Meet the CartaX legal advisory team

Recognized among top women leaders in technology law, Dawn shepherds emerging and high-growth companies through key moments in their lifecycle. She assists clients with startup formation, venture financings and evaluating exit opportunities and provides guidance on mergers and acquisitions, public offerings, SEC compliance and corporate governance.

Over the last decade, Dawn has worked on a wide range of tech transactions. These include Bill.com’s $216 million IPO, Facebook’s $16 billion IPO (the largest tech IPO in history at the time), GoPro’s $490 million IPO, ServiceNow’s $241 million IPO, Nimble Storage’s $1.2 billion acquisition by HPE and significant venture financings for consumer and enterprise-facing technology companies such as Brandless, Dropbox, Minerva Project, Optimizely, Silver Peak Systems and Proterra.

Dawn advises company executives and boards of directors on financial reporting and disclosure issues, securities offerings and corporate governance matters. She is co-author of the firm’s Gender Diversity Survey, a benchmark report on women’s participation at the most senior levels of public technology and life sciences companies in the Silicon Valley 150 Index and the Standard & Poor’s 100 Index.

John Brust is a partner in the Seattle office of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. His practice focuses on advising technology, life sciences, and emerging growth companies in corporate and securities law.

John has advised entrepreneurs and growth companies on a range of topics including company formation, private financings, secondary sales, initial public offerings, and other strategic transactions. In addition, he also represents investors taking minority or majority equity stakes in high-growth companies.

David Concannon is a partner in Goodwin’s New York office, where he’s a member of the firm’s Technology group. David’s practice focuses exclusively on emerging companies matters, representing corporate clients as company counsel and venture capital firms as investor counsel. He advises emerging companies through their entire life cycle, from formation to growth stages and exits. His work with clients includes formations, angel, seed, venture, and private equity financings, public offerings, and mergers and acquisitions. He is also an affiliated attorney and guest lecturer with the University of Michigan School of Law Entrepreneurship Clinic.

Cammy Contizano is a partner in Goodwin’s Business Law Department and a member of its Private Equity group and Impact and Responsible Investing practice. Her practice involves a range of corporate and commercial transactions, including mergers, acquisitions, leveraged buyouts, growth equity investments, and venture capital financings.

In addition, Cammy is an expert in structuring and executing secondary transactions for private companies and institutional investors. She represents clients in a variety of industries, including technology, media, business services, healthcare, education, consumer products, financial services, biotechnology, and energy.

Jason Flaherty is a partner in the Orrick San Francisco office and a member of the firm’s Compensation and Benefits Group. He advises his clients on the design, implementation, and taxation of compensation plans for executives and employees.

He also counsels clients on all aspects of employee benefits, like equity compensation and retirement plans, with a particular focus on compliance. His practice supports public and private companies. Prior to attending law school, Jason served as a Sergeant in the United States Army.

Eric is a partner at Morris, Nichols, Arsht and Tunnell where he counsels corporations and special committees in the context of potential transactions; aids corporations and investors in structuring capital investments; and advises generally on corporate governance issues. He also provides corporate-related advice in the context of transaction and governance litigation.

Eric is actively involved in both the national corporate legal community and the local Delaware legal community. At the national level, he is the former chair of the American Bar Association (“ABA”) Section of Business Law Private Equity and Venture Capital Committee, and the co-chair of the ABA Section of Business Law Mergers and Acquisitions Committee Task Force on Two-Step Transactions.

Eric is a lecturer in Law at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, where he teaches classes on M&A contract drafting and venture capital, and serves on the Board of Trustees of the university’s Institute for Law and Economics. He also serves on the academic advisory board for Bloomberg Law’s Corporate Transactions product. He frequently speaks and writes on emerging issues in Delaware corporate law and serves as an editor of the Delaware Corporation Law and Practice annual publication.

Jeff Laretto is a partner in Cooley’s New York City emerging companies group and represents high-growth technology companies at all stages of development. He frequently advises on incorporation and organizational matters, angel, seed and venture capital investments, general corporate strategy, venture debt transactions, strategic investments, liquidity transactions, and mergers and other exit transactions. He also counsels venture capital funds and strategic investors in connection with investments.

Mark Oblad is Of Counsel at Gunderson Dettmer, where he specializes in corporate law doing U.S. and international startup formations, financings and exits. Mark represents a wide variety of technology companies from consumer internet, software, telecommunications, and entertainment technology industries, as well as a number of leading venture capital firms.

Mark was previously an associate with Gunderson Dettmer and left to start Valcu Inc., where he was the Founder and CEO. Mark returned to Gunderson Dettmer after time spent at JW Player as the VP of Legal & Finance and SmartContract as Head of Operations.

Ben Potter is a partner at Latham and Watkins. He advises private and public companies, venture capital and private equity firms, and investment banks involved in technology, life sciences, and other growth industries. He serves as Global Vice Chair of the Emerging Companies Practice and co-chairs the Technology Industry Group.

He guides his clients on topics like financings, mergers, acquisitions, formation issues, equity incentives, securities law compliance, and corporate governance. In addition to his legal background, he draws on his prior experience at IBM Global Services and two education startups.

Greg Volkmar serves as head of the corporate group and is a partner in Gunderson Dettmer’s New York office. He co-chairs the firm’s growth equity practice, representing emerging and growth companies, venture capital firms, and growth equity funds.

In his company practice, Greg supports companies from formation, through financings, secondary liquidity, mergers, acquisitions, and public offerings. In his venture capital and growth equity practice, he supports clients’ investment activities in the US and internationally. Greg’s experience includes leading investments into companies in nearly 20 jurisdictions worldwide.