Anthony Malone
Founder & Managing Partner
Education
Georgetown University Law Center (J.D.)
Gannon University (B.A. International Business)
Corporate and Securities
Anthony represents emerging growth companies as their outside general counsel throughout a company’s life cycle including corporate formation and structuring, equity incentive plan creation and administration, commercial transactions, venture capital financings, and mergers and acquisitions. Anthony also represents angel investors and venture capital funds in financing transactions.
Prior to Co-Founding Nexus Anthony worked at Wilson Sonsini, one of the top corporate law firms based in Silicon Valley. He also started a venture-backed B2C fintech startup while in law school and provided a positive return to investors.
Jonathan Allred
Founder & Partner
Education
Harvard Law School (J.D.)
Brigham Young University (B.S. Information Technology)
Fractional General Counsel, Commercial, Intellectual Property, and Privacy
Jonathan represents startups and scaleups as their outside general counsel in matters ranging from venture capital financings, corporate governance, employment law, privacy, trust and safety issues, and helping companies build out a lean and focused legal department to manage their innovative businesses in heavily regulated fields.
With over twelve years of legal experience, including more than eight years in high-growth startups, Jonathan Allred is an attorney skilled in solving complex legal problems efficiently and in a way that empowers the business. After beginning his career in high-stakes patent litigation at Perkins Coie, he became a key member of Carvana's first in-house legal team during its explosive growth, managing regulatory compliance, intellectual property, and more. He went on to replicate this work in real estate with Opendoor, and then again in education at Prenda (YC S19), where he served as the first legal counsel, handling all legal matters, including their Series A and B financings. His expertise in high-growth startups at a broad range of stages and in several different fields allows him to manage the legal challenges of scaling businesses in dynamic environments.
Ben Hawkins
Counsel
Education
University of Virginia School of Law (J.D.)
Colorado State University (M.S. Conservation Leadership)
Virginia Commonwealth University (B.B.A International Business)
Technology Transactions and Intellectual Property
Ben Hawkins is a technology transactions attorney focused on deploying, obtaining, and securing core intellectual property. Ben provides strategic counsel on complex deals, regulatory compliance, and risk mitigation across the commercial lifecycle. He has expertise in XaaS and licensing agreements involving software, data, and media/copyright, and a particular focus on the rapidly evolving legal issues related to machine learning and AI. Previously, Ben was an associate at Wilson Sonsini, a premier tech-focused law firm based in Palo Alto, where he gained extensive experience advising over 150+ clients from pre-seed startups to public companies.
Nexus Network Attorneys
Laurel Palluzi
Education
The George Washington University Law School (J.D.)
The College of New Jersey (B.A. I/O Psychology)
Commercial & Privacy
Laurel represents venture-backed organizations in commercial and technology transactions. Laurel brings over ten years of broad generalist in-house legal experience focusing on technology transactions and legal operations within technology companies. Most recently, Laurel was Director and Head of Legal at Solo.io, Inc., where Laurel was the first legal hire. She has worked at several technology companies and start-ups, including Elastic and Enova. Her tenure at Elastic included building and leading the Legal Operations function from its inception and managing a skilled group of technology transaction attorneys in the Americas.
Laurel Palluzi is the founder of LAP Legal, LLC, a law firm, and Macadia Strategy Solutions, LLC, a business and legal department operations consulting company. All legal services provided to Nexus clients by Laurel are done so through LAP Legal, LLC.
Matthew Margolis
Education
Florida State University College of Law (J.D.)
Florida State University (M.S., American Government and Politics)
Florida State University (B.S. Political Science and Government)
Corporate, Commercial, & Employment
Matthew is a Florida-based fractional general counsel to startups and entrepreneurs and regularly assists with corporate matters, commercial contracts, employment counseling, privacy, and litigation management.
Matt served as the Head of Legal & Community at a legal technology start-up, and Director of Legal & Risk Management at a Florida based private equity firm. In both roles, Matt provided practical legal advice on contract interpretation, privacy, IP, employment, risk management, and a host of other legal matters. His responsibilities included preparing and negotiating commercial agreements, mitigating potential legal issues, and acting as a liaison between the company and external entities.
All legal services provided to Nexus clients by Matthew are done so through Margolis PLLC.
Anirudh Rao
Education
The George Washington University Law School (LL.M)
Bangalore University – University Law College (B.A.L., LL.B)
Commercial & Privacy
Anirudh serves as outside general counsel to startups, scaleups, and Fortune 500 companies, guiding them through corporate commercial transactions, high-stakes negotiations, and regulatory compliance across multiple jurisdictions, including the US, Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and India.
With over 14 years of legal experience, Anirudh specializes in SaaS, digital enterprises, IT strategy, and navigating complex legal landscapes. Anirudh has worked for large conglomerates including Infosys Limited and Cognizant and has led large deal negotiations linked to over $450mn in revenue and also has deep expertise in privacy laws (GDPR & CCPA), intellectual property protection, and contract automation. He partners with engineering teams to ensure AI/ML product development is legally viable and compliant with regulatory standards. Before his current role, Anirudh played a key role in driving legal strategies for innovative scaleups including elasticsearch, inc., startups and global technology companies and remains dedicated to fostering growth through legal innovation.
Ted Little
Education
University of Michigan Law School (J.D.)
Washington University in St. Louis (B.A., Philosophy-
Neuroscience-Psychology)
Tax
Ted’s practice focuses on providing tax and structuring advice to a wide range of clients as they undertake complex transactions. He has helped to implement a wide variety of domestic and cross-border acquisition structures, including tax-free corporate reorganizations, private equity rollovers, asset sales, and stock sales. He also has experience working on start-up and fund-raising transactions. All legal services provided to Nexus clients by Ted are done so through Ted Little, PLLC
Shefali Lakhani
Corporate, Commercial, & Intellectual Property
Education
Boston University School of Law (J.D.)
Emory University (B.A, Economics and minor in Global Health, Culture, and Society)
Shefali Lakhani is a business and IP attorney, representing startups and small businesses through every stage of growth - from business formation and structuring, to commercial contracts, registering and enforcing trademark and copyrights, venture capital financings, mergers and acquisitions, and everything in between.
Prior to starting her law firm, Shefali worked both in large and small law firms, as well as in the tech and innovation spaces. Working on that side of the table provided her with an entirely new perspective on building a business, solving problems, listening to customers and clients, and creating impact. These experiences now allow her to be an effective legal and business advisor to her clients.
Shefali Lakhani is the founder of Lakhani Legal PLLC, a business and IP law firm. All legal services provided to Nexus clients by Shefali are done so through Lakhani Legal PLLC.
Josh Mertzlufft
Patents
Education
State University of New York at Buffalo School of Law (J.D.)
Houghton University (B.S., Applied Physics with minor in Mathematics)
Josh Mertzlufft is a patent attorney who has quarterbacked patent applications all over the world. With a background in applied physics and entrepreneurship, he has experience working with clients ranging from pre-seed startups to stock exchange-listed corporations innovating in space, tech, energy, and robotics. In 2021, Josh left big law and founded Stake, a full-service intellectual property law firm helping deep tech startups build tailored IP portfolios using our global experience and our boutique attitude. We are a global practice with clients across North America and cases in 60+ countries.
All legal services provided to Nexus clients by Josh are done so through Mertzlufft Law PLLC d/b/a Stake.