John is a corporate and commercial transactions lawyer who advises companies, investors, and executives at all stages, from initial structuring to exit.

His clients are usually the smaller party at the table, though smaller is relative. They range from startups and closely held companies to executives negotiating their own compensation and a platform valued at over $1 billion. What they have in common is a counterparty with more leverage, more lawyers, and its own paper. John has spent more than twenty years on that side of the table, opposite sophisticated in-house teams and national law firms, and he knows which terms actually move, which are worth pressing, and which to concede. His approach is pragmatic and business-focused. The goal is not to win every point. It is to close the deal cleanly, on reasonable business terms that meet the client’s business needs.

For many clients, John is the legal department they do not yet have, working directly with founders and management across everything the business needs. For others, he is an extension of an existing in-house team, taking the commercial agreements, data terms, or executive compensation work that the team does not have the bandwidth or the specialist depth to absorb.

John uses technology heavily in his practice, including AI-assisted drafting and review. It is what allows a solo practice to carry the volume of a much larger team, turn documents around quickly, and manage costs for clients.

His practice spans commercial agreements, mergers and acquisitions, financings, data privacy, executive compensation, and general corporate advisory. His clients include companies in the software (including SaaS), technology, digital platform, creator economy, consumer products, health and wellness, entertainment, energy, manufacturing, and services industries. He also advises several publicly-traded Latin America-based corporations and foreign law firms on U.S. legal matters, and high-net-worth individuals and families on personal investments.

John is licensed in Washington and Texas. He is based on Bainbridge Island, Washington, travels frequently to Austin, and is fluent in Spanish, serving clients in Mexico and Latin America in their own language.

Before starting his own firm in 2015, John was a corporate partner and co-chair of the international practice group at a 200-lawyer firm in Austin, Texas.