TKA Law Firm

TKA Law Firm We put Wall Street knowledge to work for you.ยฎ

Assisting with business transactions & IP.

We advise on a variety of matters ranging from formation to exit, including everyday contracts, venture capital financings, mergers and acquisitions (M&A), as well as trademarks, including choosing a business name and ensuring the name is available and ultimately owned and protected. Shakera Thompson, Principal Attorney
Mailing Address: 244 Fifth Avenue, Suite E128, New York, NY 10001

06/16/2026

Finding another business using the company name creates an immediate urge: send something strong, today.

A strong letter and a strong position are not the same thing. The lawyer who receives the demand typically comes back with three questions:

- What exactly is protected, and for which goods or services
- Who used the name first, and can that be proven with dated records
- Has the company policed the name before, or let other uses go unanswered

If the answers are shaky, the demand can invite a public challenge to the company's own rights, which can be worse than the unauthorized use itself. Testing the position comes first, inside the first 72 hours.

TKA Law Firm provides fractional general counsel with Wall Street transactions experience, applied to testing a company's trademark position before anything is asserted. For an introductory conversation, visit our website.

General information only, not legal advice. Prior results do not guarantee similar outcomes.

06/09/2026

A collaboration can feel like a clean break the moment a partner decides to wind it down. On paper, the work is closing out. What if a shared customer sends a normal email the next day, and the question of who answers it has no home in the agreement?

That is when the exit terms start to matter. Who keeps servicing the shared account? Who keeps invoicing? What does the customer hear? What survives the wind-down? Before signing, each of these is an ordinary point both sides can negotiate fairly. After notice, the same point becomes a favor the other side has little reason to grant.

TKA Law Firm provides fractional general counsel to companies entering partnerships with shared customers, with Wall Street transactions experience applied to determining which exit terms to negotiate while both sides are still aligned. More on our website.

General information only, not legal advice. Prior results do not guarantee similar outcomes.

06/02/2026

The enterprise customer may be ready to buy, but the agreement may still change what the deal is worth.

That often happens when the customer sends its own agreement after the commercial terms already feel settled. The price may be approved, but the legal terms may introduce unlimited liability, broad indemnity, data and security obligations, audit rights, support commitments, or termination rights that were not part of the business conversation.

๐—˜๐—ป๐˜๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—ฝ๐—ฟ๐—ถ๐˜€๐—ฒ ๐——๐—ฒ๐—ฎ๐—น ๐—ฉ๐—ฎ๐—น๐˜‚๐—ฒ ๐— ๐—ฎ๐—ฝ:

โ€ข Liability cap: compare the companyโ€™s exposure against the value of the contract
โ€ข Indemnity scope: separate company-caused harm from broader third-party claims
โ€ข Termination for convenience: consider whether the customer can leave after the company has already spent to perform

Not every issue deserves the same weight. Some terms affect wording. Others change the economics and risk of the deal.

TKA Law Firm provides fractional general counsel to companies navigating enterprise customer agreements, including MSAs, DPAs, and security addenda, with Wall Street transactions experience applied to business posture, legal effect, and negotiation sequence. More on our website.

General information only, not legal advice. Prior results do not guarantee similar outcomes.

05/26/2026

An inbound LOI tends to read like the start of a conversation. The exclusivity, diligence access, and confidentiality sections often operate more like the rules of the deal process.

A "nonbinding" header on an LOI usually describes the purchase obligation, not the process terms underneath it. Exclusivity can foreclose parallel conversations. Diligence access can open the company's files on a timeline set by the other side. Confidentiality can survive long after the deal does not.

๐—•๐—ฒ๐—ณ๐—ผ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ ๐˜€๐—ถ๐—ด๐—ป๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด ๐—ผ๐—ฟ ๐˜€๐˜‚๐—ฏ๐˜€๐˜๐—ฎ๐—ป๐˜๐—ถ๐˜ƒ๐—ฒ๐—น๐˜† ๐—ฒ๐—ป๐—ด๐—ฎ๐—ด๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด, ๐—ฐ๐—ผ๐—ป๐˜€๐—ถ๐—ฑ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฒ ๐—Ÿ๐—ข๐—œ ๐—ฆ๐—ฐ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐—ฒ๐—ป:

- Valuation structure, including earnout and rollover assumptions
- Exclusivity terms, including length and scope
- Diligence access, including what opens and on what timeline
- Confidentiality, one-way or two-way, and what survives
- IP assumptions the buyer is making about what the company owns
- Process timeline, including signing target and approvals

TKA Law Firm provides fractional general counsel to companies evaluating inbound LOIs, acquisition feelers, and strategic-investor introductions, with M&A and Wall Street transactions experience to read the early terms for business posture and legal effect. Leverage tends to narrow once exclusivity or diligence access is accepted. More on our website.

