Re:Law firm funded by venture capital?
by petercooper on Friday December 19, 2008 @11:18PM
(#404259)
Generally speaking venture capitalists fund companies that can either be acquired for a substantial sum, or that can go public.
There are investors in other industries who would not have "go public" as a condition, although they may not be VCs per-se. Law firms can be acquired for significant amounts though and they're usually very profitable, so there's an opportunity, but unlike technology/sciences/product development/retail it's really hard to weigh up the factors surrounding a law firm to establish the risk.
I don't know of any law firms that have gone public
It's pretty much unheard of (the first went public in 2007 - http://is.gd/cDks). There are lots of potential issues, such as loyalty to shareholders affecting attorney-client privilege. There are laws in the UK and US regarding this too. Don't quote me on this, but commonly non-lawyers cannot own shares in law firms in the US.
There are investors in other industries who would not have "go public" as a condition, although they may not be VCs per-se. Law firms can be acquired for significant amounts though and they're usually very profitable, so there's an opportunity, but unlike technology/sciences/product development/retail it's really hard to weigh up the factors surrounding a law firm to establish the risk.
I don't know of any law firms that have gone public
It's pretty much unheard of (the first went public in 2007 - http://is.gd/cDks). There are lots of potential issues, such as loyalty to shareholders affecting attorney-client privilege. There are laws in the UK and US regarding this too. Don't quote me on this, but commonly non-lawyers cannot own shares in law firms in the US.