A lot of years ago Joe Caruso, CEO of Palomar Medical Technologies, Inc., tried to convince me to go “in-house” at the company. Basically, he said, “look, nobody can blame you for taking a shot.” This was before Palomar’s hard times and, of course, before their current success. Needless to say, I didn’t take the job. Joe is many times a millionaire and I am still scratching around looking for billable hours. 

What is it that makes you want to take on an entrepreneurial mission?

About five years ago, before my time on the firm’s executive committee, our firm asked each of the departments, litigation, corporate, admin etc., to develop a business plan. The corporate department plan had many elements but one of them was to open a Waltham office. The plan was approved and, the plan for a Waltham office, languished. Fast forward, time passed and the question arose, are we really going to do this (open a Waltham office)? By this time I was on the Executive Committee and it fell to me to explore whether or not to open the office. 

I did a bunch of background work, and fundamentally the project did not make sense. There was no set of projections that I could come up with that showed us making money on this office in a reasonable time frame. Furthermore, it was never clear that any partner would want to lead the effort.

Consider this from the point of view of a venture capitalist. Would you do a start up in a mature industry  with several large robust and deeply entrenched competitors in which there is no barrier to entry? There is not a logical business argument for this plan, and with all respect to our Executive Committee, we decided to proceed on a split vote. The decision to go forward was made on the narrowest of margins.

So, why on earth did we do this? I could give a lot of reasons why: a creative business plan (which I believe we have), certain market dynamics (who wants to be a small client at a huge multinational law firm or who wants to be a small client at remote office of a west coast firm) etc., but the real reason, if the truth be told, is that I believe in the mission and I was willing to lead the effort. At some level I can’t imagine doing anything else.

Hokey as it may sound, to me the mission is not just making money for Foley Hoag.  Entrepreneurship is our future as a society. It is the new ideas that will make for a quality future for my kids (and yours). A world in which everyone competes for who can make the lowest cost shoes will not make a vibrant future for our children (nor, frankly, will it feed the starving masses in Africa). So part of my motivation is the mission: help to foster great entrepreneurs and great new companies.

The other reason, the real reason, is fun. A lot of years ago another friend of mine told me, “There is no excuse for not having fun.” The most fun I have had in the practice of law has been representing and developing a close relationship with entrepreneurs. [If you want to represent Citibank or Goldman, it is OK with me. I would rather represent Tom Burgess or Foster Hinshaw.] Joe is still a great client, but we really had fun when things were crazy and we didn’t know where the next paycheck would come from.