Holme Roberts & Owen LLP (HRO)
Holme Roberts & Owen LLP is a Denver-based law firm with more than 250 attorneys in offices in Denver, Boulder, Colorado Springs, London, Los Angeles, Munich, Salt Lake City and San Francisco. With a strong commitment to its legal work and to client service, HRO represents companies of all sizes and industries across the United States and around the world, in high profile lawsuits and business transactions. MORE

357_ What are Angel Investors Looking for in Return? (Part 1 of 2)
Mark Weakley , Partner, Holme Roberts & Owen, Boulder has helped a number of entrepreneurs raise angel funding...the right way, and that's the key. If the company is going to go on a rapid or an accelerated growth path, it will likely need some amount of institutional financing. Angel investing can get you on that trajectory, allow you to hire employees, develop your business model, finalize prototypes, and establish that what you are doing has validation in the marketplace. And then be in a better position to seek venture financing money. Another reason is a trend over the last 4 or 5 years where the venture funds are doing a lot less early stage investing. So you’re seeing the Angel Investors filling in that gap. Mark also talks with Larry about the 4 things angels are looking for and business plan strategies. LISTEN Part 1 of 2

360_  Angel Investors, Term Sheets, Valuation and Control Part 2 of 2
A good target audience, vetting system, for your business plan or executive summary would be your corporate or business or finance lawyer. Because if they are not getting it after the first two sentences, it’s likely the angel investor isn’t going to do any better points out Mark Weakley , Partner, Holme Roberts & Owen, Boulder as he addressed questions about getting healthy financing from angel investors. Mark brought up some poignant thoughts about term sheets and evaluation. Valuation is often looked at by the entrepreneur only in terms of ‘how much of the company am I going to have to give up?’ They’re not thinking about the return that the angle wants to have. The entrepreneur is thinking if my valuation of the company is $4 mil and I have to raise $2 mil, then I have to give up ½ of the company. There you see the entrepreneur’s interest is control, management, other issues; and they’re not really thinking ‘What makes sense for the angel?’ LISTEN Part 2 of 2
Related Links: Holme Roberts & Owen || It's the Law Interviews || CTEK Angels || Rockies Venture Club || Venture Capital Channel || Keywords:  Mark Weakley, Holme Roberts & Owen, HRO, Angel Investors, Entrepreneurs, Business Plan, Venture Capital >> Channels: Venture Capital, It's the Law>Bytes: 5623957 > LISTEN 8/13/07

545_ Using Consulting and Angel Funding to Bootstrap a Vertical Strategy
AWhere (pronounced: aware) was formed as a pure consulting company (GIS: Geospatial Information Systems), discovered a pain point, and built a product to address that pain. Mark Weakley, Partner at Holme Roberts & Owen, Boulder and Larry asked John Corbett, Co-Founder, Chairman of the Board, President of AWhere along with Jim Pollock, President of Vertical Market Development for AWhere, how AWhere used consulting and later angel funding to build their vertical strategy. They raised better than 600K and talked about what they are doing to secure a 'bigger raise' and other funding issues. They talked about converting the company from a consulting company to a product company. They talked about taking advantage and riding the coattails of larger players: exploiting the hype and educational wave that Google Maps and MS Virtual Earth is creating in the location intelligence and location services market. They showed how this dovetails into multiple possible exit strategies without worrying about the exit. They also described their vertical strategy: dividing their market into a series of vertical industries, then using Angel funding to accelerate their entry into the first two. Once they validated the first 2, they'll have confidence and working business models to more aggressively attack future verticals. There's more...
Related Links: AWhere || HRO Named Go-To Firm || It's the Law Channel || Holme Roberts & Owen || Keywords: John Corbett, Jim Pollock, AWhere, Geospatial Information Systems, Mark Weakley, Holme Roberts & Owen, Boulder, HRO > Bytes: 14159039 > LISTEN 9/2/08