General information only, not legal advice. Prior results do not guarantee similar outcomes.

05/19/2026

In diligence, a "HIPAA-compliant" line on the homepage is read against the contract. If the contract does not require the company to maintain HIPAA compliance, the question stops being whether the website is accurate and starts being whether the company can actually back the claim when someone with leverage asks.

The claims that tend to draw this kind of follow-up in investor, acquirer, enterprise customer, or strategic partner diligence are usually certifications named on the website (SOC 2, HIPAA, PCI-DSS), service-level language ("24/7 support," "fully managed"), and "proprietary platform" framing where third-party licenses are underneath core functionality.

๐—Ÿ๐—ฒ๐˜ƒ๐—ฒ๐—น ๐˜€๐—ฒ๐˜ ๐—ฏ๐—ฒ๐—ณ๐—ผ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ ๐—ฑ๐—ถ๐—น๐—ถ๐—ด๐—ฒ๐—ป๐—ฐ๐—ฒ:
โ€ข If they treat this sentence as a promise, what is the company on the hook for
โ€ข Do the contract, the compliance, and day-to-day say the same thing, or something narrower
โ€ข If narrower, can the claim be tightened to match what the company actually does, or does the company need to shift operations to back the claim

TKA Law Firm provides fractional general counsel to companies making the judgment calls diligence tests. More on our website.

General information only, not legal advice. Prior results do not guarantee similar outcomes.

05/12/2026

A contract that is internally consistent can still generate a list of diligence follow-ups. Sometimes, before the agreement was opened the cap table, the assignment summary, and the one-pager already told the reviewer a version of the company, and the agreement is now being checked against that version.

๐˜ˆ๐˜ฏ ๐˜ฆ๐˜น๐˜ข๐˜ฎ๐˜ฑ๐˜ญ๐˜ฆ ๐˜ฐ๐˜ง ๐˜ฉ๐˜ฐ๐˜ธ ๐˜ต๐˜ฉ๐˜ข๐˜ต ๐˜ค๐˜ฉ๐˜ข๐˜ฏ๐˜จ๐˜ฆ๐˜ด ๐˜ต๐˜ฉ๐˜ฆ ๐˜ณ๐˜ฆ๐˜ข๐˜ฅ ๐˜ฐ๐˜ง ๐˜ข๐˜ฏ ๐˜ฐ๐˜ต๐˜ฉ๐˜ฆ๐˜ณ๐˜ธ๐˜ช๐˜ด๐˜ฆ ๐˜ค๐˜ญ๐˜ฆ๐˜ข๐˜ฏ ๐˜ข๐˜จ๐˜ณ๐˜ฆ๐˜ฆ๐˜ฎ๐˜ฆ๐˜ฏ๐˜ต:

The cap table lists every founder, employee, and contractor with equity, options, or a vested interest. The IP and contractor assignment summary lists every person whose work product the company claims to own. When a contributor's name appears on the cap table but not the assignment summary, or vice versa, the reviewer's question usually goes one of two ways: (1) whether a contributor the company depends on was ever brought into the assignment paperwork, or (2) whether a name on the cap table is someone whose equity came with work product the company is now using.

๐—ง๐—ต๐—ฒ ๐—ฅ๐—ฒ๐—ฎ๐—ฑ ๐—•๐—ฒ๐—ณ๐—ผ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฒ ๐—ฅ๐—ฒ๐—ฎ๐—ฑ:

โ€ข Anyone holding equity for work they did (founder, early employee, advisor paid in equity for deliverables) who is not in the IP and contractor assignment documents
โ€ข Anyone whose work the company depends on today (engineer, designer, key contractor) who never signed an assignment
โ€ข Anything the one-pager or deck describes the company as selling that the customer terms do not address

TKA Law Firm provides fractional general counsel to companies preparing for investor, acquirer, or enterprise customer review, including deciding the right approach for inconsistencies, with judgment grounded in Wall Street transactions experience. For Q2 procurement, financing, or diligence cycles already on the calendar, get started on our website.

General information only, not legal advice. Prior results do not guarantee similar outcomes.

