Meet Jeffrey Robbins

Video Transcript

So I’ve focused my entire career working with entrepreneurs at all different stages of their growth. I use a very consultative approach to guide them through the trials and tribulations that come with being an entrepreneur and I’ve always had a lot of fun doing that. I get introduced to entrepreneurs oftentimes when they’re in the process of raising capital. Technology entrepreneurs really like that because I understand the complexity of their businesses because technology is a passion of mine.

I’ll help structure the right way for the entrepreneurs to have their interests align with that of investors, and then I’ll leverage powerful strategies to help take advantage of tax opportunities that come with equity compensation and the like. My many years of experience really let me do this in a cost-effective and very efficient kind of manner.

I’d say a lot of people think of me as a securities lawyer. That’s really what I’ve been well-known as. I do a lot of work with companies on fundraising. I run an angel investment group called Angel Pollination, and as a result of working with a lot of startups and Angel Pollination over the years, it’s really given me an opportunity to meet a lot of angel and venture investors and understand what their interests are. Then I can leverage those relationships for the benefit of my clients.

Then as a business lawyer, I’m really known for a very practical approach, very creative solutions, and a very clean and easy way to understand agreements and negotiations that I get involved in. So I help on all kinds of different diverse kinds of matters, whether it’s employment and compensation kinds of agreements, whether it’s mergers and acquisition activity, including when our clients are looking to sell their businesses to private equity or to publicly traded companies.

Well, let me tell you a bit about what it is that I enjoy about being a lawyer. I’ve been fortunate enough to get great satisfaction out of working with clients, because whether it’s a thorny boardroom issue or a transactional deal of some sort, I’m often involved and I really enjoy the opportunity to see the success that comes out of those things. I’m also really an intellectually curious soul and I’m privileged every day to see my clients come up with new technologies and products and services that will change our world and it’s really cool to be part of that.

Then I really like finding solutions to complicated problems and finding ways to be able to simplify that for clients and that’s one of the things that I think I do well and therefore I get great pleasure out of doing that. Then as a bonus, over the years, some of my clients have become some of my best friends and that’s been terrific.

One of the things that I really enjoy is our entrepreneurial spirit. Our firm itself is a startup. So we have gone through the same challenges that our clients do in terms of growing their businesses. So in a parallel kind of way, I’m following along with what they’re doing as well. So I find that to be a fun place to do what it is that I do.

Then the second thing is, we’re all partners with each other. We don’t use associates. We’re all very experienced and collaborative. We have practices that really intermingle and intermesh with each other in a manner that’s very, very helpful for our clients. That’s really turned out to be a fun thing for me to do here at Avisen.

In my approach to the practice of law, the first thing that you have to understand is, that first and foremost, I’m a business guy. I like to think of myself as more of that than I am a lawyer. I happen to be a business guy who’s a lawyer and not a lawyer who happens to be a business guy. I think as a result of that, I understand the things that our clients are going through and I bring to bear my true thoughts as a business person to the table and I think that turns out to be helpful.

Secondly, I think I’m really practical. If there are two different ways to approach a solution, one which is clear and simple, that will be the one that I will pick for clients and I will not pick the one that might generate more legal fees or create more complexity because, well, frankly, I’m just too practical to deal with that myself and I bring that to bear for clients. Then finally, I think my clients like working with me because I can explain complicated things in simple manners. I’m really an expert at the one-page agreement and I really have an ability to synthesize complicated things in simple manners that clients can understand.