For over 15 years, Paul has practiced business, corporate, commercial, and intellectual property law in Silicon Valley and has served as a business and corporate lawyer for a broad range of startup and business clients, from sole proprietorships to leading public companies in the high tech field. He has concentrated on helping entrepreneurs, founders, executives, and the companies they own and operate, in all types of industries. With respect to the tech field in particular, Paul has worked with start-ups in depth at every stage of their development: formation, founder arrangements, intellectual property protection, funding, technology licensing, strategic alliances, and acquisition. Paul functions as a key strategic adviser to start-up businesses and brings substantial experience and depth to that role. He has a direct style that appeals to entrepreneurs as well as a credibility that serves clients well in negotiations.
Atypically for transactional lawyers, Paul also earned an MBA prior to law school, and prides himself on working as a business partner with the client to provide solutions rather than take the typical legal naysayer approach.

All this makes Paul highly versatile for start-up and small business transactional needs. He has learned how to explain complex issues in simple terms and how to keep a strategic perspective amidst the many details involved in the matters in which he specializes. In his practice, Paul emphasizes long-term bonds of trust and loyalty with clients.

Paul received his B.S.B.A. in 1990 from the University of Southern Mississippi with highest honors in economics, and received the Wall Street Journal Award for Excellence in International Business.  He received his M.B.A. in International Management from the Monterey Institute of International Studies in 1991. He received his J.D. from the University of Santa Clara Law School in 1994, where he worked extensively with and for the legal research database company Lexis-Nexis. He has worked as an associate attorney at the Silicon Valley law firms of Ritchey Fisher Whitman & Klein (now Dorsey & Whitney), Graham & James, and Gray Cary Ware & Friedenrich (now DLA Piper) where he worked extensively with public and private companies in all phases of their life cycles. Paul then went “in-house” and served as Managing Counsel at Ariba, Inc., Senior Corporate Counsel at Intuit, inc., and Legal Counsel at Electronic Arts, Inc., gaining real-world perspective on the daily business operations of large public companies. Since 2008, he has specialized in serving start-up and small-to-medium-sized businesses in Silicon Valley and the surrounding San Francisco Bay Area.

Prior to law school, Paul served as a Weather Specialist in the U.S. Air Force Hurricane Hunters, flying aerial surveillance of tropical storms and hurricanes in the Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico and the Central Pacific Ocean. Paul has multiple penetrations of named hurricanes to his credit, a background that prepared him well for the more difficult moments in a lawyer's life.

Paul has a keen interest in the application of computer technology, having created a comprehensive business plan for the German company GeoNet GmbH in meeting the thesis requirement for his M.B.A.  The business plan, which was successfully implemented, featured electronic messaging, fax, telex and international Dialog database access in 13 languages.  Paul's technology interests have also led him to consult as an instructor for the legal database company Lexis-Nexis in both San Francisco and London, England.  Those same real-world computer and business skills are a valuable resource to clients in understanding and exploiting high-technology business opportunities.

Paul was born in Elizabeth, New Jersey on October 22, 1961. Once proficient in both German and Italian, he now strives to maintain his foreign language skills between regular trips to Europe.  Paul is an instrument-rated private pilot, certified open water SCUBA diver, experienced international sailor and boat owner, avid kayaker and bicyclist as well as a dedicated father.