Partner
San Francisco, CA
Sustainable Business and Impact Investing
Sustainable Business and Impact Investing
Hanson Bridgett's attorneys know that successful businesses and capital markets are a powerful, positive force in the community and make a favorable contribution to society. The firm's client base has always included organizations that are not only the best in the world but also the best for the world, so we recognized long ago that mission-driven capitalists needed legal advice for designing and incorporating their sustainable enterprises, and structuring their investments to generate social and environmental impact alongside a financial return.
The social impact investment arena is rapidly growing and changing and Hanson Bridgett attorneys have valuable insights and connections in both the investment and entrepreneurship realms. We represent sustainable businesses and impact investors in a variety of industries, including venture capital and private equity, financial services, retail, software, advertising, media, entertainment, biotech, medical devices, solar energy, construction (including green building), food, senior care, and education.
Our attorneys assist entrepreneurs with the formation of their companies. We advise them on start-up, finance, tax, securities, and M&A decisions specific to their structures as benefit corporations, and other legal forms that promote social impact, while providing them with the full complement of services we offer other companies. We advise corporations that seek to attain legal status as benefit corporations, and other social impact legal structures, and we guide nonprofits through the legal process of converting to or partnering with for-profit, values-driven enterprises. You may be familiar with the work of clients like Powerhive, MorphOS, Kimpacto, Kairos Society, and Mustard Square. Our attorneys also advise investors interested in opportunities for adding social value to their capital investments by targeting companies, organizations, and funds that generate social impact in addition to positive financial returns. Our impact fund clients include Good Capital’s Social Enterprise Expansion Fund, Better Ventures Fund, Blue Swell Capital Fund and other venture capital firms that offer clients the opportunity to obtain both financial and societal gains. We represent financial services firms that manage portfolios for investors whose business acumen is guided by social awareness.
Our firm is at the forefront of the growing trend to maximize both financial and social potential. Partner Jonathan Storper co-authored the change to the California Corporations Code that created the Benefit Corporation business entity in 2011. Jonathan also consulted with the state of Delaware, which added its public benefit corporation statute to the Delaware General Corporation Law 18 months later. Hanson Bridgett is a proud founding member of B Labs, the nonprofit that offers B Corporation certification, and the first law firm to become a certified B Corporation. Hanson Bridgett continues to be one of the few firms nationwide with an in-depth knowledge of impact investment structures, benefit corporation practices and law; we are both thought leaders and practice leaders in this realm.