Banking & Finance  October 17, 2016

Innovation drives professional services — and vice versa

Law, accounting firms proliferate in region to serve startup sectors

A large support network of professional-services companies has grown up around Boulder, in large part because the area is such a hotbed of innovation. Entrepreneurs flock to the area because they know there are numerous resources available within the community to support startup companies.

Law firms and accounting firms represent two professional-service sectors that have gravitated to the Boulder Valley and Northern Colorado to serve the region’s growing base of technology, natural/organic, energy and outdoor companies.

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A December 2015 forecast from the Business Research Division at the University of Colorado Boulder’s Leeds School of Business predicted 15,500 additional jobs in the professional and business services sector statewide in 2016 — the highest predicted growth of any sector in Colorado. “The state’s concentration of professional, scientific and technical services is 33 percent higher than the nation,” the report noted.

That concentration is particularly true in Boulder, where law firms such as Berg Hill Greenleaf & Ruscitti LLP, Bryan Cave LLP, Faegre Baker Daniels LLP and Holland & Hart LLP cater to the startup market, as does Cooley LLP in Broomfield. Add in accounting firms such as EideBailley and EKS&H — both with offices in Boulder and Fort Collins — Anton Collins Mitchell LLP, with offices in Boulder and Greeley, and KCOE Isom LLP in Loveland, and the region boasts a wealth of professional-services expertise, with Boulder being a definite hub.

“I think Boulder just has this perfect mix: We have the university here, and we have a lot of large companies here that are spinning things off and, obviously, we have the amazing setting that makes it highly desirable for people to live here,” said Matt Stamski, a partner at Faegre Baker Daniels LLP in Boulder. The area attracts smart and motivated people who want to enjoy the great lifestyle available in the area, he added.

“We love practicing in this space because it is such a vibrant and exciting area to work, and we love helping entrepreneurs who are off trying to change the world,” he said.

Faegre Baker Daniels is a large law firm with 750 lawyers scattered across the United States, China and the United Kingdom.

“We have an office in Boulder primarily to support the innovation economy here, and we have a team here that is dedicated to corporate litigation and anything a company could need,” Stamski said.

Chris Hazlitt, a partner with Bryan Cave LLP in Boulder, came to the area in 1988, when not a lot was happening.

“Things were kind of slow here. It was pretty sleepy,” he said.

He joined a small law firm with about a dozen lawyers who were on the front edge of caring for the entrepreneurial community. At that time, “there just weren’t a lot of legal resources. People had to go to Denver or a greater distance to find that coverage. We were doing it locally at a high level for such a small group. We found that in those days, entrepreneurs really were driven to go to Denver. They just didn’t believe the resource base existed here,” he said.

He and his company wanted to change that.

“I won’t say we singlehandedly changed it, but it certainly has changed. The number of national resources here now was pretty unimaginable back then,” he said.

His current employer, Bryan Cave, has 1,000 lawyers around the world.

Hazlitt likens the Boulder entrepreneurial market to a vibrant garden that needs a lot of caretakers to thrive.

“I think there are plenty of communities with smart people but very few communities with the vibrancy of our market,” he said. “And because we live in a beautiful place, with a very attractive lifestyle and environment that draws a lot of super smart people here, as long as they have the resources they need, they can do very well here.”

Firms such as Bryan Cave try to make it easy on their clients.

“My job is to make our clients successful or to help them be successful. They could certainly do that without local service resources, but it would be harder and we try to make it easy,” Hazlitt added.

Because Bryan Cave is a global law firm, it knows what is trending in the market. Clients can be assured that what the company’s lawyers in Boulder are serving up is going to work with companies they deal with elsewhere.

“We do deals around the world, and we see how other people operate, and we know their expectations, and we can deal effectively with them rather than if you picture a very small-town law firm or accounting firm that’s very parochial or very cloistered in an environment and they don’t see what happens outside their region. We don’t suffer from that limitation,” Hazlitt said. “We know what’s going on in markets around the world.”

Bryan Cave focuses mainly on the technology and consumer products markets in Boulder, in particular software, hardware, active-lifestyle and food and beverage industries.

Hazlitt admits these are very broad categories but “they capture a large part of that entrepreneurial spirit here. We think that’s where most of the action is,” he said.

Bryan Cave helps entrepreneurs with everything from starting their company and the initial capitalization to contracts, data security, privacy, real estate, taxes and litigation support. The Boulder office is known as the emerging markets experts in its firm, so the lawyers in Boulder will help others with private equity financings and structuring deals for venture capital.

“Most of our clients are building something to sell. They are not building a lifestyle company. They are not building a family legacy. They are building something to ultimately sell it within a fairly defined horizon,” Hazlitt said. Most expect to sell in less than 10 years.

Stamski loves working with entrepreneurs. He doesn’t care what industry they are in.

“We get to see them, help them and be part of the team that helps them make their visions a reality. That’s the rewarding aspect of our work,” he said.

Faegre Baker Daniels represents everyone from Fortune 100 companies to two guys in a garage.

“We like to be supportive of anyone who is out there willing to step off the edge there and go for it,” Stamski said. “It is not an easy thing to do to be an entrepreneur. It is a challenging and rewarding and, at times, frustrating and exciting process. But we love to help people who are willing to take those risks.”

A large support network of professional-services companies has grown up around Boulder, in large part because the area is such a hotbed of innovation. Entrepreneurs flock to the area because they know there are numerous resources available within the community to support startup companies.

Law firms and accounting firms represent two professional-service sectors that have gravitated to the Boulder Valley and Northern Colorado to serve the region’s growing base of technology, natural/organic, energy and outdoor companies.

A December 2015 forecast from the Business Research Division at…

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