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Samuel Asher Effron

Member / Co-chair, Venture Capital & Emerging Companies Practice

[email protected]

+1.212.692.6810

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Sam’s practice focuses on venture capital and other private securities transactions, counseling start-ups and emerging growth companies, funds and crowdfunding platforms. Sam is heavily involved in the start-up community in New York and regularly advises and mentors young companies and entrepreneurs regarding the legal and business issues that they face, and speaks at many of the local accelerators, incubators and co-working spaces.

Sam is a co-editor of MintzEdge, an online resource for entrepreneurs that includes useful tools and information for starting and growing a company, and is the co-editor of MintzTech Connect, Mintz’s periodic newsletter on "all things technology" in the legal and business world.

Sam provides counsel to private companies and venture capital funds operating and investing in a diverse range of industries, including biotech, fintech and financial services, media, artificial intelligence, blockchain, cybersecurity, CPG, insuretech and SaaS, among many others. Sam’s pro bono experience includes assisting asylum seekers apply for permanent asylum in the United States, representing not-for-profit clients to obtain federal tax-exempt status and providing legal services to victims of domestic abuse.

Prior to joining Mintz, Sam worked in the film and television industry on productions shot in and around New York City. He later served as a project manager at an online marketing and strategy agency, where he led a team of designers, writers, and programmers to create websites for clients including musician Sting. Subsequent to his agency work, Sam was the third employee of a start-up specializing in liquidation of technology assets for downsizing dot-com companies.

During law school, Sam was a staff member of the Cardozo Law Review and worked as an intern at the legal departments of This Is That Films and DC Comics.

viewpoints

Founded in 2012 and headquartered in New York City, T-REX’s secure, enterprise SaaS-based analytics, risk, and portfolio management platform standardizes and provides transparency to the complex structured products evaluation process, increasing liquidity and creating significant investment opportunities for the hundreds of billions of dollars of capital across various esoteric, non-commoditized asset classes.

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Our client, Benji Cohen, was running an Energy Markets Division at Macquarie when he had a lightbulb moment. Everywhere he looked valuation models were being put together in the most laborious way imaginable, with Excel tables containing hundreds of columns and thousands of rows. Benji saw a real point of pain in the marketplace and acted on it. Thus, in 2012, Benji created T-REX as a subscription-based, SaaS, FinTech platform that could compress the time for the valuation process to make the process 50 times faster and more accurate as well. And, the focus would be in a growing niche — the renewable energy sector. Benji was able to see the size of the opportunity, the point of pain in the marketplace, and the solution. With much hard work and great execution, T-REX is now a leader in this part of the FinTech space. In this edition of TechConnect, we highlight T-REX in our Innovator Profile.
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United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) recently announced a new proposed rule for entrepreneurs. If the rule becomes law, qualified entrepreneurs would be considered for parole (temporary permission to be in the United States) to jumpstart and build their businesses in the United States.
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At MintzEdge, we are already thinking about how a recent immigration law development may help our clients grow their ventures. The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) recently announced a new rule for entrepreneurs. If the rule becomes law, qualified entrepreneurs would be considered for parole (temporary permission to be in the United States) to jumpstart and build their businesses in the United States. The rule is a path-breaking proposal because it seeks to use and retrofit an existing immigration benefit called “parole” to meet the needs of entrepreneurs, who may otherwise be unable to secure a nonimmigrant visa such as an H-1B or E-2 visa.

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Vidrovr can index, search, and recommend video content in a cost-effective, automatic, and accurate manner. Vidrovr addresses three key market needs: 1. Domain and customer-specific automatic metadata generation for videos, 2. Video Content Management solutions that enable automatic placement and recommendation of video clips for across a company’s digital products, and 3. Automatically linking and sourcing visual social media content that is relevant to a particular video or online article before it is published. Vidrovr was recently named as one of the winners of the prestigious Publicis90 competition, which entails investment and mentorship from Publicis Groupe.

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The world of raising capital for emerging companies has experienced a revolution. Prior to the enactment of the JOBS Act in 2012, raising capital for private companies was limited to offline communications and was dominated by professional venture capitalists; now the capital raising process has been democratized. Capital can be raised online directly by companies or through intermediaries. It can be accomplished by crowd sourcing to “accredited investors” or, in limited amounts, by crowdfunding to everyone. Additionally, companies can raise capital in an “IPO lite” manner by using the new Reg A+.

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We are often presented with the question of whether electronic signatures are enforceable. The answer is yes. There is an entire statutory regime under both state and federal law which gives validity to electronic signatures. This article gives a high level overview of best practices for optimizing your use of electronic signatures.

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New York-based advertising powerhouse Grey Group has launched a new, tech-focused unit aimed at engaging directly with the cutting-edge material required by its present and future clients. Called Grey Adventures, the unit will work to create new products, services, and business models for the agency. Partnering with both innovative start-ups and established tech companies alike, the practice combines Grey’s creative capital with its deep, material understanding of the tech space. The team will be led by Evan Kraut, Grey’s managing director of Grey Adventures, and Darren Moran, the agency’s head of innovation.

