Closing contracts
for smart companies
We are deal closers with years of experience closing contracts for some of
the best companies in technology and media.
We are in-house style lawyers who take time to understand your business and negotiate in a friendly and effective manner.
We have rates and flexible fee arrangements that save money and cost
a fraction of your primary corporate counsel.
Your In-House Legal Team
You and your team focus on designing, building, and selling.
When it's time to close a deal, you need help.
We have the experience and judgment to help you say
"YES"
to your customer or partner without taking undue risk,
and without fees that eat into your profits.
Experience
We help you close deals.
We have decades of experience supporting businesses selling enterprise SaaS, consumer services, software, hardware, media and more.
We've negotiated thousands of deals of all different types: sales, reseller arrangements, strategic partnerships, tech licenses, policy documents, NDAs, data processing agreements and many more.
Judgment
We act like in-house counsel.
We take time to understand your business. We know that closing deals requires giving - sometimes a little and sometimes a lot. We have the judgment that comes from having worked inside companies and along-side business people. You don't need your deal to be perfect, and you don't need a lawyer who is only going to tell you why you can't do something. We give you information and options to let you make the right call for your business.
Efficiency
We cost less.
It's a fact - our rates are lower than large law firms. And we're happy to work with you on any number of alternative fee arrangements that make sense for your needs. We also cost less because we have the experience to close deals quickly. We don't get hung up on unnecessary or academic issues. We're proactive in getting to "closed."
Meet The Team
Cary Platkin
Co-Founder, Partner
Cary has been providing legal support to software and media businesses for over 20 years. He's been a General Counsel and a tech transactions lawyer in-house at public and private companies including EMC, C3, Siebel, WIRED, Aria, and more. He has represented some of the most successful technology companies in California, including Adobe, Salesforce, Snowflake, NetSuite, FinancialForce, and Marketo. His expertise is in closing commercial and technology transactions. As a start-up counsel, he's handled the full range of day-to-day legal challenges, including commercial disputes , operations, acquisitions, corporate matters, compliance, and security and privacy issues.
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CaMERON SELLERS
Co-Founder, Partner
Cameron is a founding member of Coda Law Group and has practiced law for 25 years. She has experience ranging from working in a large law firm to being on the executive team of a public company. Cameron has represented private and publicly-held emerging growth companies and specializes in corporate partnering, strategic alliances, technology protection, privacy and data protection, open source and licensing and commercialization of intellectual property and technology assets. Cameron’s practice focuses on a broad array of technologies, including software as a service (SaaS), software, hardware, e-commerce, media, and mobile applications. She assists clients with SaaS templates, end user license agreements, website and application terms and conditions and privacy policies, support and maintenance agreements, marketing agreements, collaboration and development agreements, distribution agreements, evaluation and beta testing agreements, and a variety of other in- and out-licensing deals.
Laura Weinstein
Partner
Laura is a seasoned legal executive with over 20 years of experience providing legal and business counsel to high growth companies at all stages of development. Previously general counsel at companies including Planet, Tapjoy, and Symphony Teleca (now Harman, a Samsung Company), Laura has deep experience in complex commercial transactions, international law, mergers and acquisitions, and corporate governance, among other areas, and is an experienced advisor to C-level executives and Board members. Laura has managed a wide range of day to day legal issues, including technology transactions, licensing and intellectual property, M&A, corporate governance, regulatory compliance, international law, litigation management, data privacy, IPO preparation, risk management, employment law, law department and budget management.
Chris Moore
Partner
Chris is an experienced commercial and technology transactions negotiator, having closed thousands of deals for a variety of software and SaaS companies in the Bay Area over a 19-year career. His broad skills include support of direct sales, reseller arrangements, strategic partnerships, professional services, content licensing, and cloud-based computing issues such as data privacy and security. Coda Law Group's clients count on Chris as a trusted partner for any type of technology transaction. Chris re-joins our team after seven years as in-house counsel at Adobe where he negotiated customer and partner deals and advised product teams at all stages of the product life cycle.
ALEXANDRA HARMER
Partner
Ali Harmer focuses her practice on technology transactions with an emphasis on sales transactions, strategic business development, and channel partner programs. Ali has also worked with clients in drafting a variety of IP-related agreements, including licenses, services agreements, and intellectual property assignments. Ali has regularly advised companies from a variety of sectors including hardware, software, cloud-computing, and data.
Prior to joining Coda Law Group, Ali was an associate at Ascenda Law Group. Ali also served as legal counsel at Sega of America, Inc.
During law school, Ali served on her school’s moot court board, clerked at a boutique intellectual property firm in San Francisco, and won the Academic Excellence in Intellectual Property Law Award in her graduating class.
Cathy Ettenger
Counsel
Cathy is an accomplished, client-focused attorney, with more than 20 years of experience inside Silicon Valley technology companies, including Intuit, NetApp, Cisco, VMware, HP Enterprise and Spansion (the latter acquired by Cypress Semiconductor), as well as several start-ups. She is a highly effective negotiator and business partner, closing inbound and outbound transactions and counseling internal clients at all management levels. Her expertise includes SaaS; professional and technical services; enterprise hardware, software, semiconductor transactions; and data privacy and security.
Marlen bernd
Counsel
Marlen advises clients on a wide variety of technology and commercial matters, with an emphasis on SaaS agreements and software licensing, with further experience in corporate international expansion and privacy laws. Prior to joining Coda Law Group, Marlen served as Corporate Counsel for SingleStore, Inc., a database software company and SaaS provider.
During law school, Marlen participated in Moot Court and earned the Santa Clara High Tech Law Certificate – Corporate Specialization. He also served as a legal intern for SingleStore, Inc. Before pursuing a career as an attorney, Marlen was an Own Recognizance Investigator for the Santa Barbara Superior Court.
SCOTT WEAVER
Paralegal
Scott brings over 25 years of experience negotiating IP licenses, with a focus on SaaS for the past 15 years. Prior to joining Coda, Scott was part of the in-house legal teams at Okta, Blue Jeans Network, and Blue Coat Systems working on Fortune 100 on deals ranging from $250,000 to over $3 million in revenue. He also worked at another firm advising clients in a variety of industries - traditional cloud services, entertainment, financial, and health services. Scott takes pride in a fair and balanced approach to negotiations to reach a win for both parties while protecting the interests of Coda clients.
Michele Brasch
Counsel
Michele is an experienced attorney with a demonstrated history working in the tech industry, negotiating and closing complex deals in fast-paced environments, providing strategic business and legal advice, and helping develop operational processes. She is a consensus-builder with a thorough understanding of a broad range of products, technologies and industries. Michele has supported several in-house legal teams, including Yahoo and TrueCar, as outside counsel, and was a technology and commercial transactions lawyer at Akamai Technologies. Specialties include commercial transactions, licensing, contract drafting and negotiation, business development, sales, technology, marketing, and promotions.
Contact Us Today
From one-off deals to regular contracts management, we are here to help.