Ken Priore

• Senior Managing Counsel · Partnerships
• Senior Commercial Counsel

Lead counsel on the enterprise infrastructure migration to Google Cloud: months of negotiation, dozens of teams, Board and C-suite engagement. Ran partnership legal for technology integrations with Microsoft, Salesforce, Apple, Google, Slack, Zoom, and Okta; oversaw procurement legal for more than 2,000 vendors; and re-engineered the contract review process around a new CLM as the pandemic reshuffled priorities.

Lead commercial counsel for IoT hardware and software sold to utilities and smart cities. Structured and negotiated the full range of technology agreements, from software licensing and cloud services to manufacturing and supply, and drafted the NaaS and SaaS templates the business standardized on. Closed transactions across APAC and EMEA inside a matrixed organization, and ran recurring privacy and security audits of vendors and key partners. Itron acquired the company for $830M in January 2018.

Commercial counsel, on secondment, negotiating the agreements a payments platform runs on: the master payment processing agreement, software licensing and consulting MSAs, and co-marketing and seasonal campaign agreements for merchant services and business development.

Part-time general counsel to a consulting firm with more than 90 employees and $20M in annual revenue. Strengthened the master service agreement's indemnification and liability protections, led a partnership negotiation that raised revenue 50 percent, guided the Board through a reduction in force, and led the strategic response to a breach of customer personal data.

General counsel and COO of a debt-restructuring firm. Designed the compliance architecture for a heavily regulated business, from debt collection and telemarketing rules to consumer and commercial bankruptcy, while the firm grew past $5M under management within eighteen months. Led the earn-out sale to a market leader from first meeting to final documents.

Securities litigation handled from both plaintiff and defense perspectives, across law and motion, arbitration, and mediation. Represented an investment management firm through the acquisition of a competitor with $789M under management and its simultaneous sale to a third-party financial institution, and structured offshore ownership for a client holding more than 5,000 internet domain names.

In-house counsel for the venture fund that went public first. Drafted the N-2 registration and fund prospectus, built the compliance program from a blank page, and ran the NYSE listing of the meVC Draper Fisher Jurvetson Fund I, raising $330M through an unusual delayed listing and trading window. Stood on the NYSE podium on June 26, 2000, the first day of trading. Closed 17 financings in just over a year and lobbied through the Business Development Company Roundtable to modernize fund rules under the Investment Company Act.

Managing attorney for arbitration, litigation, and third-party actions, running an active docket of 400 simultaneous matters covering more than $100M in customer assets. Built a document automation program that raised the department's capacity 300 percent while headcount fell by half, then moved to policy, advising business units on securities regulation under the 33, 34, and 40 Acts, including the firm's early e-commerce practices.

Advises on AI governance and responsible enterprise deployment. PlantUnity centralizes and standardizes industrial plant data so manufacturers can ship production software faster, which puts the governance work inside a working factory.