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Todd Betke
Corporate PartnerTodd Betke
Corporate Partner 650-331-7022 tbetke@mh-llp.comTodd has been practicing domestic and international private fund law for over 25 years. He concentrates his practice on corporate, securities and general business law related to private equity, venture capital, real estate and hedge fund clients. He regularly counsels such funds, as well as funds-of-funds, Small Business Investment Companies, Opportunity Zone funds and other related investment vehicles, in connection with the formation, fundraising, operation and liquidation of such funds and vehicles. Todd also has extensive experience counseling and drafting the legal agreements governing the general partners, investment management companies and special purpose vehicles related to such funds.
Todd also has substantial experience representing funds in connection with the acquisition and disposition of portfolio companies, properties and other assets, and with investments by limited partners and other investors in connection with investments in funds and related investment vehicles.
Prior to joining M&H, Todd was a partner at Polsinelli PC and K&L Gates, LLP, of counsel at Pepper Hamilton LLP and a senior associate at Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP.
Todd holds a B.A. in English and Political Science from Colgate University, and a J.D. from Chicago-Kent College of Law.
Todd is admitted to practice in the District of Columbia.
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Tony Chan
Corporate AssociateTony Chan
Corporate Associate 650-331-7008 tchan@mh-llp.comTony assists clients with entity formations, mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance, and equity and debt financings. Prior to joining M&H, Tony practiced as a patent agent and an intellectual property litigation associate at boutique law firms.
Tony holds a J.D. from UCLA School of Law and a B.S. in Civil Engineering from UC Davis. While in law school, Tony worked as a patent clerk at the UCLA Patent Clinic and participated as a finalist in the Lowell Milken Business Venture Competition.
Tony is fluent in Cantonese and Mandarin.
Tony is admitted to practice in California.
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Cristina Chirica
Corporate PartnerCristina Chirica
Corporate Partner 650-331-7018 cchirica@mh-llp.comCristina is licensed to practice law in New York and California. She is recognized by Super Lawyers as a New York 2022 Rising Star in business and corporate law.
In her practice, she counsels angel and institutional investors, as well as early stage and established companies, in a variety of corporate transactions, including entity formations, preferred stock financings, SAFE and convertible note issuances, general corporate governance, strategic investments and asset sales, and mergers and acquisitions.
Representative firm clients that Cristina has advised include VMware, GoodRx, Industry Ventures, X/Seed Capital, Mighty Capital, Learn Capital, Bay Grove, Taiwania Capital Management, Align Ventures, SG Innovate, Wilson Hill Ventures, Definition Capital, RS11, SaasLink (Seam), Raise Robotics, and Blueboard.
Cristina holds a J.D. from the UC Davis School of Law, where she served on the law school’s Appellate Advocacy Board and Business Law Journal, and earned her B.A. from UC Davis, where she graduated with Honors in Economics and International Relations and completed a minor in Managerial Economics.
Cristina is fluent in Romanian.
- In this webinar presented by Worldwide ERC, Cristina provides an overview of M&A structures and corporate pre-planning considerations, while immigration attorneys from WR Immigration discuss common immigration issues that affect foreign national employees in the context of M&A.
- Cristina is featured in NYC Fintech Women
- Highlights from the Plug and Play Summer Startup Festival
- Read Cristina’s Interview in the UC Davis Business Law Journal
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Cathryn Gawne
Corporate PartnerCathryn Gawne
Corporate Partner 650-331-7019 cgawne@mh-llp.comIn one aspect of her corporate/securities practice, Cathy represents high net worth investors, entrepreneurs and C-level executives faced with complex and far-reaching decisions and transactions involving their business investments and assets. Cathy’s clients are leaders in Silicon Valley high technology industries who seek her unique blend of expertise in securities law and independence from conflict for thoughtful advice focusing on protecting their individual interests in critical transactions, such as financings and mergers/acquisitions.
