Ripal J. Gajjar
Transactional counsel and commercial litigator for founders and closely-held companies: practical, business-minded, and unafraid of a courtroom.
Why Founders Choose Rip
Most lawyers are either deal-makers or litigators. Rip is both, and that combination is exactly what a closely-held business needs:
He has been on both sides of the table. He drafts contracts knowing exactly which clauses fail in court, because he is the lawyer who later litigates them. That perspective produces tighter, cleaner agreements.
He thinks commercially first, legally second. Rip starts every engagement by understanding the business goal. Founders consistently say he gives them practical answers, not legal hedge-language.
Practice
Rip has been with the firm since 2006, nearly two decades counseling founders and closely-held companies through both growth and dispute. He brings individualized attention rather than the assembly-line treatment of larger corporate practices.
His transactional work spans the full lifecycle of a business: entity formation, partnership and operating agreements, employment contracts, and commercial contracts. He also drafts and pressure-tests the non-disclosure agreements closely-held companies rely on to protect what makes them valuable.
On the dispute side, Rip has handled complex commercial litigation — the kind of cases that can quietly threaten a small business's survival.
Background
Rip began as a paralegal, which is part of why his practical instincts run so deep, and then earned his J.D. at St. John's University School of Law, where he was on staff of the New York International Law Review. During law school he interned at FINRA's Department of Enforcement, working on regulatory actions against firms such as Lehman Brothers, UBS, and E-Trade. He also interned at the Litigation Bureau of the Office of the New York Attorney General, representing state agencies and defending actions against state judges. The combination of regulator-side and government-side training gave him a litigator's eye and a regulator's instinct early in his career.
Outside Interests
Rip is an avid world traveler and urban hiker, plays guitar, and records music. He also follows developments in computing, networking, and consumer technology.