If you were to read my official bio, it would say something really formal like: "Anna counsels entrepreneurial clients through various stages of their life cycle, including corporate formation, financings (debt, seed, angel and venture capital financings), mergers and acquisitions and other general corporate and contract matters. She works primarily with clients in the technology and biotechnology industries. Anna also represents angel investors and venture capital funds who invest in entrepreneurial companies across the region." Yes, that's all true. But, what this means (in less formal terms) is that everyday I work with some pretty mind-blowing entrepreneurs in the tech, biotech and "other" spaces to help their companies grow and advance towards their end goal AND that I get to work with an amazingly talented team of lawyers who also make my "job" a ton of fun while doing so. Sometimes, I sit on the "other side of the table" and work with investors who invest in clients like ours, ranging from individual angel investors to large national venture capital firms. Having the experience of working with both companies and investors gives us a unique perspective and helps us reach efficient solutions for our client. And, having investor "friends" is always a good idea.As a firm, we're laser-focused on this space-- working with entrepreneurial companies (and investors) is the only thing we do. If we're lucky, we get to be a part of the journey that can start as early as formation and end with a celebratory closing dinner after the company is acquired. I'd love to brag a little more about the folks I work with and learn more about what exciting things you're working on.

I like to juggle lots of things and thought that it would be fun to teach a graduate school class. For four years, I taught a remote online class in Sports Law at VCU's Center for Sport Leadership. During the class, I professed about how things like the constitution, contracts, and Title IX all shape the sports law landscape. Definitely a worth-while experience.

I joined Whitmeyer Tuffin PLLC, after a couple of years with Hutchison. While at WT, I worked with the same client base and worked on the same types of items as I did at Hutchison, just with a smaller legal team. One benefit of this experience was that I learned how to perform many of the different law firm roles. I also was able to get out into the community and meet some exciting entrepreneurs and their companies, which reaffirmed that I want to be doing this for a long, long time. After a couple of years at WT, my practice had grown a bit and I rejoined Hutchison.

The Office of Research Collaborations at Duke Med is responsible for negotiating and drafting contracts on behalf of Duke Med with other companies to ensure that the clinical trial investigator (and Duke's) rights are protected. I assisted in the drafting and negotiation of these contracts.