LEONARD GRAYVER

Leonard Grayver, the founder of Grayver Law Group, died on September 14, 2026.

Leonard arrived in the United States in 1987 from the Soviet Union and wasted no time making the place his own. He studied philosophy and Russian literature at UCLA, graduating in 1996, and earned his law degree from UCLA School of Law in 2000. He trained at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati in Silicon Valley, spent time in investment banking, became a partner at Greenberg, Whitcombe, Takeuchi, Gibson, & Grayver LLP, and then went on to build the firm that carries his name.

Over more than twenty-five years of practice, Leonard worked with over 500 startups and the venture funds that backed them. For a generation of Russian-speaking and Eastern European founders finding their way in Silicon Valley, he was the first call. He wrote the Russian-language guide to venture capital financings, which ran to ten editions, kept a blog for founders, mentored at startup accelerators, co-founded the Eastern European Bar Association, and served on the board of AmBAR. He was quoted in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and other major publications. He was the rare lawyer clients called before they had a problem, mostly because they liked talking to him, and he loved talking to them.

Leonard brought the same energy to his life outside his law practice that he brought to his work. He was an avid tennis player. He was a collector of antiques, and then of more antiques, and he assembled what is very probably the largest collection of Russian samovars this side of St. Petersburg. He loved to travel and he loved to explore, and he tended to come home from trips with both a story and something old and beautiful that needed a place to live. He had a soft spot for cars about his own age and cared for them accordingly, just as he cared for the bonsai trees he so cherished.

He was generous to a fault. He hated to disappoint anyone. He said “yes” more often than was good for him, and a great many people are better off because of it.

Most of all, Leonard was a caring, loving friend to everyone who knew him. The world is so much less bright without him in it.

Leonard is survived by his wife, Molly Weisser-Grayver; his daughter, Emma Clair Grayver; his mother, Anna Grayver; his brother, Eugene Grayver, and sister-in-law, Hilary Bienstock; and his nieces and nephews, Mila, Adrian, Katie and Jackson.