408_ Establishing an Overseas Presence -
An Executive Primer

In today’s competitive business environment, executives and members of management are often faced with determining how to enter their company’s products and services into international markets. Garth Jensen, partner at Holme Roberts & Owen discusses international expansion with Thomas Yih, Associate General Counsel-International for Sun Microsystems formerly, Storage Technology Corporation. His responsibilities include providing legal counsel to international divisions on transactional matters, corporate governance, M&A, employment and U.S. export compliance. A host of questions were answered by Garth and Thomas. What is the best entry vehicle into a country (distributor, representative office, subsidiary, joint venture)? What are the critical and necessary considerations to make in order to make an informed decision regarding international market entry? What measures can be taken to reduce due diligence and initial market entry costs? What steps can assist in managing an efficient market entry process? In addition key issues like Intellectual Property, Corporate Responsibility/Risk , Regulatory Matters, Currency, Banking, Finance, and Foreign Investment, Local Law Issues and Applicable U.S Laws.
Related Links:   U. S. Commercial Service ||  Holme Roberts & Owen || It's the Law || Find It || Keywords: Thomas Yih, Overseas Presence, Holme Roberts & Owen, Garth Jensen, International - 11/12/07 Bytes: 26750540 > LISTEN

325_ Open Source, a pathway to innovation and much, much more

Imagine you buy a software company. The transaction is completed. There’s a knock on your door. A stranger is here to confirm that you are not in breach of his ‘open source software license’. You call your attorney for help. That’s where Jason Haislmaier, HRO, enters the scene. He is recognized by many as the “Open Source Legal Guru” in Colorado. When we asked how he got into this field? his reply was direct and to the point. "Simply put, I was driven by client need."

Having earned an engineering degree prior to law school, Jason has a natural affinity and appreciation for the technical issues he handles today.  "As a software vendor, it's not uncommon to have your software product comprised of software that you've developed in-house, that you would consider proprietary, perhaps third party software that you've licensed in, and from open source software, and it's all working together. It is that co mingling or interaction of the softwares that, from a legal standpoint, creates some of the stickier areas under the open source license. Even if you're not a vendor, if you're a data center, it's the same thing.

"Open source software, at its core, is licensed. Licenses can be breached and that can create liability; and in come the lawyers. And that’s where a lot of the legal aspects of open source come about. It’s very difficult to talk about open source software without talking about the legal aspects of open source software.

Related Links: Holme Roberts & Owen || GPLv3 || It's the Law Interviews || Find It || Keywords: Open Source Software, HRO, Holme Roberts & Owen, Jason Haislmaier, Lucky Vidmar> Channels: Software Bytes: 7984172 LISTEN 6/11/07

Protecting Your "Hard IP" and Your "Soft IP"
379_ IP can be defined many ways.
Larry asked Tracy Ashmore and Sven Collins, attorneys at Holme Roberts & Owen to define IP. They are experts at protecting 'confidential information' and 'proprietary information' and other related areas. Companies can have ‘hard IP’, that’s patents, trademarks, copyrights – those are interests that you can protect by registering them with the government and the government gives you property rights. And then there is ‘soft IP’ which are your secret stuff - you can’t patent,  you can’t copyright – your customer lists, - it’s maybe a development that you have in the works but it hasn’t reached the stage to qualify for a patent or a copyright yet. Generally an employer has employees sign a “Proprietary Rights Agreement” which spells out for the employee,'.. these are our trade secrets and we are asking you to protect them while you’re here, and also if you go to another employer you will not be able to share this information with your new employer'. So those are the two buckets of “intellectual property” and there are agreements to protect all of that. LISTEN for more valuable information. 
Related Links:  Holme Roberts & Owen || It's the Law Channel || Podcast Directory || Colorado Workforce || Keywords:  Written Policy, Holme Roberts & Owen LLP, HRO, Tracy Ashmore, Sven Collins, IP Protection >> Bytes: 15219464 LISTEN 9/24/07

