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 following Microsoft's acquisition of Groove Networks. 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 serves, and has served, as a director of several emerging growth companies, including C3 Technologies, Energy Materials Corporation and Movimento Group.
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 Black Coral Capital in its investments in Digital Lumens, Powerit Solutions and ZETA Communities
- represented Knome, a personal genomics company, in its series A and B financings
- represented a prominent angel investor in Dropbox's recent $250 million Series B financing
- represented SAIC Venture Capital Corporation in late-stage financings for BPL Global Ltd., a smart grid company
- represented RailRunner, a green transportation technology, in debt and equity financings led by a private equity sponsor
Mergers & Acquisitions
- represented Epiq Systems in its acquisition of Encore Discovery Solutions
- represented a leading European private equity firm in the acquisition of the U.S. portfolio of another European private equity firm
- represented a NASDAQ-listed company in its bid to acquire a multinational division of a global company dual-listed in the US and the UK
- represented venture-backed companies in their acquisitions by industry leaders, including General Electric, Microsoft and Novell
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