Cost and billing practices. Current billable rates make choosing a large law firm out of reach for most early stage companies. Deferring these high costs only kicks the can down the road. Too often, the lion’s share in a first round investment goes to the law firm.
Simply put, the structure of traditional law firms does not reflect the unique needs and limited resources of today’s new entrepreneurial ventures.
Cost and billing practices. Current billable rates make choosing a large law firm out of reach for most early stage companies. Deferring these high costs only kicks the can down the road. Too often, the lion’s share in a first round investment goes to the law firm.
Access to attorneys is typically limited to those on a particular firm’s roster when a moer appropriate advisor might be available outside the firm.
Assignment of junior or less experienced attorneys and the use of multiple attorneys on a client account when a single lawyer would be more cost effective.
Looking at all client issues through a purely legal lens rather than through a more encompassing business perspective.
Our primary focus is on the intersection of business strategy and legal considerations. We understand the importance of weaving vetted advisors including lawyers, accountants, investors and other professionals in the marketing, leadership, insurance, and technology industries, creating a more coordinated and holistic approach to business development.
The benefits of this structure include:
We understand the budgetary restrictions of startups. We can provide customized fee arrangements that are flexible and align more closely with the particular needs of a startup. In addition, our overhead is considerably less than traditional law firms so that we can provide our services at a considerable savings to our clients.
Since the best attorney for a particular matter may not be one inside any single firm, we have formed relationships with a large network of attorneys and business consultants in order to pair the best professional to the task. Further, because of our price structure, we can provide that same professional at a lower cost than clients might be able to get on their own.
You will always work with a senior attorney or business consultant with years of experience and specific knowledge of the needs of the startup community.
We address each project from both a legal and business perspective, focusing on the client’s immediate and longer term goals.
Charlie has represented Summit since inception. He is my go-to business partner for not only legal matters, but some aspects of business dealings as well. He is easy to work with, always responsive, and super flexible. I highly recommend Pascal Advisory.
Working with Charlie has been one of the most important decisions of my professional career. He helped guide me through an incredibly complex founding and exit period. I couldn’t speak more highly of Charlie or his ability to navigate complex and stressful business and legal situations.
Charlie was instrumental in the successful sale of my business to a strategic buyer. Not only did he provide critical guidance in the negotiation and documentation of the transaction, but he was always there to keep me calm and level-headed throughout the entire process. I would unequivocally recommend Pascal Advisory as a trusted and experienced legal and business advisor.
Charlie is the founder and principal attorney at Pascal Advisory LLC. Charlie concentrates his practice on representing technology, life science and other emerging and established private companies. Having represented hundreds of companies and venture capital firms throughout his career, Charlie brings a wealth of experience to both the legal and business sides of each client’s particular needs and objectives.
Charlie’s representation of companies spans the entire corporate life cycle. Beginning with pre-incorporation planning, choice of entity and formation, Charlie’s guidance continues through debt and equity financings, day-to-day corporate matters as outside general counsel, and ultimately the structure and execution of an appropriate exit strategy, whether an acquisition, merger, or other transaction providing liquidity to founders and other stockholders. A complementary component of Charlie’s practice is his representation of venture capital investors in connection with their investments in early-stage companies.
Prior to founding Pascal Advisory LLC, Charlie was a member of the Emerging Technology &Life Sciences Department at Goodwin Procter LLP and the Corporate Law Groups at Gesmer Updegrove LLP and Morse, Barnes-Brown & Pendleton, P.C.
We have a deep bench of legal and other professional advisors coordinated and vetted by Charlie Pascal, including the following areas:
✓ Intellectual Property (including Patent & Trademark)
✓ Banking and Wealth Management
✓ Sales and Marketing
✓ Bookkeeping and other Accounting Services
✓ Tax
✓ IT/Tech Support
✓ Litigation
✓ Human Resources
✓ Leadership/Negotiation
✓ Employment
✓ Real Estate
✓ Restructuring, Workouts & Bankruptcy
✓ Securities
✓ Privacy Standards and Open Source
✓ Communication/Messaging
✓ Life Sciences/Biotechnology
The unique approach developed by Pascal Advisory provides a more suitable platform designed specifically to meet the particular needs of innovative and disruptive companies. Our firm is in large part based the role of General Counsel (GC) utilized by more mature companies. As the head of legal, the GC’s challenge is to review and resolve business issues facing the company within the bounds of a budget approved by the board of directors.
In order to manage a variety of legal matters ranging from basic contract review to bet-the-company litigation disputes, a successful GC will have developed a network of lawyers and law firms outside the company which he or she can engage depending on the relative risk to the company. In other words, the wise GC does not feel compelled to choose one law firm for all legal matters because the relative expertise and cost structure of one firm will not be appropriate for all of the company’s needs.
Because early-stage businesses normally cannot afford to hire a sufficiently experienced GC on a full-time basis, the company typically resorts to hiring
a single law firm to handle all things legal.
While in some cases, this decision will generally work, the likelihood of each and every lawyer within one firm being the best match in terms of cost and expertise when compared with lawyers outside that firm, is very low. In contrast, our value proposition is essentially applying the GC method utilized by more established companies to early-stage businesses to ensure an optimum match for a given legal need.
Finally, because cost and billing practices always seem to top the list of law firm gripes, at Pascal Advisory we are committed to finding the fee structure that best matches a client’s needs and expectations. This fee flexibility enables us to offer attractive alternatives to the traditional firm’s insistence on billing all matters on an hourly basis. Whether it be an annual or monthly subscription model, a project-by-project cost structure, a fee-deferral arrangement or a blend (including competive hourly rates), we are open to adopting the approach best suited to your business at the time you need it.
Business Formation
✓ Choice of Entity (Corporation, LLC, LLP)
✓ Entity Conversion to Alternative Structure
✓ Tax Structure
✓ Equity Issuance
✓ Assignment of Intellectual Property
Employment
✓ Employment Agreements (Offer Letters)
✓ Consulting/Independent Contractor Agreements
✓ Equity Compensation Plans
✓ Service Provider Disputes and Termination
Finance and Fundraising
✓ Cap Table Preparation and Management
✓ Equity/Option Plan
✓ Debt & Equity Financing (Friends & Family, Angel, VC)
✓ Venture Capital / Investor Representation
✓ Securities Compliance
General Corporate
✓ Day-to-day
✓ Vendor / Customer Contracts
✓ Board of Directors Formation / Meetings
✓ Advisory Boards
✓ Structure / Formation of U.S. / Foreign Subsidiaries
✓ Foreign Company Transition to U.S. Markets
Intellectual Property
✓ Non-Disclosure / Non-Compete Agreements
✓ SAAS / Licensing and Strategic Partnerships
✓ Data Security and Privacy
Transactions
✓ Non-Disclosure / Non-Compete Agreements
✓ SAAS / Licensing and Strategic Partnerships
✓ Data Security and Privacy
✓ Legal Specialists
✓ Banking
✓ Sales & Marketing Professionals
✓ Accountants / Fractional CFOs
✓ Pitch Deck / Story Experts
✓ Leadership / Conflict Resolution
✓ Human Resources / Operations Support
✓ Technical Support & DevOps
Charlie Pascal
Startup Advisor & Practical Lawyer
334 Boston Post Road, 2nd Fl., Weston, MA
Phone: (203) 280-3252
Fax: (351) 202-1765
Email: charlie@pascaladvisory.com