Leslee Cohen, Founder of AllRise Legal Counsel, LLC
Names: Leslee Cohen
Founders: AllRise Legal Counsel, LLC
What's your elevator pitch? (Ie. In one sentence, what do you do?)
I am a lawyer focused on representing startups from seed to exit, in connection with organization, early stage fundraising rounds, day-to-day contract review, and mergers and acquisitions.
What's your story? Share how you got to where you are and WHY it is you do what you do.
After graduating from the University of Michigan and NYU Law, I practiced corporate law on Wall Street for 7 years then returned to a mid-sized firm in Chicago for 13 more. I left big law because I saw no path to equity partnership for a woman who didn't have the time to spend weekends on golf courses and evenings at charity dinners.
The typical law firm model requires prospective equity partners, who are also the firm leaders, to have a significant book of their own business which takes an enormous amount of time. That is in addition to the hourly requirements of performing the work, pro bono projects and continuing education for state bar requirements.
I founded AllRise in 2010 to create a new model for attracting, retaining and advancing female attorneys. We intentionally hire lawyers who need flex-time. Our lawyers take on the projects they want and have time to complete. We value them as top-notch professionals but also as warm, friendly, loyal individuals who are responsive to our clients and to each other. They are gratified to be able to do compelling work and build their own client books (if they desire), while maintaining the flexibility to be great moms/daughters/wives/sisters, board members, charity workers and friends in a supportive and congenial environment.
AllRise has grown to a team of 12 and that team is the first WHY I do what I do. My other WHY is our focus on representing startups, particularly those that are female founded. Rather than intimidating founders, we educate them about the formation and fundraising process. We also provide transparent rates that are far less than the larger firms while offering the same expertise—all of our lawyers were trained at big law firms. We truly care about our clients and their successes and usually stay with them through the scaling and sale of their businesses.
What does BEING a FoundHer mean to you?
Being a FoundHer means being a part of a community of other women who have started their own businesses. I hope to be able to advise these women with my own journey of growth from no book of business of my own to doing over $1.5m last year and also offer legal education and support. I also look forward to learning from fellow members from what worked or didn't work during their own paths.
How do you support other female founders and women in business?
I have built AllRise on the basis of giving. I began offering a free presentation to startup incubator and accelerator programs nationwide, teaching the basics of the law underlying the fundraising process so that founders could go into conversations with their lawyers feeling educated rather than intimidated. I have continued down that road ever since then. I speak and mentor for cohorts of the Good Food Accelerator, the Hatchery, LegalPad, the Wisconsin Technology Council, Founders Institute, Workbox Future of Work accelerator, REACH real estate technology startup accelerator, Gener8or, Fyli and Wharton Alumni Female Founders. I also guest lecture regularly in Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Business entrepreneurship and venture capital class and judge pitch competitions for the Chicago Job Creators Grant organization among others.
In addition, I am a member of the Executive Committee and Board of Directors of the Small Business Advocacy Council, a non-partisan organization that lobbies on a local, state and federal level in support of small businesses in Illinois. This is important to me because I am effectively aiding AllRise's client base.
My personal passion is helping the younger women who are coming up after me, "lifting as I climb." In that vein, I serve as the co-chair of the Advisory Committee of the Coalition of Women’s Initiatives in Law, an organization that I co-founded in 2008. This incredible group has spread from Chicago to Washington, D.C. and New York. I am actively involved with GirlCon, an annual conference that supports high school girls interested in careers in technology. Finally, I am active with a movement referred to as AllRaise (funnily enough) which is geared toward increasing venture capital funding for female founded businesses. Solely female led startups raised only 1.9% of the total venture capital invested in 2022! We have regular events to raise awareness amongst high net worth women about the opportunity to angel invest in these businesses and to prepare the founders for success in the fundraising process.
What is ONE BOOK that you would recommend every female business owner read?
The Go-Giver - Bob Burg and John David Mann
Who is a female entrepreneur you look up to and why?
Amanda Lannert, CEO of Jellyvision. I look up to Amanda because she's always about lifting up other women. She is a great cheerleader and focuses on making sure women are paid what they are worth.
What are the first five things that you did when you were starting your business?
1. An incubator program for female owned service based businesses to learn about finance, marketing and so much more.
2. Hired an office manager/paralegal.
3. Chose a name and logo and email address.
4. Hired an accountant to set up Quickbooks.
5. Hired a website designer.
Who is someone who has helped change or shape your business for the better and what did they do to help you?
Megan Wessels, who headed up the incubator program I did when I first started the business. Megan insisted that I build who I am personally and my values into my vision for the firm rather than totally separating business and personal life.
At what point did you make your company a full time gig? How did you know the time was right?
When I left big law after 20 years of practice.
What lesson or skill did you take with you from a prior job to help you succeed in your role today?
Be relentless. Work your ass off every single day. The firm is my third child.
Let’s talk social media—who handles it for your company (you, an internal team member, an outsourced solution?) and what is the secret to making it successful? What is the biggest challenge?
Outsourced to Green Cardigan Marketing. They are amazing at channeling my voice and our brand. The biggest challenge is getting myself out there constantly so they have good content to post.
How did you land your first client?
I went to a networking meeting and offered to help someone I met there. He turned around and sent a client!
What is something you do differently from the industry standard?
We are all about giving flex time to our attorneys. That doesn't mean part time, necessarily. It means getting the work done well and timely for the client but during the hours that allow the attorneys to be the moms/daughters/friends/sisters/volunteers and more in addition to being excellent lawyers.
Have you sold a business? If so, how did you know when it was time to sell? What were the steps you took to make it happen? What advice would you give to someone looking to sell?
No but we represent sellers of businesses every day. I would say to engage good exit strategy advisors to get your ducks in a row so as to maximize valuation in the sale.
What would you do differently if you were starting your business today?
Have a shareholders agreement in place with my former partner.
What are three strategies you use to market your business, grow brand awareness and generate bottom line growth?
1. Show up—at networking groups, non-profit board meetings, fundraisers.
2. Have a consistent posting strategy on LinkedIn.
3. Be a giver; always be on the lookout for ways to help anyone and everyone you meet.
Do you want to share your story and advice with the Dear FoundHer… community? CLICK HERE to submit your information.
Follow us on Instagram @dearfoundher and join our Facebook community for more conversation.
Make sure you tune in to Dear FoundHer… for new episodes every Tuesday and Thursday.