Cathy also has over 20 years of experience in counseling early and mid-stage public and private companies on growth strategies such as raising capital through private and public equity and debt financings. She provides guidance on corporate governance and SEC reporting issues, counsels entrepreneurs who are starting new businesses, and helps clients grow their businesses through strategic partnerships, joint ventures and mergers and acquisitions.
Cathy holds an A.B. from Stanford University and a J.D. from the UCLA School of Law. She is a member and the current Secretary of the State Bar of California Business Law Section’s Corporations Committee, and a member and former Chair of the Board of the Silicon Valley Chapter of the Association for Corporate Growth. She has been named by the Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal as a Woman of Influence, and has received a YWCA Tribute to Women in Industry (TWIN) Award from the YWCA of Silicon Valley. For the past seven years, as a proud member of Stanford University’s 12th Man Club (a group that secures summer employment for members of the Stanford University football team – Go Cardinal!), Cathy has sponsored and mentored a number of football players as summer law clerks, several of whom are now practicing attorneys.
Cathy is admitted to practice in California.
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Daniel Hansen
Founding PartnerDaniel Hansen
Founding Partner 650-331-7003 dhansen@mh-llp.comDan has been practicing law in Silicon Valley for over 25 years. He concentrates his practice on corporate and securities law for early stage companies and investors. He represents clients in all aspects of corporate transactions, including formation, equity and debt financings, option plans, employment agreements, subsidiary formation, license and technology agreements, spin outs, asset sales, and mergers and acquisitions. He also has experience in intellectual property matters and dispute resolution; and in forming and advising limited liability companies.
Dan represents venture capital funds, angel investors and other investors in investment transactions, partnership matters and other transactions. Dan’s investor side practice is unique in that he works regularly with a number of angel groups in Silicon Valley, including The Angels’ Forum, Sand Hill Angels, and Band of Angels, as well as many individual high net-worth angel investors.
Prior to co-founding M&H, Dan was a partner at Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison, LLP in Palo Alto, California, where he practiced for 10 years.
Dan holds a B.S.M.E., an M.B.A., and a J.D. from the University of Utah and an L.L.M in Trade Regulation from New York University. In addition to California, he is also admitted to practice in the United States Patent & Trademark Office.
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Joseph Helmers
Corporate PartnerJoseph Helmers
Corporate Partner 650-331-7025 jhelmers@mh-llp.comFor over a decade, Joe has focused his practice on transactional matters, including venture capital finance (including convertible debt and equity investments), private offerings of securities, and mergers and acquisitions. As primary outside counsel to a number of privately held companies, Joe frequently helps boards of directors and management teams in complex and challenging transactional and governance matters. Joe’s clients have included a wide variety of companies, from start-ups to established companies, and they span a variety of industries, including software, consumer products, logistics, information technology, and semi-conductor. In the merger and acquisitions area, Joe has advised numerous companies in structuring and negotiating a wide variety of transactions involving strategic buyers.
Joe holds a J.D. degree from The UCLA School of Law and B.A. and M.A. degrees from the University of California at Berkeley.
Joe was formerly an associate at Baker & McKenzie. He has lived and worked in China and Japan and speaks and reads Chinese and Japanese.
Joe is admitted to practice in California.
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Gary Hoem
Corporate PartnerGary Hoem
Corporate Partner 650-331-7009 ghoem@mh-llp.comGary joined M&H, LLP in 2015. He advises start-up and established companies across a broad range of industries, as well as angel and institutional investors, in a variety of corporate transactions, general corporate governance matters and investment matters, including entity formations, debt and equity financings, secondary sales, investments in limited partnerships, securities law compliance, and mergers and acquisitions. Gary also advises employees in matters related to equity compensation.
Gary seeks to assist individuals, investors, companies, and boards of directors with identifying and solving their business and legal issues in an efficient, creative, and collaborative manner.
In his free time, Gary is an avid San Francisco 49ers fan and enjoys playing golf and spending time with his family.
Gary is admitted to practice in California.