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SeedInvest is a leading equity crowdfunding platform founded in 2012. Its mission is to transform the broken private company fundraising process to make it easier for entrepreneurs to raise capital by opening up access to venture capital and angel investing to everyone. Equity crowdfunding is important because it has the potential to allow founders to spend less time fundraising and more time building their businesses, which is what matters most. It also allows startups to turn their most ardent supporters and customers into investors for the first time.

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In this issue, we answer the question we are asked on a weekly basis: Are electronic signatures enforceable? (spoiler alert….the answer is YES). We also feature an amazing company called SeedInvest, a true pioneer in terms of raising a company online from the crowd. Additionally, consistent with our focus on robotics, we have an interesting article about selling your robotics company.

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News & Press

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Law360 covered Mintz's partnership with legal tech provider Clara. The move allows Clara to enter the U.S. market.

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Through its creative partnership with legal tech provider Clara, Mintz provides founders with a cost-efficient way to start a US business. Utilizing Clara’s platform, Mintz created templates that enable users to form Delaware companies and prepare all necessary documents while additionally helping founders to meet all legal requirements.

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My Startup World covered Mintz's collaboration with legal tech provider Clara and quoted Members Dan DeWolf and Sam Effron.

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Mintz advised Cardurion Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a biotechnology company developing novel therapeutics to treat heart failure and other cardiovascular diseases, in a private investment of up to $300 million from Bain Capital Life Sciences and Bain Capital Private Equity that will enable the Boston-based company to expand its drug discovery programs.
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In an article published by STAT, Mintz Member Samuel Effron was quoted on use among biotechnology and other companies of U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Rule 506(c), which was designed to allow entrepreneurs to solicit funding more broadly.
Fourteen Mintz attorneys have been named New York Super Lawyers for 2017 and thirteen have been named New York Rising Stars. New York Super Lawyers recognizes the top lawyers with the highest degree of peer recognition and professional achievements.  
Mintz has elevated five attorneys to Members of the firm. “These attorneys consistently demonstrate excellence in the delivery of legal services to the firm’s clients,” said Bob Bodian, Managing Member.
Sam Effron, an emerging companies attorney, authored a post on VC Experts Blog tracking the filings for crowdfunding on Form C made with the SEC since May 2016 when Regulation Crowdfunding (Reg CF) went into effect.
Sixteen Mintz attorneys have been named New York Super Lawyers for 2016 and twelve have been named New York Rising Stars. The list will be published in a special advertising supplement in The New York Times Magazine and in a stand-alone magazine, New York Super Lawyers - Metro Edition.
Daniel DeWolf, Co-chair of Mintz’s Venture Capital & Emerging Companies and Technology Practices, and Associates Sam Effron and Rachel Gholston, authored this VC Experts Blog piece providing a clear overview of the best practices businesses can implement when using electronic signatures.
Sam Effron, a New York-based emerging companies attorney, is quoted in this New York Times article discussing new crowdfunding rules that will allow essentially anyone, not just professional investors, to have a stake in entrepreneurs of their choosing.
Thirteen attorneys from Mintz have been named New York Super Lawyers for 2014 and eleven have been named New York Rising Stars. The list will be published in a special advertising supplement in The New York Times Magazine and in a stand-alone magazine, New York Super Lawyers - Metro Edition.
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Events & Speaking

Speaker
Jul
30
2019

TechGC Roundtable

San Francisco, CA

Speaker
Apr
10
2019

TechGC Roundtable

New York, NY

Speaker
Apr
3
2019

The First Most Important Decision for the Entrepreneur: How to Choose the Right Corporate Entity for Your Startup

BioLabs@NYULangone

BioLabs@NYULangone, 180 Varick St., 6th Floor, New York, NY

Speaker
Mar
27
2019

Lunch and Learn at JLABS @ NYC

JLABS @ NYC, 101 6th Ave, New York, NY

Speaker
Speaker
Mar
15
2018

Legal Clinic

NYC MediaLabs

Moderator
Aug
2
2017

New York Business Clinic: Finance, Funding & Legal

Cleantech Open Northeast

New York, NY

Speaker
Aug
2
2017

New York Business Clinic: Finance, Funding & Legal

Cleantech Open Northeast

New York, NY

Speaker
Mar
17
2017

Corporate Formation Workshop

NYC Media Lab

New York, NY

Panelist
Sep
13
2016
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Recognition & Awards

  • New York Super Lawyers: Rising Star – Securities & Corporate Finance (2011 – 2017)

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Involvement

  • Guest Lecturer, High-Growth Corporate Transactions, Cornell Law School at Cornell Tech
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Samuel Asher Effron

Member / Co-chair, Venture Capital & Emerging Companies Practice

New York