Founders Legal

Founders Legal Founders Legal (Bekiares Eliezer LLP) specializes in Corporate law, Intellectual Property & Patents
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Founders Legal (Bekiares Eliezer LLP) is a boutique law firm run by experienced lawyers who are tech entrepreneurs. All of Founders Legal have a firsthand understanding of the demands and difficulties faced by startup businesses and their founders. That is why our team is composed of practical, results oriented attorneys who believe strongly in providing quality, yet cost-effective solutions for o

ur clients. At Founders Legal, we believe that every business deserves the opportunity to start with a solid foundation. Therefore, the main mission of Founders Legal is to provide quality and affordable representation to emerging companies throughout every phase of their life cycle, including formation, growth in operations, development and protection of intellectual property, capitalization, and exit transactions.

Thinking about your first raise? The decisions you make before the money comes in can define the ownership, IP, and fina...
09/01/2026

Thinking about your first raise? The decisions you make before the money comes in can define the ownership, IP, and financing record investors will later ask you to explain.

What founders tend to overlook at the pre-seed stage is that while the company is still proving itself, the paperwork is already carrying real weight. Founder equity gets allocated, contractors contribute code or product work, early checks come in, SAFEs or notes may be signed, and the cap table begins recording decisions that can follow the company into its next financing.

In our latest article, Elena Rogers, Associate Attorney at Founders Legal, explains how to approach the pre-seed stage with enough structure to protect ownership, document your company’s core assets, and reduce the cleanup that might otherwise surface during due diligence.

Read the full article through the link in our bio.

Preparing for your first raise? Schedule a consultation with our team through the link in bio to review the legal foundation of your equity, IP, financing documents, and cap table.

Blue Collar Millionaire consultations are now open.Through the new collaboration between David Does Deals , Founders Leg...
08/31/2026

Blue Collar Millionaire consultations are now open.

Through the new collaboration between David Does Deals , Founders Legal, and Blue Collar Millionaire, members of the community can now book dedicated consultation time around the business, transactional, and legal decisions that become more consequential as companies grow.

To keep the access focused, only two consultation slots with a Founders Legal associate will be available each week.

For business owners who want direct time with David Does Deals, a separate paid consultation option is also available through the same booking link.

This is built for owners who need practical guidance around contracts, ownership, acquisitions, partnerships, succession, and the decisions that affect enterprise value.
Appointments are now live and availability is limited.

Book here: https://form.jotform.com/261955086925166

Patent strategy has always required a broader understanding of the business around the invention.That means knowing how ...
08/28/2026

Patent strategy has always required a broader understanding of the business around the invention.

That means knowing how legal teams operate, how technology companies manage risk, how intellectual property is protected and commercialized, and how those rights carry through financing, licensing, partnerships, and complex transactions.

That same intersection of business, legal operations, and intellectual property is at the center of two September conferences.

The LegalOps.com Running Legal Like a Business 2026 brings legal operations, technology, strategy, and performance into the same room, with a focus on how legal departments function inside modern businesses. Later in the month, the Intellectual Property Owners Association (IPO) Annual Meeting turns directly to intellectual property, with programming across patents, licensing, litigation, trade secrets, emerging technologies, and international practice.

Yuri Eliezer, Co-Founder and Partner at Founders Legal, and Ed Khalili, Partner and Attorney at Founders Legal, will attend both events, contributing to the conversations around legal operations, patent strategy, commercialization, and the practical realities of managing valuable IP inside technology-driven companies.

These are decisions our team works through every day with founders, inventors, executives, and businesses built around intellectual property. Both conferences create a valuable forum to share that experience, engage directly with legal operators and IP leaders, and deepen the conversations around how patent strategy connects with the commercial decisions surrounding innovation.

If you’re headed to Las Vegas for RLLB or to Toronto for the IPO Annual Meeting, we look forward to connecting and discussing the developments shaping patent strategy and IP operations.

An intellectual property dispute can expose weaknesses that were easy to overlook while the asset was simply being used,...
08/26/2026

An intellectual property dispute can expose weaknesses that were easy to overlook while the asset was simply being used, licensed, sold, or built around.

Ownership gaps, missing assignments, poorly preserved evidence, weak confidentiality controls, and careless public statements can all become far more consequential once a valuable asset is contested. That is why the first response matters.

