Siavage Law Group

The Firm is intimately involved in advising clients at all stages of their development. We have guided many companies and investors from concept through liquidation event. We provide guidance to companies on:

initial structure of business entities

equity distribution

stock option pools and allocation

issuance of investment securities in compliance with federal and state law

protection and registration of all company intellectual property

creation of standard company agreements

negotiation and structuring of strategic relationships

licensing, royalty and e-commerce agreements

customer and business partner contract negotiations

employee compensation and incentive programs

corporate and shareholder disputes

restrictive covenants applied to employees and business partners

corporate financing and raising venture capital

mergers and acquisitions, asset sales, and other liquidity events

compliance with federal and state laws regarding privacy and related matters

On the investor side, we represent corporate investors and venture capital firms in:

fund creation and management

preferred stock and debt instrument investments in emerging companies

attainment and preservation of investor rights and preferences

workouts, recapitalizations and combinations relative to troubled companies

exit-event strategies

Providing competent general counseling advice to emerging technology companies and to investors is the core competency of Siavage Law Group. The emerging technology company requires a clearly-presented set of options in its business/legal decision making in the early stages because those decisions can set an inexorable course as the company grows. The Firm's Managing Partner, Mike Siavage, was the General Counsel to three large companies for a period of over twenty years before entering private practice, and he brings the unique skill set developed through that experience to his counseling of Siavage Law Group companies. He connects personally with every SLG client to help manage its growth and objectives, and the entire Siavage Law Group team is experienced in the art of general counseling services.

The essence of general counseling is the ability to bring together the various, sometimes disparate, legal issues involved in corporate decision making to provide the emerging technology corporate executive or the investment partner with confident, straight-forward and balanced legal advice. This legal advice must be tempered by the business realities and cost associated with a potential course of action, and the overall strategic position of the subject company vis-á-vis its business plan. An awareness of the legal issues that impact emerging technology companies is an absolute prerequisite to providing competent advice in this arena. Hence, unique capabilities are required by law firms seeking to provide such advice to emerging technology companies and their investment partners. Those capabilities are called upon everyday in Siavage Law Group.

No one component of legal advice should drive the decision making in either an emerging company or an investment group. It is difficult to maintain a correct balance between, for example, intellectual property protection and the development of strategic agreements. It is yet more difficult to maintain such a balance when the advice in different areas is being given by different lawyers. Therefore, we at Siavage Law Group believe that balanced legal advice can best be achieved by a balanced legal advisor who takes into account the full spectrum of legal issues impacting the client and provides advice based upon the cohesive recognition and resolution of all of those issues.