar note, we help establish clear transaction road maps to get from point A to a closed deal with minimum cost, time and friction.
Relationships Matter
Launching a fledgling venture takes cooperation from a wide range of partners, customers, vendors and investors. Our clients rely on us to help structure and document these relationships not only with care for the long-term interests of their venture, but also with the diplomacy required to build long-term constructive relationships.
Client Empowerment
Many of our clients are new to the world of forming commercial ventures. We take it as our responsibility to demystify legal matters — including those related to corporate formation and governance, angel and venture financing and intellectual property — and to equip our clients to make sound decisions confidently.
Our Services
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The core of our business is providing General Counsel services to our clients. In that capacity, we are the executive team’s first stop on legal matters and the trusted partner to provide business-oriented decision support and guidance.
In the role of General Counsel, we directly handle the most common types of legal work required by emerging growth companies, including those related to corporate, equity and financing matters, IP and technology transactions and other commercial agreements, and basic employment matters. We tap into our network of service providers to meet other related needs.
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We guide our clients to get the right legal structure in place from the beginning. Wherever possible, and consistent with our clients’ needs, we leverage industry norms to structure and document the formation of the company and its relationships with founders, employees, consultants, and early-stage investors to put the company in the best position for later-stage financing and sale.
For clients who are new to the world of corporations, cap tables, stock options and venture financing, we take it as our responsibility to ensure they understand the basic concepts required to make effective business decisions on these matters.
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It’s critical for startups to get appropriate agreements in place from the outset with employees, vendors, customers and other partners to secure the necessary IP rights in products they’re bringing to market. We help our clients with patent and software licenses, development agreements, manufacturing and supply agreements, service agreements, and other necessary commercial agreements.
For the last 15 years, our founder has been working with and across from major universities around the country in tech transfer licensing and other IP matters. Collaborating with universities is unlike working with companies. A patchwork of laws and university policies, practices and procedures play into these agreements. We work closely with our clients to structure and negotiate university licenses and research agreements to meet their business needs.Item description
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Richard Friedman
CEO, CLIENT GENERAL COUNSEL
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Alinaghi Ghiassi
CLIENT GENERAL COUNSEL
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Chaz Shizumura
STARTUP COUNSEL
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Dana Stopler
STARTUP COUNSEL
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Amy Pham
STARTUP COUNSEL
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Rebecca Friedman
PARALEGAL, HEAD OF OPERATIONS
Our Clients
Careers
We built NovusGC with the business processes, enterprise IT systems and cost structure to allow us to scale to meet the market need for high quality, affordable General Counsel services.
We’re looking for team members who are deeply committed to serving innovators. At NovusGC, we strive every day to live our mission of service to innovators and to have fun while doing it.
If you’ve got what it takes and are inspired by what we do, please send expressions of interest to careers@novusgc.com.
Join us for a Webinar Series on Startup Licensing
We’re here to help.