Based in the firm’s Chicago office, Erika is a partner at Founders Law, a law firm built for the next generation of technology companies and their investors. She represents founders, investors, and emerging technology companies working in software, AI, blockchain, quantum computing, and other data-driven products, drawing on 16 years of combined legal and financial experience.

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For Founders and Companies

Erika advises early- and growth-stage technology companies from first incorporation through exit on the full range of startup and transactional needs. Her work includes formation and founder arrangements, cap table and equity incentive design, and multi-entity structuring for modern ecosystems, including IP holding companies, operating subsidiaries, SPVs, and fund vehicles, as well as customer, vendor, and platform agreements calibrated to how data, models, and IP actually move through contemporary products. She regularly leads clients through equity financings, conversions, acquisitions, and mergers, aligning deal structure and product roadmap, regulatory strategy, and investor expectations.

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For Investors and Institutions

With experience as both an emerging-tech regulatory lawyer and Investment Advisor, Erika represents angels, syndicates, and funds investing, with an emphasis on clean governance, information rights, and clear exit pathways. She also helps financial and cultural institutions design partnerships with technology companies, from pilots and proofs of concept to long-term collaborations, in ways that integrate institutional risk, compliance, and brand considerations without stifling innovation.

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TECHNĒ Chicago and Art x Tech

Outside of the firm, Erika is the co-founder and Executive Director of TECHNĒ Chicago, an art x tech summit and platform that convenes scientists, artists, technologists, and institutional leaders for programs such as “Art + Interpretability in the Age of Quantum Computing” at Hyde Park Labs. Through this hybrid art-tech consultancy and creative studio, she produces and curates symposia, digital art activations, and contemporary art performances and advises museums, orchestras, labs, and technology companies on integrating emerging technologies into cultural infrastructure.

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Background and Community

Erika began her career as an Assistant Public Defender in Cook County, trying more than 300 bench and jury trials and building the advocacy skills she now brings to complex business and regulatory matters. She later advised on portfolio and wealth strategy at William Blair, deepening her understanding of investor priorities and capital markets. A graduate of Loyola University Chicago School of Law and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, she is an active member of Chicago’s cultural community through long-standing leadership and service with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s Overture Council. At home, she is kept in line by her Pomeranian, Mr. Darcy.