TVEF - Jeff Seul

Jeff Seul
Partner
Holland & Knight LLP  

Jeff Seul is co-chair of Holland & Knight's Venture Capital and Emerging Companies Team. His practice is focused on corporate matters, mergers and acquisitions, and joint ventures, licensing arrangements and other strategic transactions. Mr. Seul represents clients in the IT, cleantech and biotech sectors. His clients include investors and companies of all sizes, from start-ups to large enterprises.

Prior to joining Holland & Knight, Mr. Seul was general counsel of Groove Networks, a software company founded by Ray Ozzie, who created Lotus Notes and succeeded Bill Gates as Microsoft's chief software architect. Mr. Seul joined Groove Networks in early 2000, before the company launched its first product. He helped raise multiple rounds of venture capital, develop and execute the company's business strategy as a member of its executive committee, and negotiate the company's sale to Microsoft in 2005. Mr. Seul taught at Harvard Law School for several years before joining Groove Networks. He practiced with law firms in San Francisco and Boulder from 1988-1995, representing emerging growth companies or their investors in both regions.

Mr. Seul graduated as class valedictorian from Regis College in Denver, was managing editor of the law review at the University of Colorado School of Law, and was a Landon H. Gammon Fellow and a Climenko-Thayer Fellow at Harvard Law School.

Mr. Seul is a member of the MIT Venture Mentoring Service, a group of experienced entrepreneurs and senior executives who coach the founders of MIT affiliated start-ups; a member of the Innovation Task Force of the New England Clean Energy Council; and a member of the Corporate Development Forum Committee for the Boston Chapter of the Association for Corporate Growth. He was a board member of the Renewable Energy Business Network prior to its merger with the Clean Economy Network. Mr. Seul is a member of the board of directors of C3 Technologies AB, a Swedish venture-backed company that creates photorealistic 3D geographical content for global search, personal navigation and other applications.

Mr. Seul serves as chairman of the Peace Appeal Foundation, an international NGO that designs and supports conflict resolution processes which contribute to the cessation of violent political and ethnic conflict.

Mr. Seul's recent projects include:

Corporate

• Represented SAIC Venture Capital Corporation as lead investor in a late-stage financing for BPL Global Ltd., a smart grid company
• Represented Black Coral Capital in its investments in Digital Lumens, an energy efficient lighting company, and ZETA Communities, a green housing company
• Represented RailRunner, a green transportation technology, in debt and equity financings led by a private equity sponsor
• Represented Knome, a personal genomics company, as it received an investment from and established a strategic alliance with bioMérieux SA

Mergers & Acquisitions

• Represented a leading European private equity firm in the acquisition of the U.S. portfolio of another European private equity firm
• Represented venture-backed companies in their acquisitions by industry leaders, including Microsoft and Novell
• Represented a NASDAQ-listed company in its bid to acquire a mutlinational division of a global company dual-listed in the US and the UK

Strategic Transactions

• Advised Microsoft on its ground-breaking 2006 agreement with Novell regarding Windows-Linux interoperability
• Helped clients enter new markets by establishing joint ventures in Africa, Asia and Europe
• Represented a NYSE-listed semiconductor company in the establishment of joint product development and product sale agreements with major Asian and European consumer electronics companies
• Helped a proprietary software company re-launch as an open source software company and establish a distribution agreement with Novell
• Helped a biorefineries developer evaluate and restructure its licensor's investment and distribution relationship with a global petroleum company
• Led a year-long negotiation on behalf of a non-profit organization representing all U.S. state departments of education in the establishment of a Gates Foundation-funded partnership with Standard & Poors designed to improve the quality and dissemination of state education data
• Helped a solar technology company enter into a development and water supply agreement with a California municipality to serve the long-term water needs of its first utility-scale electric production facility

Speaking Engagements

• "Maximizing Value in M&A Negotiations," ACG Corporate Development Forum, October 9, 2009
• "What In-House Counsel Need to Know," MCLE Program, June 10, 2009
• Panelist, "Corporate Development Forum's Annual 'Hot Topics' Roundtable," Association for Corporate Growth, Boston, MA, October 10, 2008
• Panelist, "Renewable Energy Intellectual Property Issues," New England Clean Energy Council Clean Energy Fellows Program, Boston, MA, August 19, 2008
• Speaker, Funding, Protecting and Commercializing Clean Technology Conference, Boston, MA, April 10, 2008
• "Before the Term Sheet: Increasing Value as You Negotiate an M&A Deal," Presentation to Boston Area General Counsel Group, March 6, 2008
• Panelist, Road to Renewables Conference, Los Angeles, CA, January 18, 2008
• "Policing and Protecting Copyrights in E-Commerce: Fair Use, New Infringement Theories and Secondary Liability Issues," Stafford Publications Teleconference, December 18, 2007
  
  Published Articles & Books
• "How to Maximize Value When Negotiating an Exit," Venture Capital Journal, August 2009
• "Four Takeaways from the Microsoft-TomTom Settlement," Mass High Tech, April 2009
• "The Next Frontier is Anticipation: Thinking Ahead About Conflict to Help Clients Find Constructive Ways to Engage Issues in Advance," Alternatives, June 2007
• "Litigation as a Dispute Resolution Alternative," The Handbook of Dispute Resolution, 2005
• "Settling Significant Cases," 79 WASH. L. REV. 881, 2004
• "Corporate Codes of Ethics: Six Best Practices," Insights on Global Ethics, Winter 1998
"License and Franchise Agreements as Executory Contracts: A Proposed Amendment to Section 365 of the Bankruptcy Code," 59 U. COLO. L. REV. 129, 1988