Startup, Angel Investment and Venture Capital Law

Wood & Lee’s venture law team combines senior-level counselling and extensive industry knowledge to help emerging technology companies grow and prosper. We work in partnership with clients to build and represent deal-intensive emerging growth companies, both public and private, as well as with the angel investment, venture capital law and investment banking firms that support them. We provide emerging companies with focused business and legal advice from incorporation through initial public offering, acquisition and beyond. Our lawyers have extensive experience with:

• corporate counselling
• venture financing
• public offerings
• mergers and acquisitions
• intellectual property
• technology transactions
• employment
• executive compensation
• tax

As a leader in structuring and negotiating venture capital financings, we possess strong relationships with institutional, seed and angel venture capital investors and play an active role in bringing together entrepreneurs and investors. We work closely with professionals and scientific advisors, many of whom hold Ph.Ds. and other advanced degrees in key areas of computer science, the life sciences, engineering, mathematics, market research, accounting and finance, technology, including biology and chemistry. Our lawyers have the subject-matter knowledge to service clients in any area of advanced technology. As our clients grow and mature, they benefit from the power of Wood & Lee’s distinguished corporate and litigation practices to protect their interests and resolve their legal and business problems.

Our Capabilities

Our lawyers have extensive experience in public offerings for technology and life science clients. We offer a comprehensive practice for emerging companies located in China as well as for Chinese companies wishing to access global markets for capital and technology.

Capital Markets

Wood & Lee’s capital markets practice was formed to assist our clients in finding and securing the funding they need to grow and prosper. Drawing upon the resources of our lawyers and professionals from across the firm’s offices, our capital markets practice leverages relationships with the angel investment, venture capital, investment banking communities to help raise funds through public and private offerings of equity, debt and equity-linked securities.

Corporate Counselling and Securities

We counsel clients on the formation and initial capitalisation of their business. Our lawyers guide clients through all stages and types of public and private financings, from early seed and angel investments through later stage financing and public offerings. Furthermore, we leverage our relationships with leading institutional, seed and angel venture capital investors to assist clients in obtaining funding.

Intellectual Property

Our intellectual property team provides strategic guidance to clients striving to build, maintain and protect patent portfolios, trade secrets and other proprietary assets. We obtain and maintain trademarks, trade names and copyrights. Our intellectual property litigation team prosecutes and defends complex patent, copyright, trade secret and trademark cases across a variety of industries and technologies.

Mergers and Acquisitions

Wood & Lee handles all types of mergers and acquisitions. Our lawyers possess a deep understanding of the business trends and transactions in the technology and life sciences worlds. Our Mergers and acquisitions lawyers work together to solve the complex issues raised in business combination transactions, including those relating to intellectual property, tax, labour, employee benefits, real estate, regulatory and environmental law.

Global Technology Transactions

We represent clients in the structuring, documentation and operation of joint ventures, licensing, collaborations and other strategic alliances. Our lawyers structure and negotiate intellectual property transactions and help ensure our clients are properly rewarded and protected. We participate on both the idea and money sides of ventures between small and large companies, often handling complex corporate partnering arrangements between multiple parties.

Compensation and Benefits

Our lawyers regularly assist clients with equity compensation design and operation, employment agreement negotiation, executive tax planning, securities law compliance, merger and acquisition compensation planning and negotiation, and corporate governance with respect to equity compensation.

Emerging Technologies

Wood & Lee’s innovation lawyers advise at the cutting edge of technology and ideas.  Our lawyers advise on joint ventures and collaborations aspects of the following emerging technologies: AI algorithms, AI chipsets, FOBO and TPMS, First Amendment and Due Process for the electronic era, GDPR, Internet of Things, Li-Fi, Maglev trains, PSD2, Retail APIs, Robotics, adaptive learning, agricultural technologies, ambient interfaces, amorphous metals, androids and personal robots, artificial Intelligence, artificial gravity, assisted driving, asteroid mining, audio search engines, augmented reality, autonomous ships, autonomous underwater vehicles, autonomous vehicle testing, big data, blockchain, carbon nanotube field-effect transistors, charging stations, cloaking devices, cognitive computing, collaborative robotics, commercial space technology, computational photography, computer-generated imagery, concentrated solar power, conductive polymers, construction 3D printing, crowdlearning, cryogenic treatment, cryptocurrencies, cultivated food and beverage, decentralised internet technologies, deep learning, deep linking, digital assistants, digital film and music technology, digital scent technology, distributed ledger technology, drone delivery, drone swarms, electric double-layer capacitors, electric vehicles, electroencephalography, emerging magnetic data storage technologies, encryption management, energy harvesting, esports, ethical manufacturing, fintech, flexible displays, flexible wings, flying cars, flying discs, flying taxis, fourth-generation optical discs, fullerene, graphene, green tech, greenscreen technology, grid energy storage, hidden bias in recognition, high-temperature superconductivity and superfluidity, holography, homegrown AI, hydraulic technology, hypereutectic alloys, internet security, lab-on-a-chip, laser and photon propulsion, lasers, machine reading comprehension, machine translation, machine vision, macro grids, magnetic levitation, mesh networks, metamaterials, micro grids, microdrones, microfarms, miniaturised satellites, molecular electronics, molecular robotics, nanoradio, nanorobotics, nanotechnology, nanowire batteries, narrowcasting, natural language understanding, neural networks, nootropics, open banking, open source, open source software, optical computing, parallel importations, peer-to-peer lending, personal rapid transit, personalised medicine, physical internet, powered exoskeletons, privacy and data, programmable matter, proprietary AI, prosthesis, quadcopters, quantum computing, quantum cryptography, quantum dots, radio-frequency identification, real-time fact checking, reusable launch system and reusable rocket technology, search and rescue drones, security, self-driving and self-piloting technology, sharing economy, smart appliances, smart bill pay, smart cameras, smart cars, smart cities, smart dust, smart fabrics, smart farms, smart glass, smart glasses, smart grids, smart grids, smart logistics, smart thread, smarthomes, smartwatches, solar highways, solar roofs, solar tiles, spaceplane, stealth technology, superalloys, supersonic and hypersonic transport, swarm robotics, synthetic diamonds, the AI Cloud, the right to be forgotten, three-dimensional integrated circuits, translucent concrete, transportable health data, vactrain and hyperloop technology, vehicle-to-vehicle (v2v) communications, vehicular communication systems and supercavitation, vertical farming, video game technology, virtual reality, visual search engines, wearable technology, zero-energy buildings, 3D displays, 3D printing, 4D printing, 5G cellular & 6G cellular communications.