Building a Strong Legal Foundation for Your Business

• Learn how to start, grow and protect your business
• What are do’s and don’ts for starting a small business
• What kinds of contracts do you need and what are points you should pay attention to when creating or signing one

Speakers:

Morvareed Salehpour, Esq.

Morvareed Z. Salehpour is Managing Attorney of Salehpour Legal, a law firm specializing in assisting entrepreneurs, startups, and businesses in creating and negotiating the strongest contracts and tech transactions for scaling and protecting their businesses. She also counsels them on issues involved with services and product features and launches, intellectual property licensing and protection, data and privacy rights, and cybersecurity issues. She has represented clients across the nation ranging from entrepreneurs and small businesses to Fortune 500 companies and works in a variety of industries. Ms. Salehpour is a graduate of UCLA and UCLA School of Law. Morvareed is also Past-President of the Santa Monica Bar Association, Board Member and Career Chair for the UCLA Alumni Westside Bruins Network, Board Member and Co-Event Chair of UCLA Law Women LEAD, and a regular speaker and writer on business and tech law issues.

Cathryn Gawne, Partner at M&H, LLP

Cathy has over 20 years of experience in counseling early and mid-stage public and private companies on growth strategies such as raising capital through private and public equity and debt financings. She provides guidance on corporate governance and SEC reporting issues, counsels entrepreneurs who are starting new businesses, and helps clients grow their businesses through strategic partnerships, joint ventures and mergers and acquisitions. In one aspect of her corporate/securities practice, Cathy represents high net worth investors, entrepreneurs and C-level executives faced with complex and far-reaching decisions and transactions involving their business investments and assets. Cathy’s clients are leaders in Silicon Valley high technology industries who seek her unique blend of expertise in securities law and independence from conflict, for thoughtful advice focusing on protecting their individual interests in critical transactions, such as financings and mergers/acquisitions. Cathy holds an A.B. from Stanford University and a J.D. from the UCLA School of Law. She is a member and the current Secretary of the State Bar of California Business Law Section’s Corporations Committee, and a member and former Chair of the Board of the Silicon Valley Chapter of the Association for Corporate Growth. She has been named by the Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal as a Woman of Influence, and has received a YWCA Tribute to Women in Industry (TWIN) Award from the YWCA of Silicon Valley. For the past nine years, as a proud member of Stanford University’s 12th Man Club (a group that secures summer employment for members of the Stanford University football team – Go Cardinal!), Cathy has sponsored and mentored a number of football players as summer law clerks, several of whom are now practicing attorneys.

This program is sponsored by the SBA Community Navigator Pilot Program (CNPP). The CNPP program is an initiative funded through President Biden’s American Rescue Plan, to strengthen SBA support for small business and underserved business by connecting them to national, state, and local resources. The USPAACC-WEST serves as one of 15 nationwide spokes under USPAACC to assist in this initiative.

The CNPP program was designed to help small business, with a focus on those owned by veterans, women, and socially and economically disadvantaged individuals  including in rural and urban communities that had been hit the hardest by the COVID-19 pandemic and severe economic impacts. Through the SBA Community Navigator Pilot Program, the USPAACC-WEST offers a host of FREE consultation services, training and resources to small businesses.

For more information email us at angela@uspaacc-west.com