Founder, JD: How America's Top Lawyers Leverage their Law Degree in the Startup World and How You Can Too

by Raffi Garnighian, Eric Koester

Lawyers have left a major mark on the startup ecosystem, but perhaps not as you'd imagine. Their biggest mark is as Founders. In their new book Founder, JD, authors Eric Koester and Raffi Garnighian examine more than 400 startup founders who have also earned a law degree in order to uncover the surprising impact of their contributions across some of the largest ventures, funds and companies in the startup ecosystem. Throughout their research, they uncover a treasure trove of stories from some of the most successful lawyers-turned-founders and share an effective framework for how lawyers and law students can leverage their legal skills, experiences and connections to make their own similar leap into the startup world. As Founder, JDs themselves, Koester and Garnighian share real world insights from other successful Founder, JDs * removing the stigma lawyers often face when entering the business world, * leveraging the power of thinking like a lawyer, and * unlocking the keys to making one's startup a success in ventures inside and outside the legal profession.

270 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 13, 2019

Reviews

[Sonja Mcintosh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book on how to look for opportunities

This is a helpful book for those just jumping into law. Much if the strategies employed are more about not getting trapped into a traditional path than they're about leveraging your law degree. I think the strategies r exceptional and very helpful, I just don't think you ned to be a lawyer to employ them or leverage them. That said great helpful and good way to reframe what is possible with your JD

[Julian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Useful for anyone looking to expand beyond just the title of their career. Not all of the advice is specific to lawyers. Though there are some really good lawyer centric tidbits. Much of the examples were of people who got another degree before switching, I wish it was clearer to me how their law degree then helped them. I was not able to pick that out. Still super helpful overall

[Lance · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Good Read

This book was well written and enjoyable. I’m a MBA that’s headed to law school and hope to use the teachings to enhance my business impact. This book increased my motivation 10 fold!

[Kevin King · Rating 1 out of 5]

There is absolutely nothing wrong with self-publishing a book.

But here is a short list of things that self-publishing does not preclude:
1. Proofreading.
2. Spellchecking.
3. Basic knowledge of grammatical structure.
4. Oh, and having something to say.

A sampling of actual sentences from the book:

—-
P.61
“We ask you not to bring Eric.”

“You seem too businessy, Raffi, why don’t you get an MBA instead?”

Screw you too.
—-

This direct quote is the conclusion to the chapter entitled “Overcoming the Stigma.” If you are able to decipher language that would indicate English is a distant second or even a third language, then those are the types of insightful lessons awaiting you at the end of each section.

In other passages, we learn that to hone expert lawyer skills, (again, this is a direct quote):

—-
P. 250
“Read, read, read.” And later, on the same page,
“Blog about it.” Just to tie a bow on this section, I should let you know the final admonition is
“Prove yourself.”
—-

I won’t waste any more of my time or yours describing this drivel.

I think the authors made their point. They found a way to pay off their law school loans by doing something other than practicing law - it’s to self-publish a book with a clickbait title, expend no effort in researching, writing or editing it, then tweak the SEO game just long enough to get you to pay $20 before you realize you fell for it.

It’s not like they’re trying to hide it from you - in their words, Screw you too.