Calfee’s Emerging Companies and Venture Capital attorneys focus on helping innovators, entrepreneurs, and investors successfully launch businesses, raise financing, and grow their companies. We offer practical, solution-focused advice with a business perspective honed from representing clients at every stage of development – from corporate formation to initial and later-stage financing, to sale, IPO, or market leadership.
Our firm-wide capabilities and team-oriented approach to service enable our clients to call upon a range of experienced lawyers in a variety of practice areas, including our Intellectual Property group with a breadth and depth of experience that has a reputation for being unsurpassed in our region.
We work with entrepreneurs to:
We offer guidance on forming and running a board of directors or advisers, and we also attend board meetings and provide counseling on important business decisions.
We have represented entrepreneurs in a variety of business ventures, most notably in software development, financial technology, technology-enabled services, and medical device design and development.
In addition to our corporate expertise, we are able to use the knowledge of our lawyers who hold degrees in various technical and scientific fields to gain a sophisticated understanding of the technical and intellectual property issues faced by companies in these industries.
Calfee has represented seed investors, angel and early-stage investors, high-net-worth individuals, venture capital firms, and private equity firms in their investments in numerous technology companies as well as various other industries.
Through our experience with emerging companies, we are able to efficiently manage venture capital financings and effectively navigate more complex transactions. Our practical, solutions-driven approach and our experience enable us to cost-effectively protect investors’ interests.
With the assistance of our Intellectual Property group, comprised of more than 40 lawyers with technical and scientific degrees, we can conduct sophisticated due diligence, including landscape analyses of competitors’ patents, clearance studies, and patent portfolio audits, and provide opinions and advice regarding patentability, infringement, validity and freedom to operate.
Calfee represents numerous venture capital funds, private equity funds, hedge funds, real estate investment partnerships, and other investment entities in connection with their organization, management, operation, and compliance. Our fund clients also draw on the resources of our corporate, litigation, tax, and other practices for their investment activities and internal management and administration needs.
For more than a decade, Calfee has been recognized as a Leading Law Firm for Corporate/M&A by Chambers USA, most recently in Band 2 in Ohio: North and Band 3 in Ohio: South and Central (2024).
Clients provided feedback to Chambers USA researchers, "Calfee consistently generates exceptional outcomes for their clients. They are extremely responsive and meet tight deadlines. Their lawyers represent the client's best interests while also conducting themselves in a collegial and professional manner. They offer exceptional service levels. The firm has done an excellent job with some of our most difficult transactions and brings a business sensibility while protecting and mitigating our risk."
Calfee was selected for inclusion in the 2025 "Best Law Firms" rankings in the following areas:
We have advised issuers and investors in numerous fund-raising transactions, including these notable engagements in the past several years:
Calfee's Corporate and Finance practice "draws from an impressive statewide team with a strong track record across a broad range of corporate and transactional matters. Areas of excellence include M&A, securities offerings, and private equity and venture capital fund formation."
Chambers USA