370 _  Employers and Employees
in Performance Reviews

There are some absolutes as well as some grey areas in both the written and oral process of performance reviews. Ashley Jordaan and Gary Armstead attorneys at Holme Roberts & Owen LLP discuss crucial issues that both employers and employees should be aware of in the performance review process. Ashley and Gary both confirmed that 'performance reviews' should be in writing. However they both pointed out that if not done properly, it could cause short-term and long-term problems. There are also specific areas that should be covered and others avoided or carefully stated. In addition to the written aspect, the discussion is extremely important. They discuss the do's and the don'ts and will help you prepare for the performance reviews and will help you be better equipped when you seek specific legal advice. They are a must, and if done right, performance reviews yield positive results. This is a valuable resource in the "It's the Law" series. LISTEN

Related Links:  Holme Roberts & Owen|| It's the Law Channel || Podcast Directory || Entrepreneur Channel || Keywords:  Performance Reviews, Holme Roberts & Owen LLP, HRO, Ashley Jordaan, Gary Armstead >> Bytes: 5382585 LISTEN 9/3/07

374_  Overtime, Comp Time and Wages Can Be Conflicting
OK, you are willing to work some extra time now so you can take some 'comp time' during the holidays.

     "Nope, no can do," suggest Don Samuelson and Eve Burton, attorneys at Holme Roberts & Owen LLP. There are federal and state laws governing 'Overtime Pay'. At a federal level it's the Fair Labor Standards Act that goes back to the 1930s.Individual states each have their own statutes and in Colorado it's Wage Order 23 which has gone through various iterations. It is important for both employers and employees to understand. This can help avoid disappointments as well as class-wide law suits filed by an individual on behalf of self and other similarly situated folks for violations of the wage and hour laws, which then result in pretty significant financial exposure. There are exemptions so listen for some good ideas. This is another valuable resource in the "It's the Law" series. LISTEN

Related Links:  Holme Roberts & Owen || It's the Law Channel || Podcast Directory || Colorado Workforce || Keywords:  Overtime Pay, Holme Roberts & Owen LLP, HRO, Don Samuelson, Eve Burton>> Bytes: 6855056 LISTEN 9/10/07

587_ Colorado Company Taps Into the Best and Brightest the State has to Offer
Here's an interesting switch. Doug Kittelsen, CTO and Chief Product Officer of FTEN and Gary LaFever, FTEN In-house General Counsel, explained that, "FTEN provides global technology solutions that process millions of securities transactions, including over 20% of the entire US Equities daily volume." However the company decides to buck the trends as it related to their workforce. "A lot of publicity has surrounded the decision by many companies to outsource development to Asia – and with that the corresponding loss of domestic jobs, etc. Like many other companies, we previously had a development team in India. What we learned was that because our industry was moving so quickly - it was not possible to properly utilize the strength of the Indian team - they worked best with detailed requirement documents and longer delivery schedules than our industry allowed. The Indian team cost less for more staff - but we have found that it is better to have fewer stronger resources that have the creativity and insights to solve problems in new and unique ways. We saw a market opportunity in the ultra fast market and made the strategic decision to shut down our office in India and start our new product line in Colorado with a team of hand picked elite developers. Mark Weakley, Partner, Holme Roberts & Owen - Boulder, works with many startups, but pointed out that the success and amazing story about FTEN raising capital took an unusual route. Listen now we can all learn from this...
Related Links: FTEN Home || It's the Law || Holme Roberts & Owen || Podcast Directory || Keywords: FTEN, Doug Kittelsen, Gary LaFever, Mark Weakley, Wall Street, Holme Roberts & Owen, Investments, Security Transactions - Channels: It's the Law Bytes:10003333- 11/17/08 LISTEN