Before any enforcement, defense, settlement, or litigation strategy can be effective, you need to understand what right is actually at stake, whether the ownership record supports it, what evidence exists, which deadlines apply, and what outcome would genuinely protect the asset.

From there, the legal strategy becomes much more deliberate.

Our latest article by Kennington Groff Kuzmin, Partner and Litigation & Trademark Chair at Founders Legal, examines how early decisions can influence the strength of an intellectual property dispute—from the first sign of conflict through its resolution.

For rights holders, founders, creators, and companies with valuable IP, the practical question is straightforward:

If the asset were challenged tomorrow, would the record behind it hold up?

Read the full article at the link in our bio.

A startup can raise capital and still carry decisions from an earlier stage that become much harder to fix later.Founder...
08/25/2026

A startup can raise capital and still carry decisions from an earlier stage that become much harder to fix later.

Founder equity, IP ownership, financing instruments, approvals, contracts, data practices, and governance all accumulate into the record investors eventually rely on. Each stage adds another layer, and the quality of that record can influence how much flexibility the company has when it enters its next financing or transaction.

That progression is the focus of our latest article by Elena Rogers, Associate Attorney at Founders Legal, which traces how the legal demands around a company develop from pre-seed through exit and where earlier decisions can begin to carry greater consequences.

Whether you are preparing for your first raise or approaching a later-stage transaction, the company records you build now will influence what becomes possible next.

Visit the link in our bio to read the full article.

The 2027 Best Lawyers list is out—and six Founders Legal attorneys are on it.Billy Baucom, David Pierce, Ed Khalili, Bet...
08/25/2026

The 2027 Best Lawyers list is out—and six Founders Legal attorneys are on it.

Billy Baucom, David Pierce, Ed Khalili, Beth B. Moore, Kennington Groff Kuzmin, and Kevin Bastuba have been recognized in Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch in America 2027 across intellectual property, patent, entertainment and sports, corporate governance and compliance, and corporate law.

This year’s recognition spans some of the most consequential areas of our practice—from protecting intellectual property and creative work to advising companies on governance, corporate matters, and the legal framework behind growth.

Several of these attorneys have earned this recognition for multiple consecutive years, while others join the list for the first time in 2027. Together, they reflect the depth of work across Founders Legal’s corporate, IP, technology, and entertainment practices.

Congratulations to all six of our recognized attorneys. This one belongs on the record.

Read the full announcement—visit the link in our bio.

Startup Chowdown at Atlanta Tech Village Sylvan reached capacity this week, bringing together a strong cross-section of ...
08/21/2026

Startup Chowdown at Atlanta Tech Village Sylvan reached capacity this week, bringing together a strong cross-section of Atlanta’s founder and startup community.

For Founders Legal, the gathering was another opportunity to contribute directly to that ecosystem. David H. Pierce, Partner and Corporate Chair, introduced the firm and spoke about the legal and commercial considerations that accompany company growth, including transactions, capital, intellectual property, and the broader decisions founders face as their businesses develop.

AdPipe, it was a pleasure to connect with your team again. We value the opportunity to continue supporting the company and seeing the progress behind the business firsthand.

Our broader team was also well represented, with Yuri Eliezer, Co-Founder, Partner and Attorney; Ed Khalili, Partner and Attorney; and Associate Attorneys Elena Rogers and Carter Gaines engaging with founders and operators throughout the event. Elizabeth Weibush and Frances Beasley were also there to support the team and the conversations taking place across the room.

Thank you to Atlanta Tech Village for another successful Startup Chowdown at Sylvan and for continuing to create meaningful opportunities for Atlanta’s entrepreneurial community.

What happens when you hand a prospective distributor your unreleased film—and the master disappears? One producer says t...
08/20/2026

What happens when you hand a prospective distributor your unreleased film—and the master disappears? One producer says the answer is a $105 million lawsuit.

That is the dispute now surrounding Fortitude, an unreleased Nicolas Cage and Ben Kingsley film. Producer Op-Fortitude alleges that an unencrypted DCP was delivered to Netflix for an acquisition screening and was later stolen from Netflix’s offices. Netflix disputes that it bears the risk of loss and has pointed to what it says were missing industry-standard security safeguards. The claims remain pending.

