I spent nearly 30 years as a corporate law partner at firms including Baker McKenzie, Holding Redlich and Allion Partners, including 5 years as a special counsel at Atanaskovic Hartnell.
Then, in 2018, I became General Counsel, Director and Company Secretary of VeroGuard Systems — a cybersecurity company founded by the team who invented mobile EFTPOS and the world's first ATM machines.
I stayed for 8 years. It changed everything I thought I knew about what founders and boards actually need from a lawyer.
Three things I learned that I wish I'd known as an outside legal adviser:
Founders need a lawyer who can say "here's how we get to yes" — not just "here's the risk."
Inside a startup, risk management means finding the safest path forward, not cataloguing reasons to stop. The GC who only flags problems without solving them gets cut out of decisions.
Governance is a competitive advantage, not a compliance burden.
Boards that have clean governance documents, clear director authority matrices and well-maintained cap tables close deals faster, raise capital more easily and attract better investors.
The best lawyers make themselves replaceable.
The GC's job is to build systems and contracts that protect the company even when you're not in the room. Founders who depend on their lawyer for every decision have a fragile business.
I founded 3D Corporate Law to bring this inside-out perspective to founders, boards and investors who understand what it costs when legal is done wrong.
If you're building something and need a legal adviser who has been in your seat, I'd welcome the conversation.