Bio

John Dorsey is the founder of John Dorsey PLLC and has practiced corporate and commercial law since 2004. He represents owner-led and growth companies, investors and executives in commercial agreements, mergers and acquisitions, financings, ownership and governance matters, data privacy and AI.

John often serves as the outside corporate lawyer his clients call first. He works directly with owners and management on transactions and other significant corporate matters and also works alongside in-house legal teams when they need additional help on a transaction, commercial agreement or specialized issue.

A substantial part of John’s practice involves technology and commercial contracting. He regularly negotiates SaaS, software, platform and marketplace agreements, licensing arrangements, and contracts involving data and technology-driven business models. His work includes serving as outside counsel to SaaS and platform businesses, including a creator-commerce and affiliate-marketing platform valued at more than $1 billion.

His broader corporate practice includes acquisitions and sales of businesses, debt and equity financings, ownership changes and restructurings, LLC and shareholder arrangements, executive and equity compensation, and other corporate transactions.

John also advises clients on data privacy and on legal and commercial issues arising from the use of AI, particularly in contracts involving data use, vendors, platforms, confidentiality, intellectual property and allocation of risk.

Much of John’s work involves representing the smaller party in a transaction with a larger or more sophisticated counterparty. He spent the first eleven years of his career at a large law firm, where he learned how larger companies, private equity funds and their lawyers approach transactions and negotiations. His practice today reflects that experience: focus on the points that matter, do not spend time on the ones that do not, and get the deal done on terms that work for the client.

John runs a small practice by design and handles matters personally. He uses AI and other legal technology when it improves the work or makes it more efficient, without adding layers of lawyers between him and the client.

Before starting John Dorsey PLLC in 2015, John was a corporate partner and co-chair of the international practice group at Strasburger & Price in Austin, Texas, an Am Law 200 firm of approximately 200 lawyers that later combined with Clark Hill. He is also of counsel to Cain & Skarnulis PLLC in Austin.

John is licensed in Washington and Texas and is fluent in Spanish. He regularly advises clients in Mexico and elsewhere in Latin America on U.S. legal matters and works directly with Spanish-speaking clients in their own language.

John received his J.D. from Tulane University Law School. He practices from Bainbridge Island, Washington, near Seattle, and travels regularly to Austin. Outside the office, he spends much of his time sailing, trail running and swimming in Puget Sound.