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Patrick Kelly
Corporate PartnerPatrick Kelly
Corporate Partner 650-331-7017 pkelly@mh-llp.comPatrick advises investors and early stage companies in a variety of corporate and intellectual property transactions, including formation of start-up ventures, equity and debt financings, mergers and acquisitions and complex commercial transactions. Patrick seeks to provide clients with practical, thoughtful advice to help solve their business and legal issues and assists clients in structuring, negotiating and closing business transactions effectively and efficiently. His practice also includes providing day to day counseling to companies and boards of directors on a wide range of other corporate matters. Representative clients include Aquila Space, Astro Digital, Bluefeet Software, Fluid, Frontier Snacks, Industry Ventures, Jared Leto, Places, Twitter, Venzee, and X/Seed Capital.
Prior to joining M&H, LLP, Patrick held positions in-house and as an attorney with Fenwick & West, LLP.
Patrick holds a J.D. from the Santa Clara University School of Law and a B.A. from Duke University.
Patrick is admitted to practice in California.
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Beth Knodel
Employment AssociateBeth Knodel
Employment Associate 650-331-7020 bknodel@mh-llp.comBeth is an Associate at M&H, LLP. Her practice focuses on employment and corporate matters for employers and executives. She offers strategic advice to companies and executives on hiring and terminations; employment practices and compliance; preparation and review of agreements and policies, including offer letters, handbooks, compensation plans, and separation agreements; navigating discrimination, harassment, and retaliation claims; workplace investigations; classification assessments, including contractor/employee classification and exempt/non-exempt status; leaves of absence; disability accommodations and the interactive process; wage-and-hour issues; employment audits and labor claims, including government agency proceedings; reductions in force and WARN Act compliance; and litigation avoidance. She also advises clients on corporate matters, including employment diligence in corporate transactions.
Beth is an Association of Workplace Investigators Certificate Holder (AWI-CH) and conducts external, neutral investigations into employee complaints of harassment, discrimination, retaliation, and violation of company policies. She also counsels and trains internal workplace investigators and oversees external attorney investigators conducting workplace investigations.
Beth holds a J.D. from the University of San Francisco School of Law, where she graduated magna cum laude. As a part of the Criminal and Juvenile Justice Clinic at USF, Beth represented clients seeking parole at San Quentin and successfully argued for their release. She holds a B.A. with honors in American Studies from Cumberland University in Tennessee.
Beth is admitted to practice in California.
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Erin McDermit
Employment PartnerErin McDermit
Employment Partner emcdermit@mh-llp.comErin manages the employment department at M&H LLP and has been practicing law in Silicon Valley since 2005. Erin’s practice focuses on Employment Law and pre-litigation dispute resolution. She regularly advises companies of all sizes in a wide range of industries, from large tech companies to small businesses and household employers.
Erin represents corporate clients, start-ups, and professionals and business owners in all aspects of employment, including employment practices and compliance; compensation and benefits; non-compete and non-solicit matters; leaves of absence and disability accommodations; performance management and coaching; wage-and-hour analyses and claims; contractor misclassification; harassment, discrimination, and retaliation claims and prevention; remedial executive training; and terminations, reductions in force, and severance determinations. Erin continues to represent employers in matters before California agencies such as wage complaints with the Labor Commissioner/DLSE and EDD contractor misclassification audits.
Erin also has extensive experience with workplace investigations as external counsel overseeing external and internal investigations, providing investigator training, conducting investigations as external counsel, and representing workplace investigators at deposition.
Prior to joining M&H, LLP Erin spent 14 years litigating employment claims, breach of fiduciary duty and breach of loyalty claims, trade secret disputes, partnership disputes, and general business litigation. Before attending law school Erin worked in technology publishing in the SF Bay Area.
Erin holds a J.D. from Santa Clara University where she was a Cali award-winner in Employment Law and a Comments Editor for the Santa Clara Law Review. She holds a B.A. with honors in Communications/Journalism from Mills College.
Erin is admitted to practice in California.