540_ $100K in Angel Money and an Additional $650K with More to Come
"Here’s a piece of advice, don’t waste your time talking to a lot of west coast investors if you don’t have a pre-existing relationship. Focus your attention on people that know you and have known you in the past, and you’ll find yourself with a lot more traction in a less time,” says Ari Newman and Tom Chikoore co founders of Filtrbox. Mark Weakley, Partner, Holme Roberts & Owen, Boulder has been working with Filtrbox and knew this was the type of story we like to cover. In late summer as TechStars was wrapping up Tom and Ari brought in about $100K in angel money. That carried them through the end of the year when Filtrbox started some serious fund raising for a seed round. "Fund raising takes way longer than most people think, it’s harder than most people think. It’s incredibly stressful and to actually try to run the business and be fund raising – it’s hard to put your head in two places at once. And if you’re a tiny little startup and you have no capital... flying around, trying to meet investors – ooh! Travel and expense dollars can burn your development budget." So far they have raised around $620K. Their investors are both institutional investors and angels. They have quite a story...listen now...
Related Links: Filtrbox Home || HRO Named Go-To Firm || It's the Law Channel || Holme Roberts & Owen || Keywords: Ari Newman, Tom Chikoore, Filtrbox, Mark Weakley, Holme Roberts & Owen, Boulder, HRO, TechStars, Institutional Investors, Angels > Bytes: 12801570 LISTEN 8/18/08

485_ The Investment Community Still Has Money for the Middle Market
Formerly an attorney and investment banker in New York on Wall Street, David Strong moved to Denver and is now a partner at the Denver office of Holme Roberts & Owen. During our discussion Dave said, "We are still seeing a vibrant economy in the middle market in Colorado, defined as anywhere from $20 to $100 million. There is definitely huge pressure on larger cap deals – credit markets have been tightened significantly – those deals are becoming harder to do. But what we’ve seen is a lot of capital, at least in the middle market waiting to be deployed. Buyers who raised their money before the credit crunch, before the investment community got so skittish. They are looking for value in their market, and I think, still finding it. Those deals still have some leverage, though not as much as prior to the big credit crunch. Terms, everything is a little tighter. We’ve seen valuation go down, exit multiples go down, with the pressure. But we are still seeing good companies getting good valuations and those deals are still getting done." Then Dave got into the selling side...listen for more.
Related Links: Holme Roberts & Owen || It's the Law Channel || ACG Denver Events Calendar || M&A: ACG DEnver Channel || Keywords: David Strong, Holme Roberts & Owen, M&A, ACG, Denver, Credit Crunch, Investment Community - Bytes: 22896956 - 5/5/08

399_ M&A News: ABA Private Target Deal Points Study
The 2007 Private Target Deal Points Study, a project of the Mergers & Acquisitions Market Trends Subcommittee of the Committee on Negotiated Acquisitions of the American Bar Association’s Section of Business Law, is widely recognized as the gold standard for market metrics of key negotiated issues in M&A agreements and has achieved notable popularity among investment bankers, private equity investors, CFO’s and other non-lawyer deal professionals as an “unfair advantage” in negotiating private company acquisition agreements. The Study analyzes publicly available acquisition agreements for transactions of between $25 and $500 million in size completed in 2006 that involved private targets being acquired by public companies. The final Study included 143 acquisition agreements. Hendrik Jordaan of Holme Roberts & Owen and Clifford Pearl of Solomon Pearl Blum Heymann & Stich talked about other issues covered by the study: Purchase price adjustments and earnouts; Catch-all representations and warranties; Closing conditions; Indemnification survival periods, baskets, and caps; Dispute resolution provisions.
Related Links:  Holme Roberts & Owen || Solomon Pearl Blum Heymann & Stich || Mergers & Acquisitions || It's the Law || Keywords:Hendrik Jordaan of Holme Roberts & Owen and Clifford Pearl, Solomon Pearl Blum Heymann & Stich, Mergers & Acquisitions, Private Target Deal Points Study Channels: HRO & ACG - 10/29/07 Bytes: 14207585 > LISTEN

301_ Peer-to-Patent Project - A New Business Imperative
“Peer to Patent Project” or “Community Patent Review” It’s really a breakthrough project in the patent prosecution area. Because for the first time it allows people in the community to participate in the patent granting process. Which up until now has been a semi-secret process that very few of us understand. Now we get a glimpse into what really goes on and we can affect it. Garth Jensen, partner at the Denver HRO office discusses with associate, Lucky Vidmar also at Holme Roberts & Owen this exciting change of events.

