The following is an excerpt from Practice Perspectives: Vault's Guide to Legal Practice Areas.
Colleen Badgley represents emerging high-growth companies throughout their life cycle, with a focus on all aspects of emerging company development including corporate formation, venture capital financings, corporate spinouts, restructurings, M&A, and capital markets transactions. She also has experience representing venture capital and angel investors in their investment transactions. Since 2021, Colleen has handled VC financings with an aggregate deal value of more than $3.5 billion. Colleen is counsel to companies and their investors in a broad range of high-growth industries, including the life sciences, digital health, software, technology, and consumer sectors.
Describe your practice area and what it entails.
I work with high-growth companies from ideation all the way through to an exit event, whether that be a sale or an initial public offering (IPO). I act as a business advisor on day-to-day problems as they arise as well as on larger transactions, such as venture financings and commercial activities. I also represent investors in their investments in similar companies.
What types of clients do you represent?
I work with companies at all stages, predominately in the technology, digital health, life sciences, and consumer goods spaces. I also represent institutional venture investors and family offices.
What types of cases/deals do you work on?
Most of my day is spent on general management and board advising or transactions such as venture financings, M&A, and go-public transactions. I also help with general corporate day-to-day matters similar to those handled in a general counsel role.
How did you choose this practice area?
I was always interested in working with emerging, high-growth companies, and this role allows me to work with a broad set of companies and industries while still serving as an integral part of the team. It also gives me the ability to see a lot of different transactions and become deeply knowledgeable in various subject matters.
What is a “typical” day like and/or what are some common tasks you perform?
As a partner, I now spend a lot of my day on calls and video conferences, typically with the CEO, chief financial officer, or general counsel at a company or in boardrooms. My role is often providing strategic advice to directors and management as they pursue financing or exit opportunities or assess risk. I try to have the full picture of the company’s status and needs and help its stakeholders navigate around the firm to assist with various legal needs. I also work with investors as they evaluate investment opportunities and help them craft their deals and terms.
What training, classes, experience, or skills development would you recommend to someone who wishes to enter your practice area?
The classes that were most relevant for me were entrepreneurship clinics or similar practicums. Classes focused on venture deals, if available, are particularly helpful. In the standard course list, Companies, Securities Regulation, and M&A courses are helpful, as well as courses on intellectual property.
What do you like best about your practice area?
This role is unique because you typically advise management directly (and not through an internal legal department). You get to act in an external advisor role while still getting intimately familiar with a company and getting to see its full life cycle firsthand. I am often the person that forms the company and sells the company or takes it public, and it’s an exciting role to work with the founding team all the way through.
What is unique about your practice area at your firm?
If you are interested in supporting high-growth companies, there’s no better place to be than Cooley. We get to work with some of the most exciting companies in the industry and have an extremely talented group of attorneys who are collaborative, hardworking, and the best at what they do.
What are some typical tasks that a junior lawyer would perform in this practice area?
Working with earlier-stage companies allows junior lawyers to get firsthand experience directly with clients sooner. It is not unusual to be taking calls with founders in your first year and helping with day-to-day activities such as managing the capitalization table, helping companies engage with service providers, making equity grants, and preparing corporate approvals. You will also work on transactions across the life cycle, including taking an active role in simple agreement for future equity and convertible financings, venture financings, and M&A deals. On the investor side, you’ll take on diligence activities to help investors evaluate a deal and review and revise documentation for these transactions.
How is it different working with entrepreneurs in contrast to large corporate clients?
One of the best things about this role is that you get to work directly with the founders and board. You often serve as an extension of their team and become a trusted resource for the company over time. Often, you’ll end up being the person who has worked with them the longest out of anyone, and you are able to provide a unique and critical perspective seeing a company through all its major transactions over the life cycle. These relationships end up turning into new opportunities with new companies, and I’ve been working with some of the same founders across the same or different companies for more than a decade at this point. Getting to know your clients so well makes the job even more fulfilling.