Sam Ziegler is an attorney in Founders Law’s Emerging Companies and Venture Capital group. Based in the firm's Denver + Boulder office, Sam provides legal counsel to start-ups across the Front Range and beyond. Creating value for founders and helping start-ups grow is the focus of his practice.  

‍

With a background in corporate transactions, Sam advises company founders on a wide range of issues, including initial formation, corporate governance, and financing through SAFEs, convertible notes, and priced rounds. He is also available to provide outside counsel support to businesses dealing with day-to-day legal issues.

‍

Prior to joining Founders Law, Sam began his legal career practicing private equity mergers and acquisitions law at Kirkland & Ellis in Chicago. Relevant to his focus on start-ups today, while at Kirkland, Sam had the opportunity to facilitate liquidity events for teams of founders who had reached the end of their journey, helping them sell their businesses to investment firms for hundreds of millions of dollars. After his time at Kirkland, Sam gained further experience in the world of early-stage companies while practicing smaller-scale private equity M&A in a Chicago-based boutique law firm.

‍

Sam has taught Business Law as an adjunct professor through Western Colorado University (as a concurrent enrollment course for students at the Denver School of Science and Technology). He is thrilled when his former students join him as interns (and perhaps future attorneys) at Founders Law.

‍

Sam earned his JD from the George Washington University Law School and his BA in Political Science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. As part of his time in the world of education, Sam also earned a Masters in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Denver. While in law school, Sam published his research on US investment in Chinese companies, which has since been cited in reports to Congress and publications by a variety of institutional investors.

‍

Sam enjoys living in the West Highlands neighborhood of Denver with his wife and three young children. His favorite place in Colorado is the slopes of Beaver Creek. He loves nothing more than seeing the joy of his kids as they fall in love with skiing and rock climbing.