Scale Up Counsel leverages a strong network of experienced attorneys, including those with personal experience as founders in major tech hubs globally, to provide comprehensive legal support to technology founders.

Ezra Clark

Founder & Managing Partner

Technology Transactions, Intellectual Property, and Corporate

Ezra represents emerging growth companies as their outside general counsel throughout their life cycle, from securing and leveraging their intellectual property, navigating complex deals, ensuring regulatory compliance, to mitigating risks throughout the commercial lifecycle. With deep expertise in website compliance, XaaS, licensing agreements (software, data, media/copyright), and the fast-evolving legal landscape of machine learning and AI. Ezra also has experience in corporate matters, including company formation, capital raising, and mergers and acquisitions.

Prior to Founding Scale Up Counsel Ezra, worked at Wilson Sonsini, one of the top corporate law firms based in Silicon Valley. While at Wilson Sonsini, Ezra honed the skills required of a General Counsel in working with corporate clients, regularly serving as a key advisor to CEOs and executive teams. He has also provided valuable assistance in numerous legal and administrative matters. As a founder himself he has been through the challenges of building a startup and knows the risks to avoid.

James D. Ford

International Lawyer & Founder of Blue Ocean Law Group

Commercial Law and Privacy/Cybersecurity Specialist

James is a general practice lawyer focused on delivering value. He is admitted to practice law in California, Australia, and New Zealand. Due to his long history in IT, property development and planning, the majority of legal matters he undertakes are in the areas of property & commercial law, and technology law (incl. privacy & cybersecurity).

He has a wide-range of legal experience, having worked for established boutique property, finance, and commercial law firms along with an award-winning Brisbane firm Nexus Lawyers (formerly Nexus Law Group, now merged with Arch Law). He has volunteered at the Caxton Legal Centre as part of his desire to give back to the community, and offers pro bono (free) legal assistance at his own discretion.

James also has extensive industry experience in IT consulting, having worked on major projects across Asia/Pacific in a wide spectrum of industries including Energy (Woodside), Financial (NAB, NSW State Super, Bank of China), Transport (Air Services, Queensland Rail), and Government (Australian, NZ, and Singapore). He also operated his own transport company for many years while developing strategic residential property projects (both luxury and affordable) and brokering mezzanine finance deals, all of which uniquely informs his continuing specialist legal practice.