How We Work

What services do you offer?

We offer a range of corporate solutions designed to meet your company’s needs as outside general counsel. We are generally a great fit for SMEs, venture funds, and/or startups who have raised a Seed through Series B.

Our attorneys’ practice areas include:

  • General corporate work as outside general counsel;

  • Venture financing, including note and priced rounds;

  • Tax;

  • Intellectual property, including IP sale/licensing deals and trademark portfolio management;

  • Privacy;

  • Product counseling;

  • Commercial and technology transactions;

  • M&A, including asset sales, entity/stock sales, reverse acquihires, and cross-border M&A; and

  • Employer-side employment counseling and representation related to onboarding, termination, and equity compensation.

Experience

We’ve taken great care to hire our venture and M&A staff from BigLaw. You’re getting highly experienced venture and acquisition deal counsel who have done the same (or oftentimes, bigger) deals than yours before joining Mignano Law Group.

Some of the more complex deal experience across our various attorneys include:

  • Seed through Series E Financings, and bridge/extension rounds in between;

  • International restructurings for purposes of American venture capital priced rounds at Series A-C, with a particular focus on UK/EU to US flips and business expansion;

  • M&A transactions up to approximately $90M USD and supporting deal teams on transactions valued in excess of $1B USD.

What’s your rate and retainer model?

  • Base Rate: Our attorneys bill at a rate of $650-750 per hour, depending on company size/stage. Generally speaking, for companies that are pre-revenue or pre-Series A (i.e., $10M+) in venture capital financing, we charge the lower rate. All others (with revenue and/or financing) are charged the $750/hour rate.

  • Expedited Rate: We generally work M-F 9 am - 5 pm PST, where most of our staff is working from home. In the event that a deal requires it, we work nights and weekends/holidays at an expedited rate of an additional $200 per hour on top of the base rate.

  • Min. Retainer: We request a minimum 10-hour replenishable and refundable deposit at the inception of representation, which makes us a fit for growing companies who seek a lower-cost option to BigLaw. For larger transactions such as venture raises or acquisitions, we reserve the right to ask for a larger retainer.

  • SoW and Budget: Our fee agreement is for outside general counsel services. After an initial client conversation, we’ll provide a Scope of Work (SoW) and written estimate over email, and any amounts invoiced are deducted from the deposit.

  • Retainer Replenishment: When the retainer is depleted to the minimum amount specified in the fee agreement, we ask that you replenish in the original amount or an amount we agree to in writing. If you decide to terminate our services before the retainer is depleted, we will refund the balance after invoices are paid.

What’s it like to work with us?

We’re here to guide the process, bring practical ideas to the table, help you make informed business decisions, and keep transactions moving efficiently.

Although we come from BigLaw, we believe sophisticated deals do not require oversized teams. Too often, transactions are heavily staffed, with senior partners minimally involved, work divided into silos, and junior associates handling large portions of the file without full visibility into the broader deal.

We take a different approach.

At our firm, you only get the A-team. Senior lawyers remain directly involved in the drafting, negotiation, and strategic decision-making from start to finish. Our lean staffing model allows us to move quickly, communicate clearly, and avoid unnecessary layers and duplication of effort.

The result is sophisticated, high-level representation delivered with greater efficiency and responsiveness.

We also leverage modern legal technology and AI tools thoughtfully and ethically to streamline process-driven tasks, reducing inefficiencies without sacrificing quality or judgment.

Commonly Asked Questions

Do you have enough people at the firm to do this transaction (i.e., my venture raise, my acquisition, etc.)?

1

With BigLaw law firms, you work with a lot of lawyers, but very few people at the top. You pay $1,200-2,000/hr for a partner who takes your initial call and then delegates your deal to a $600-900/hr first-year associate learning on your dime.

At our firm, you only pay for the A-Team. You get Senior Counsel doing the actual drafting and negotiation. There are no first-year associates. Folks here are experienced and use legal tech/AI, so you don’t need as many bodies in the mix billing you simultaneously.

Yes, we maintain a trusted network of leading boutique and BigLaw specialists across the country and abroad who we can bring in when specialized expertise is needed.

We continue to lead the deal and coordinate those specialists as part of a cohesive team, giving clients seamless access to top-tier expertise without unnecessary layers, duplication, or overstaffing.

Do you have access to specialists when we need them (and how does that work)?

2

What about the “Nobody Gets Fired for Hiring IBM” argument?

3

It’s common for board members and investors to default to top-tier BigLaw firms as a perceived “safe” choice. Especially when there’s pressure to avoid exposure or fiduciary risk if a transaction doesn’t go as planned.

We understand the instinct.

That’s why we built our team the way we did. Every attorney on our venture and M&A team was recruited from top national firms where they handled complex, high-stakes deals. In many cases, those transactions were equal to (or larger than) what we see here.

When you engage us, you’re getting seasoned BigLaw-trained counsel who choose to do this work leanly, strategically, and with full accountability. You can be confident you’re getting qualified, sophisticated representation that boards, founders, and investors can stand behind.

Aside from a lower rate, what makes you different from BigLaw lawyers if most of you came from BigLaw?

4

Faster decision-making. Fewer unnecessary roadblocks. And advice grounded in real business judgment, not legal theory for its own sake.

While many of us trained and practiced in BigLaw, our perspective is fundamentally different. A majority of us are or have been founders ourselves, independent of our legal careers. Our firm is intentionally structured to allow our lawyers to pursue entrepreneurial paths alongside the practice of law.

That means we understand what it’s like to build something, take risks, manage tradeoffs, and live with the consequences of those decisions.

As a result, we don’t stop at presenting research and a menu of legal options. We give judgment. We tell you which terms are truly “market,” which risks matter, and which ones may be better left untouched for practical business reasons.

We also recognize that not every issue needs to be solved with a heavily negotiated provision or document. Sometimes, it’s better to resolve informally rather than through more paper.

Our role is to help you understand the tradeoffs and then support your decision about whether to leave something alone or lawyer it up.