The following is an excerpt from Practice Perspectives: Vault's Guide to Legal Practice Areas.
Erica Davis’ practice focuses on strategic transactions and intellectual property (IP) asset strategy, protection, licensing, and commercialization. She specializes in corporate partnering, strategic alliances, data privacy and protection, and technology commercialization and has served as a guest lecturer on these topics at Cornell. Erica acts as an outsourced general counsel and strategic advisor to a wide variety of venture-backed companies in the AI, cryptocurrency, software, consumer Internet, bioscience, media, healthcare, telecommunications, financial technology, and entertainment technology industries. Erica also represents these companies in negotiations of commercial agreements and advises these companies and leading venture capital firms on the technology, IP, commercial, and privacy aspects of venture capital financings, mergers, acquisitions, and similar deals. She counsels clients on risk and opportunity when transmitting personal data in their business transactions and product development.
Describe your practice area and what it entails.
Erica: As part of the strategic transactions and licensing practice group, we act as outside in-house counsel, partnering with our client leadership teams to navigate the protection of their core technology, structure strategic partnerships, and comply with applicable commercial, privacy, marketing, and other industry-specific laws and regulations. We guide our clients in establishing and managing key relationships to continue growing their businesses at all stages. For company clients, we focus on the creation, protection, and commercialization of technology, data, and IP. For investor clients, we evaluate risks to their investments, focusing on commercial, privacy, and IP protection practices.
What types of clients do you represent?
Erica: We represent leading venture capital funds and venture-backed companies across various industries, including AI, cryptocurrency, software, life sciences, bioscience, healthcare, media, telecommunications, financial technology, entertainment, and consumer products. Our clients are innovators at the forefront of developing transformative technology in their respective fields. Our team works with leadership teams at the early stages and as companies grow, we work with their general counsel and in-house legal team to transition day-to-day legal work in-house while serving as trusted advisors and specialists. Notable company clients include an AI client that develops AI-powered robots to help increase warehouse throughput and EvolutionaryScale, which created a generative AI model for biology to help with protein identification and selection.
What types of cases/deals do you work on?
Erica: Gunderson uniquely staffs by client, allowing us to work with a team from incorporation through exit. Many of the relationships I built as a first year are ones I still maintain as a sixth-year associate. Working closely with our clients on day-to-day legal questions as they grow allows us to proactively address potential risks and tailor our guidance based on their specific business needs. From day one, we draft agreements to protect a company’s confidential information and ensure the company owns all IP and technology developed by personnel. We also manage key agreements, policies, and procedures that structure engagements with customers, vendors, partners, investors, and acquirers, ensuring compliance with applicable laws and regulations.
On the investor-facing side of our practice, we conduct due diligence on the commercial, privacy, and IP aspects of our client’s investments and make recommendations regarding gaps in protection to help equip our investors’ portfolio companies for success in their growth moving forward.
What are some typical tasks that a junior lawyer would perform in this practice area?
Erica: At Gunderson, associates are hired directly into a group rather than a rotation system, so training starts early. Folks receive substantive work beginning on their first day. Our teams are super-leanly staffed, often with just a partner and an associate or a partner, a senior associate, and a junior associate. Junior associates are taking on meaningful responsibilities like communicating directly with clients, speaking on calls, and marking up agreements. For example, a junior associate on our team might be asked to lead a diligence call for an investor-side financing, draft a privacy policy, or communicate with a client about best practices when bringing on their first new hire.
What kinds of experience can summer associates gain at this practice area at your firm?
Erica: Each year, different associates are staffed as summer assignment coordinators to help our recruiting team ensure that summers are exposed to the types of assignments and deals they are most interested in, often across different practice areas depending on a summer associate’s preferences.
During my summer I worked on projects and assignments for our corporate, strategic transactions and licensing, and funds groups. This allowed me to understand how these different groups work together. It also helped me get a realistic sense of day-to-day work in my group so I was able to hit the ground running when I came back full-time. My summer experience is very similar to that of an associate.
How is it different working with entrepreneurs in contrast to large corporate clients?
Erica: In contrast to working with large corporate clients, we often work directly with key decision-makers and leadership teams as trusted advisors, helping them build their businesses and prepare for success in a hands-on way. You have a seat at the table, engaging in discussions with clients about their future plans, with your guidance valued from day one. We also guide clients who may not have worked with lawyers before, helping them understand what to look for and how we provide the support they need. The work is exciting and fulfilling, allowing you to build relationships that help make your clients’ goals a reality. We get to celebrate the companies’ wins together as partners rather than just another vendor.