Related Links: Holme Roberts & Owen || Community Patent Overview || Peer-to-Patent Project || Peer-to-Patent FAQs || Find It || Keywords: Peer to Patent Project, HRO, Holme Roberts & Owen, Garth Jensen, Lucky Vidmar, Community Patent Review > Channels: Software Bytes: 6493939 LISTEN 4/23/07

Identity Theft:
The Fastest Growing Criminal Activity

388_
Somebody collects your personal information, SS#,
date of birth, other personal identification that you may use in connection with financial transactions, such as your mother’s maiden name or the city where you were born. The number one source for this information is mail theft and computer theft. Chris Ottele of HRO had as their guests, Daniel Bradley, who is the Supervisory Special Agent for the FBI and Lisa Tennyson, Certified Fraud Examiner at Wells Fargo. They shared some statistics along with some advice on how to avoid identity theft. Approximately 30-40% of the information is obtained in either the form of stolen purses and wallets, taken from an individual's home during a burglary – or stolen by a friend or relative or someone who has access to your residence or your employment where you may maintain that information. Some steps are common sense, but most victims don't contact the following: Social Security Fraud Hotline; Federal Trade Commission; Local Police Department and of course your Credit Card Company and your Bank as well as Credit Card Reporting Agencies. Stay protected. probing. LISTEN

Related Links:  Holme Roberts & Owen || It's the Law Channel || Social Security Fraud Hotline || Federal Trade Commission: Identity Theft || Keywords: Identity Theft, Daniel Bradley, FBI, Lisa Tennyson, Wells Fargo, Christopher Ottele, Holme Roberts & Owen LLP, HRO > Bytes: 11627105 > 10/8/07 LISTEN

544_ Colorado Company Looks at Raising Capital in Silicon Valley and CO
Back in the 'dotcom' era, Matt McAdams raised raised capital. Today, Matt is Founder and CTO of TrackVia and pointed out that in 1999 it was a great deal easier to raise venture capital then it is today. TrackVia is a client of Mark Weakley, Partner at Holme Roberts & Owen, Boulder. Mark and Matt discussed some very important 'do's' and 'don'ts' about raising capital in the Silicon Valley vs. Colorado. Here are a few questions that were covered. How did you go about getting meetings with VC firms? Is it effective just to submit a business plan through the firm’s website, or did it require personal introductions and/or more creative routes of reaching the firm? Does it matter whether you’re meeting with an associate at the firm, or with one of the partners? In other words, should you push to have a partner attend your meeting? What was your experience like in Silicon Valley, as a Colorado-based company? Do you think it’s more effective to identify a list of just a few VC firms that look like a great fit, and really work on those firms, or is it better to cast a very wide net and take every meeting you can get? Matt feels strongly about management teams, personal introductions, persistence and improving what you are selling. VCs currently want to see real business traction from startups, in the form of product users/customers. Listen to Matt's discussion and you will hear some very practical, pragmatic thoughts from an entrepreneur who has raised money recently, as well as back in the dotcom boom days.
Related Links: TrackVia || PodCast Directory || It's the Law Channel || Holme Roberts & Owen || Keywords: Dave Drach, Microsoft, David Cohen, Tech Stars, Microsoft Startup Zone, Investors > Bytes: 8796267 > LISTEN 9/2/08