For filmmakers, the uncomfortable part is how ordinary the handoff itself can be. A master goes to a streamer, distributor, sales agent, festival, financier, or prospective buyer before a final deal is signed. At that point, the film is still unreleased, commercially sensitive, and potentially exposed.

That is why custody, encryption, access, return obligations, confidentiality, security incidents, and responsibility for loss should be addressed before the file leaves your control. The legal exposure can exist even without a confirmed leak because losing control of an unreleased master can affect exclusivity, release timing, sales strategy, licensing value, and the position from which the film is negotiated.

Heading Founders Legal’s entertainment practice, Beth B. Moore, Senior Counsel, works with filmmakers and production companies to protect the legal and commercial structure around a project before those vulnerabilities become expensive. That includes anticipating how masters and screeners are transferred, documenting who has custody, strengthening contractual protections, and addressing the points that are easiest to overlook when attention is focused on getting the film in front of the right buyer.

If you are preparing to submit an unreleased film for acquisition, distribution, financing, or private screening, make sure the handoff is protected as carefully as the production itself.

Schedule a consultation with our entertainment law team via the link in bio.

Artists and independent labels now have more ways to structure the business around a release than a traditional record d...
08/15/2026

Artists and independent labels now have more ways to structure the business around a release than a traditional record deal once allowed.

A recent partnership between Reach Records and Exceleration Music is a useful example. The arrangement applies to new releases beginning in 2026, while Reach retains its ownership, leadership, and creative control. Exceleration will provide capital, infrastructure, operational support, and global distribution.

For artists and independent labels, that distinction matters.

Capital, distribution, marketing, infrastructure, and operational support can increasingly sit in separate parts of a deal. The question becomes less about whether to remain independent or sign a traditional record agreement, and more about which rights, services, economics, and controls actually need to be exchanged.

That can put considerably more weight on the details: existing catalog versus future recordings, ownership of masters, creative approvals, recoupment, marketing spend, distribution fees, accounting and audit rights, exit provisions, and even the information an artist or manager is entitled to see.

“Artists and independent labels should understand exactly what they are giving up in exchange for each service, source of capital, or distribution commitment. A deal can be structured around support without treating ownership, catalog rights, creative control, and future releases as a single package,” states Beth B. Moore, Senior Counsel at Founders Legal.

The larger shift is giving artists and independent music companies more ways to structure commercial relationships around the needs of a particular release, catalog, or stage of growth. It also means the agreement itself has to do considerably more work.

If you are negotiating a recording, distribution, label services, financing, or related music agreement, schedule a consultation with our entertainment law team. **Visit the link in bio to learn more.**

When was the last time you checked whether your business has outgrown its trademark registration?A recent federal lawsui...
08/12/2026

When was the last time you checked whether your business has outgrown its trademark registration?

A recent federal lawsuit filed by Live Nation subsidiary Merch Traffic against anonymous online sellers accused of using registered artist trademarks on unauthorized merchandise tied to Nirvana, Bruno Mars, Harry Styles, The Notorious B.I.G., and others offers a timely reminder of how closely trademark protection is connected to the goods and services behind a brand. The allegations remain pending.

But there is a question here that may matter much more to your own business: does the trademark protection you put in place still reflect what you actually sell today?

A trademark registration identifies the goods and services associated with the mark. That may have made perfect sense when you filed. Then the business expanded. A consulting company added software. A media brand introduced merchandise. A restaurant launched packaged products. A creator added courses, events, or subscriptions.

The name stayed the same. The commercial activity around it became broader.

“A trademark filing should reflect the business you are actually building. When the products, services, or revenue streams connected to your brand change, that is a good time to review whether your existing protection still fits,” states Kennington Groff Kuzmin, Partner and Litigation & Trademark Chair at Founders Legal.

Expansion does not automatically mean another trademark application is necessary. It does create a reason to revisit what your existing registration covers and whether your current or planned business activities raise additional filing considerations.

If your business has grown beyond what you were offering when you first filed, it may be time to revisit what your registration actually covers.

If you have questions or believe your trademark strategy should be reviewed, schedule a consultation with our trademark team. **Visit the link in our bio.**

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