Leonard Grayver

Office: +1.310.372.5770
Email: leonard@grayverlaw.com
Skype: leonard_grayver
LinkedIn:

Leonard Grayver is the founding partner at Grayver Law Group. Mr. Grayver splits his time between the firm’s Los Angeles and Silicon Valley offices.

Leonard’s corporate practice focuses on counseling start-up and emerging growth companies in areas of corporate and securities laws, mergers and acquisitions, and other strategic business arrangements. He is also experienced in negotiating and drafting a wide range of business arrangements, including joint venture agreements, executive employment contracts, IP licensing, distribution and marketing agreements and various general corporate and commercial contracts for companies in a wide variety of industries. In his twenty years of practice in Silicon Valley, Leonard has been involved with more than 300 startups and has “seen it all”.

Leonard’s fund services practice involves advising early and seed stage venture capital funds, startup accelerators, angel clubs, fund-of-funds, and SPVs (including both series LLCs and stand-alone) in connection with formation and operations, including structuring and conducting legal due diligence in their investments in startups companies. While Leonard has worked on funds of up to $500 million under management, his sweet spot is first or second time fund managers with fund size under $150 million.  Leonard also represents institutional investors (LPs) in connection with their investments in venture capital funds, including conducting due diligence, reviewing limited partnership agreements and negotiating side letters with the general partner.

Leonard’s litigation practice is concentrated on business and employment litigation. His recent accomplishments include the successful defense of a civil RICO action against a leading Russian consulting firm; early dismissal of a lawsuit involving an important Japanese corporation; successful prosecution of a lawsuit against former executives of a Japanese high tech company, resulting in a multi-million dollar judgment; and successful settlement of an employment discrimination and harassment lawsuit against a prominent financial company. Leonard writes and lectures frequently on private equity, corporate, and technology licensing issues. He has authored a definitive Russian-language guide to venture capital financings, now in its 10th edition. He hosts a Russian-language blog on various startup-related issues at startupjurist.com. He is a mentor to several startup accelerators, including Pulsar Accelerator and Starta Capital Accelerator.

Leonard is fluent in Russian, and many of his international clients are from Russia, Ukraine and the former Soviet Union. He is the co-founder of the Eastern European Bar Association and a member of the Board of Directors of AmBAR (American Business Association of Russian-Speaking Business Professionals). Before joining the firm, Mr. Grayver was a partner at Greenberg LLP, a corporate associate at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, P.C., and an investment banking associate at BKL Capital.

Leonard Grayver received a BA degree from UCLA with a degree in Philosophy and Russian Literature in 1996 and a Juris Doctorate degree from the UCLA School of Law in 2000.