Jason Mendelson - How to Be a Lawyer

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is Available:

ISBN: 9781119835813 (Hardback)

ISBN: 9781119835837 (ePDF)

ISBN: 9781119835820 (epub)

COVER DESIGN: PAUL McCARTHY

COVER PHOTOS: COURTESY OF THE AUTHORS/CONTRIBUTORS

Jason would like to dedicate this book to his wife and best friend, Jenn. Her love, support, and encouragement are the best gifts a guy could get.

Alex would like to dedicate this book to his wife, Carolyn, who supported him in law school and has been by his side through good times and bad, always a loving partner and best friend.

Jason Mendelson( jasonmendelson@gmail.com, @jasonmendelson) is a former venture capitalist, co-founder of a technology company, lawyer, and a software engineer.

Jason is a founding partner of Foundry Group, a Boulder, Colorado–based venture capital firm that focuses on making technology investments and identifying and supporting the next generation of venture fund managers.

In addition, Jason is a co-founder of the startup SRS Acquiom and was a managing director and general counsel for Mobius Venture Capital. Prior to this, Jason was an attorney with Cooley LLP. Early in his career, Jason was a software engineer at Accenture.

Now Jason spends his time as an up-and-coming musician (under his stage name Jace Allen) and author. Jason also is involved in several criminal justice reform initiatives.

Jason is a co-founder of Breakthrough and is on the board of the Leeds Business School at University of Colorado. Jason holds a B.A. in Economics and a J.D., both from the University of Michigan.

Alex Paul( alex@wealthgatetrust.com) is a lawyer-entrepreneur reimagining wealth management and philanthropy for himself and others.

Alex founded Wealthgate Trust Company (a Nevada-registered trust company) and Wealthgate Family Office (a SEC-registered investment advisor in Boulder, Colorado) to provide bespoke trust administration and independent investment management solutions for ultra-high-net-worth families seeking to protect and sustain generational wealth so they may achieve their financial and philanthropic goals over decades and generations.

Inspired to redefine how philanthropy is implemented in family offices, Alex co-founded Giving Place, a technological solution that navigates the challenges of large-scale family philanthropy. Giving Place harnesses technology to generate transparency, efficiency, and measurable impact for philanthropic families.

Alex is also treasurer/director of LENA, an operating nonprofit that seeks to close the gap between haves and have nots by using technology to improve early childhood language development.

Having managed the Boulder, Colorado, office of Harrison & Held, he is now of counsel. His practice focused on estate planning, charitable giving, technology, and other business matters. He previously served as outside corporate counsel for Renaissance Learning, a public K-12 educational software company. Alex holds a B.A. from Lawrence University and a J.D. from Northwestern University School of Law, and has served on the NU Law Board since 2004. After graduating from NU Law, he served as Judicial Clerk to Justice Jon P. Wilcox of the Wisconsin Supreme Court and entered private practice in Wisconsin before moving to Colorado in 2003.

We wouldn't have been able to write this book without the able assistance of many people.

First, to all our guest authors: you made this book. We learned more from your chapters than even we could have imagined, and many of your stories gave us the opportunity to get to know you better. Thank you, friends.

A special shoutout to Dave Beran, who spearheaded the chapter on being the calmest person in the room. Dave, you've always been that person to us and we thank you for your time and wisdom. And thanks for the proofreading and editing. You are good stuff.

Jason would individually like the thank the University of Colorado Law School, and especially Brad Bernthal, for letting Jason teach all these years. Those interactions with students were the inspiration for this book. Also, Jason would be remiss if he didn't thank his former firm, Cooley LLP, and all of the friends and colleagues he has met along the way during his legal career.

Alex would like to specifically thank his parents, Terry and Judi, who inspired him to go to law school and become an entrepreneur, while providing incredible opportunities. He'd like to thank his children, who keep him excited about building for the future. He'd also like to thank Lou Harrison, co-founder of Harrison & Held, who taught him how to practice law with integrity and humor. Finally, he would like to thank Northwestern School of Law and its leadership team for a great legal education combined with amazing opportunities for practical experience.

This book wouldn't be possible without the risk-taking nature of our publisher Bill Falloon over at Wiley. He gave Jason a shot with his first book Venture Deals: How to Be Smarter Than Your Lawyer and Venture Capitalist and for some reason decided to double down there. Thanks Bill.

We've met a lot of lawyers and clients during our professional journeys. Some great, some decent, some terrible, but all important in educating us along our winding paths. You all taught us (whether you knew it or not!) in ways we could have never learned on our own. Thank you. Yes, even to some of you jerks out there.

This book was written by 28 people who went to law school. We are of different ages, sexes, races, and went to law schools that rank in the hundreds to the top five. We have had jobs ranging from general counsels of billion-dollar companies to hanging out our own shingles right after law school. Collectively, we practice in almost every area of the law.

Despite our diversity, we share the strong opinion that most law schools fail to prepare students for the real world of actual lawyering. Law schools are great at graduating students and terrible at graduating lawyers. We were all frustrated in our progression from students to practitioners and relived those frustrations when we hired, worked with, mentored, and interacted with others coming out of law school.

Jason Mendelson, one of the lead authors of this book, has been a lawyer, software engineer, startup co-founder, venture capitalist, and worked with and hired hundreds of lawyers in all shapes and sizes. He has had good experiences, bad experiences, and, like many in the legal profession, a long memory. Maybe most importantly, Jason taught as an adjunct professor for a decade at the University of Colorado Law School. In that decade he spent as much time mentoring law students on how to best transition to the real world as he did imparting legal and business knowledge. Ironically (or maybe not so), most of the professional academics in the law school did little to nothing to aid in student transition. Even worse, some openly were not fans of Jason's pragmatic approach.