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Clayton McDonald
Corporate AssociateClayton McDonald
Corporate Associate 650-331-7026 cmcdonald@mh-llp.comClayton assists clients with entity formations, equity and debt financings, mergers and acquisitions, and corporate governance.
Clayton received his J.D. and M.B.A. from Santa Clara University. While in law school, Clayton served as an intern for Commissioner Hester Peirce at the SEC and as a legal intern for Reserve, a cryptocurrency startup. He also participated in the Entrepreneurs’ Legal Advising Clinic, where he provided pro bono consulting services to startups and small businesses. Clayton earned his B.S. from the University of Oregon.
Outside of work, Clayton enjoys rooting for Bay Area sports teams, going to the beach with his dog, and playing board games.
Clayton is admitted to practice in California.
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Jonathan Noble
Corporate PartnerJonathan Noble
Corporate Partner 650-331-7012 jnoble@mh-llp.comJon’s practice focuses on the representation of private, emerging growth companies, encompassing entity formations, financing transactions, corporate governance, securities law compliance and mergers and acquisitions. Jon also represents venture capital firms and other investment vehicles in connection with their formations, maintenance and investments, including investments in both primary and secondary transactions.
Prior to joining M&H, Jon founded the Noble Law Group in Palo Alto, California, and prior to that he served as an associate in the corporate and securities group of Gunderson Dettmer Stough Villeneuve Franklin & Hachigian, LLP in Menlo Park, California.
Jon holds an A.B. from UC Berkeley, an M.B.A. from the Haas School of Business, and a J.D. from Boalt Hall School of Law.
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Meera Patel
IP & Tech Transactions AssociateMeera Patel
IP & Tech Transactions Associate 650-331-7015 mpatel@mh-llp.comMeera’s practice focuses on intellectual property, privacy, and technology transactions.
Meera holds a J.D. from UC Hastings College of the Law and is a Certified Information Privacy Professional (CIPP/US). During law school, Meera interned in-house at Eat Just, Inc., where she handled corporate and intellectual property matters. Meera served as editor of the Hastings Communication and Entertainment Law Journal, and as Vice President of both the Women’s Law Society and the South Asian Law Students Association, where she spearheaded peer to peer and student to attorney mentorship programs, respectively. She also participated in an in-house product and technology counsel seminar, where she drafted and negotiated commercial and intellectual property licensing agreements. Prior to attending law school, Meera earned her B.A. from UC Irvine. She is fluent in Gujarati and Hindi.
Meera is admitted to practice in California.
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Sara Petersen Graves
Employment Of CounselSara Petersen Graves
Employment Of Counsel 650-331-7002 sgraves@mh-llp.comSince 2003, Sara has managed sensitive, complex matters and counseled executives and management on a variety of issues. Her employment practice focuses on advising individuals and companies regarding issues relating to establishing or ending employment relationships. She regularly prepares and negotiates offer letters, employment agreements and separation agreements. In addition, Sara conducts workplace investigations as an external attorney investigator.
Prior to joining M&H as Of Counsel, Sara practiced as a commercial litigator and employment attorney at Bergeson, LLP.
Sara holds a J.D. from the UCLA School of Law and a B.A. in Human Biology from Stanford University.
Sara is admitted to practice in California.
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Michael Plumleigh
IP & Tech Transactions PartnerMichael Plumleigh
IP & Tech Transactions Partner 650-331-7005 mplumleigh@mh-llp.comMike has been advising clients on intellectual property, technology and digital media matters for over 30 years, and offers the perspective of having worked in-house as well as serving as outside counsel for hundreds of technology, media and life science/biotech companies.
Mike has extensive experience advising early stage and established companies on complex corporate partnering, M&A, licensing, technology and intellectual property transactions; domestic and cross-border alliances; AI data services, software license, digital content, semiconductor, SaaS and cloud services agreements; OEM sales and distribution channel agreements; product development, manufacture, supply and marketing agreements; branding, IP commercialization and portfolio management; and counseling on open source software, Internet, digital media, export, antitrust and international privacy and data security laws.
