VC Deal Lawyer

It’s been a long time since I put up a post – chalk it up to a couple of very busy weeks.  I tried to shut off all electronics over the holidays and take a much needed mental hiatus.  I am now ready to get back to posting.

As you know, my blog is about venture capital, angels, start-ups, emerging growth companies and the like as these are the areas I’ve spent my career working in.  Despite being a lawyer, I really don’t write much about the law per se as most people would think of it, but more about the legal aspects of doing deals with angels, venture capitalists and start-ups.  There are certainly laws you need to know as a start-up or emerging growth lawyer.  You need to know securities laws and corporate laws, among others.  But being a corporate transactional lawyer isn’t driven by rules of law and procedure like in other areas.  Trust and estates lawyers, litigators, tax lawyers, environmental lawyers – their careers are spent knowing, understanding and interpreting hundreds of pages of law, code, regulations and statutes.  Securities and corporate laws aside, the career of a corporate transactional lawyer is mainly spent negotiating deal documents or providing very strategic advice based on years of being around deals.  These things aren’t guided by legal process necessarily but more by practice, course of dealing and market terms.  It’s experiential.   

Despite the fact that my practice doesn’t center around heavy rules of law, I still have an appreciation for how complicated it has become.  Slip and falls, tort claims, the exorbitant costs of litigation and the fears of getting sued.  It’s risen to an all time high of craziness.  My wife and I were laughing the other day at the fake goalie masks that our kids got as a hand-out at a recent Flyers game.  They were fold up goalie masks that were made completely of paper and clearly, even to a child, only a play toy.  Nevertheless, it had a warning on it – “Not intended for actual use.  Will not provide protection.”  How many of these ridiculous warnings have you seen on products that I am sure the lawyers have required.  Here are some funny ones, and here are some more.

So I thought it was very apropos when my wife recently sent me the following video.  I couldn’t have guessed how appropriate it would be given the topics I had been thinking about.

Watching this video made me think of a book I had read many, many years ago called “The Death of Common Sense”.  It was a great book with great examples of how the law and the legal system had unintended consequences.  I pulled it off the book shelf and low and behold, it was written by the same guy giving the lecture.  Watch the video above and, if you get the chance, buy the book – it’s a fun and interesting read and will get you thinking.  Let’s all bring common sense back (as they say, it’s something you cannot legislate). 

I welcome your comments, thoughts and questions.  Thanks.

Chris McDemus is founder of VC Deal Lawyer, a blog devoted to providing insights on start-up and emerging growth companies.  Chris is also founder and owner of MCD Law Partners, LLC, a boutique corporate law firm serving start-ups,  early-stage and emerging growth and middle market companies.