405_ Clean Tech,
Renewable Energy
and Investments
Steve Richardson and Linnea (Nea) Brown of Holme Roberts & Owen discuss the basics of Renewable Energy Credits (RECs), the steps that stakeholders have gone through the last 10 years to establish renewable portfolio standards and how RECs may affect or enhance potential investments in renewable energy and clean tech. They went on to explain that generally a renewable energy project is either wind, solar, geothermal, small hydro, biomass and some other things. And these ‘renewable portfolio standards can be met by either the utility buying and generating the power, or if it can’t generate enough power – it can then buy the environmental attribute from someone else who is generating that power, but not necessarily selling it to the utility. Purchasing the REC is actually purchasing the environmental attribute. It’s not the energy but the perceived benefit of having generated that unit of electricity from a renewable source. It’s that benefit that’s called a Renewable Energy Credit. So in basic terms it represents one megawatt of power generated from a qualified renewable source. REC prices vary from state to state quite a bit. Listen for more.
Related Links:  Holme Roberts & Owen || It's the Law || Conscious Economy Channel || CORE Colorado || Keywords:Holme Roberts & Owen, Steve Richardson, Linnea Brown, Renewable Energy Credits, REC, Renewable Portfolio Standard, Clean Tech, Renewable Energy 11/5/07 Bytes: 13295180 > LISTEN

384_ Climate Change - Legal Implications of the Risks and Challenges
Institutional investors and environmental groups are pressuring corporate America to address the potential risks associated with greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and related climate change, which is defined here as variations in the Earth’s climate that may be attributed to human activity. Many companies are actively managing their carbon footprint through disclosure, trading and reductions. Colin Harris attorney Holme Roberts & Owen explains that most, however, are a step behind, or more. The reality is that the U.S. economy will almost certainly continue to be driven by carbon-intensive fuels and industries for the foreseeable future, even with our continued emphasis on “green” initiatives and despite the enactment of GHG regulations, which now seems inevitable. Nevertheless, the pressure on corporations to act responsibly and promptly on climate change is increasing, with a particular emphasis on the disclosure of the risks posed by climate change. It is a difficult balancing act faced by corporations regarding the challenges of climate change, particularly regarding increased pressure to be more transparent about risk. Listen for more timely information. LISTEN
Related Links:   Holme Roberts & Owen || It's the Law Channel || Podcast Directory || Conscious Economy Channel || Keywords: Climate Change, Colin Harris, Holme Roberts & Owen LLP, HRO, GHG regulations Channel: It's the Law > Bytes: 12012045> 10/1/07 LISTEN

A Written Policy Can Actually Be Dangerous

378_ It's common sense for employers to issue written guidelines and policies. Chris Ottele and Jennifer Miner attorneys at Holme Roberts & Owen LLP point out there are a number of issues to be considered. A written policy is actually one of the most dangerous things an employer can do! Despite the utility it is one area where employers should tread very lightly. Breach of contract suits are often based on written personnel guidelines or policies. Bottom line, whenever an employer issues a written policy or guideline, they better be darn well sure that they are following them! The problem that you always have is that employer writes the policy/guideline, the employers get it, and it is put it in a drawer and never pay attention to it again. That means the employer could be violating the very policy they’ve asked employees to follow...and there is more. This is another valuable resource in the "It's the Law" series. LISTEN

Related Links:  Holme Roberts & Owen || It's the Law Channel || Podcast Directory || Colorado Workforce || Keywords:  Written Policy, Holme Roberts & Owen LLP, HRO, Chris Ottele, Jennifer Miner >> Bytes: 10562981 LISTEN 9/17/07

297_ The Global Marketplace: Taking the Right Steps
It's the little things, let alone the small type that can get you. Regardless of the country you want to be doing business in, things are different...socially, politically economically. Troy Braegger, Senior Counsel at Holme Roberts & Owen focuses on U.S. and cross-border joint ventures, mergers and acquisitions discusses doing business with a top attorney from Mexico, Javier Lizardi. Among the many points made, the position and definition of 'Notary Public' can make a winning vs. a losing situation. Related Links:  Holme Roberts & Owen || Von Wobeser y Sierra S.C. || International || Troy Braegger || Find It || Keywords: Javier Lizardi, Troy Braegger, Holme Roberts & Owen, Mexico, Notary Public, Global Marketplace > Channels:In the News > Bytes: 5824159 >> LISTEN 4/16/07