05/05/2026

A short early-stage agreement can include a priority arrangement, such as exclusivity, territory, right of first refusal, or most-favored-nation, that keeps affecting a current move long after the document was signed.

Reading the document reveals what is legally available. The read usually produces three paths, ranging from working within the document as written to changing the document to letting it run its course. Choosing among them is a judgment call. It depends on what else is on the company's calendar, including upcoming financing or sale activity, and other counterparty relationships.

TKA Law Firm provides fractional general counsel as continuous counsel across the business, with Wall Street transactions experience to provide input on options when an early priority arrangement affects a current move.

For companies with an early priority arrangement that may impact a current move, an introductory conversation may be useful.

General information only, not legal advice. Prior results do not guarantee similar outcomes.

04/28/2026

A representation in a signed agreement is a short statement of fact the company stood behind at the time of signing. In many commercial, partnership, and investor agreements, a set of those statements keeps binding the company for as long as the agreement is in effect.

๐—ฅ๐—ฒ๐—ฝ๐˜€ ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฎ๐˜ ๐—ด๐—ฒ๐˜ ๐˜๐—ฒ๐˜€๐˜๐—ฒ๐—ฑ ๐—ณ๐—ถ๐—ฟ๐˜€๐˜ ๐˜„๐—ต๐—ฒ๐—ป ๐—ผ๐—ฝ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ผ๐—ป๐˜€ ๐—ฐ๐—ต๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ด๐—ฒ:

โ€ข Regulatory or compliance statements that fit the product scope at signing
โ€ข Insurance categories that fit the company at signing
โ€ข IP ownership and chain-of-title statements that fit the work product at signing

When an agreement comes up for renewal, a partner escalates a question, or an investor or acquirer opens early diligence, the standing reps are usually one of the first places a reviewer looks.

TKA Law Firm provides fractional legal services to companies, including reviewing reps against current operations, particularly for companies whose late-2024 or 2025 signed agreements are now entering their first real review cycle through renewals, expansions, or early diligence conversations. For an introductory conversation about active signed agreements approaching a review cycle, get started on our website.

General information only, not legal advice. Prior results do not guarantee similar outcomes.

04/21/2026

Security teams answer questionnaires fast because the deal is waiting. The contract and the website usually get updated on a slower schedule, or not at all. On the first questionnaire, the gap is usually invisible.

By the third or fourth time the same answers get reused, a procurement team is reading the questionnaire while redlining the MSA the company sent over, and an investor or acquirer is comparing the questionnaire against what the website actually says.

๐—ง๐—ต๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐—ฒ-๐—ฑ๐—ผ๐—ฐ๐˜‚๐—บ๐—ฒ๐—ป๐˜ ๐—ฐ๐—ต๐—ฒ๐—ฐ๐—ธ:

โ€ข What the completed questionnaire commits to
โ€ข What the MSA says about the same point
โ€ข What the website says
โ€ข For sections that do not match, which document should be updated

TKA Law Firm supports growing businesses as outside general counsel, which includes aligning agreements and website language with the commitments already made in security questionnaires.

For teams heading into an enterprise sales cycle or investor review, an introductory conversation may be useful. More on our website.

General information only, not legal advice. Prior results do not guarantee similar outcomes.

04/14/2026

As a business takes on more sensitive customer data, generic contract language may be doing less work than expected. Treating contact details and proprietary IP the same can slow down investor or customer review.

๐——๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ฎ ๐—ฆ๐—ฒ๐—ป๐˜€๐—ถ๐˜๐—ถ๐˜ƒ๐—ถ๐˜๐˜† ๐—ฅ๐—ฒ๐˜ƒ๐—ถ๐—ฒ๐˜„:
โ€ข Contact information: basic privacy statements and limited use
โ€ข Higher-risk data: regulatory compliance and audit rights
โ€ข Proprietary IP: confidentiality, ownership, and licensing boundaries

TKA Law Firm helps growing businesses adjust contracts and policies as data exposure grows, so readiness keeps pace with the work. Visit our website for a focused review before expansion surfaces issues. General information only, not legal advice. Prior results do not guarantee similar outcomes.

Address

244 Fifth Avenue, Suite E128 (by Appointment Only)
New York, NY
10001

Opening Hours

Monday 9am - 6pm
Tuesday 9am - 6pm
Wednesday 9am - 6pm
Thursday 9am - 6pm
Friday 9am - 6pm

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