Three’s Company
hey heard all the warnings: Don’t mix work and friends. Don’t start your own firm without ample experience. Don’t offer new hires too much flexibility.
So how have former Berkeley Law roommates Ryan Shaening Pokrasso, Hash Zahed, and David De La Flor flourished at SPZ Legal? By ignoring them.
“Having these strong friendships that predate the firm allows for more honest conversations,” De La Flor says. “We all truly want nothing but the best for each other. When you’re growing a business together, knowing you have that support behind you is invaluable.”
After graduating in 2013, Shaening Pokrasso and Zahed took one-year fellowships. Toward the end of his, Shaening Pokrasso felt “dissatisfied” with what he saw as the two traditional options: a lucrative big law job that doesn’t always involve engaging subject matter, or a public interest job that generates more passion but less money.
“It felt like a false dichotomy and that there’s a third option where you can make good money, have a large impact, feel strongly about your work, and have some balance in your life,” he says.
His parents both own businesses, and Zahed’s father was an entrepreneur. Eager to help startups create social change, they took their own leap and launched Elevate Law and Strategy, later rebranding it SPZ Legal.
There were abundant challenges, especially convincing clients to enlist their services without much experience to offer. They took on small projects, and attended countless events to build their professional network.
“Now we take on much more sophisticated matters and are more intentional about working with mission-focused companies looking to have a positive impact in the world,” Zahed says. “While we’ve come a long way since those early days, we’ve kept our hustle mentality and make it a point not to take anything — especially our clients — for granted.”
After De La Flor transitioned from litigation to transactional work in South Florida, his old roommates reached out about moving back to California and joining them on SPZ’s leadership team.
“I knew it would allow me to focus on the type of work I love,” De La Flor says. “More importantly, being able to work with two of my best friends to grow a firm and mold it in our vision was an opportunity I couldn’t pass up.”
Advising on corporate governance, mergers and acquisitions, commercial contracts, and financings, SPZ works with startups worldwide in industries ranging from financial technology to education to consumer goods. Positive results and a fully remote-work model helped the firm add three lawyers and two paralegals from across the country last year.
“I went to law school because I wanted to develop a tool to expand the impact I could have in society,” Shaening Pokrasso says. “Working with social entrepreneurs really fits that ideal. I think they definitely appreciate having a legal advisor who is mission-aligned and sees the world as they see it.”
— Andrew Cohen