Prior to joining M&H, Mike was Director of Legal Affairs at Via Licensing Corp. (part of Dolby Labs), where he was responsible for the development and negotiation of standards-based patent licensing programs (patent pools), monetizing IP on behalf of many of the world’s largest electronics manufacturers, telecommunications providers and technology innovators. Prior to Via, Mike was Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary at Critical Path, Inc., a leading provider of mobile messaging and digital media solutions and services.
Before going in house, Mike was a partner and co-founder of the Technology Transactions and Privacy practice groups in the San Francisco office of Cooley LLP; and a partner in the Technology Group at Brobeck Phleger & Harrison LLP in Palo Alto and San Francisco.
Mike received his J.D. from the UCLA School of Law, where he was the Managing Editor of the UCLA Law Review, and received a B.A., magna cum laude, in Economics from UCLA. He also studied at Berklee College of Music in Boston, where he majored in music performance and composition.
Prior to pursuing law, Mike was a professional musician, orchestrator, and music publisher, including worldwide tours as a trumpet player with the Buddy Rich and Harry James Orchestras, shows and recording work in Los Angeles, and engagements with jazz greats Clark Terry, Mel Tormé, Joe Williams, Rosemary Clooney and Louie Bellson. More recently Mike has performed with Jimmy Buffett, Kix Brooks, the Zak Brown Band, Kurt Elling, Stephen Stills, Jim Belushi, Steve Miller, Bob Weir and Mickey Hart, and at the San Francisco, San Jose and Monterey Jazz Festivals.
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Kerry Smith
Managing PartnerKerry Smith
Managing Partner 650-331-7016 ksmith@mh-llp.comKerry has more than 25 years experience in the practice of corporate and securities law including at major U.S. law firms and has been CFO of a NASDAQ listed public company. Kerry’s practice is focused on corporate and securities law and has extensive experience with transactions in which he represents companies and investors in venture capital financings, mergers and acquisitions, early liquidity transactions, spin-offs and buyouts, recapitalizations, equity offerings and debt transactions. Kerry has served as lead counsel on hundreds of venture capital, angel and private-equity financings, more than a hundred M&A transactions of all sizes, and a significant number of recapitalizations, public offerings and other transactions. He has represented international and domestic companies, emerging growth corporations, venture capital funds and private equity funds in a broad array of industries including, telecommunications, banking, insurance, high tech, e-commerce, pharmaceutical and medical delivery, energy, business process outsourcing and manufacturing.
Much of Kerry’s practice stems from his startup company practice, where he handles formation, founder-related matters, seed investments and venture capital financings for early-stage companies and then continues to represent them in various matters including later stage financings, M&A and corporate governance matters as they grow into larger private and public companies.
His technology representations include companies in a wide range of markets, including security, artificial intelligence, internet of things, storage, mobile, gaming, cloud, big data, software, social, Internet and clean technology.
Kerry holds a J.D. from Loyola University of Chicago School of Law and a B.S. in Accountancy from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He is a CPA (inactive) and practiced at Deloitte & Touche prior to attending law school.
Prior to joining M&H, Kerry was a partner at DLA Piper US, LLP and other international law firms.
Kerry is admitted to practice in California and Illinois.
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Todd Betke
Corporate Partner -
Tony Chan
Corporate Associate -
Cristina Chirica
Corporate Partner -
Cathryn Gawne
Corporate Partner -
Daniel Hansen
Founding Partner -
Joseph Helmers
Corporate Partner -
Gary Hoem
Corporate Partner -
Patrick Kelly
Corporate Partner -
Beth Knodel
Employment Associate -
Erin McDermit
Employment Partner -
Clayton McDonald
Corporate Associate -
Jonathan Noble
Corporate Partner -
Meera Patel
IP & Tech Transactions Associate -
Sara Petersen Graves
Employment Of Counsel -
Michael Plumleigh
IP & Tech Transactions Partner -
Kerry Smith
Managing Partner