James Graves is a Seattle-based corporate attorney with a practice centered on complex mergers and acquisitions (M&A), venture and angel financings, securities, and serving as outside general counsel to privately held and emerging growth companies. He regularly advises both emerging and mature companies, founders, executive teams, and investors across a broad range of industries including SaaS (software-as-a-service), DaaS (data-as-a-service), e-commerce, commercial products, heavy industry, private equity, and PropTech.
James brings broad legal experience spanning the entire business lifecycle, from entity formation and fundraising to exit transactions and litigation. His background includes in-house roles at Fortune 5 companies, advising in-house at venture-backed startups, managing high-stakes commercial litigation, and leading transactions involving hundreds of millions of dollars in enterprise value.
This breadth of experience enables James to manage risk efficiently and deliver practical, business-oriented legal advice that keeps his clients focused on what matters most: growing and running their companies.
His core practice areas include:
- Complex M&A: Buy-side and sell-side transactions, often involving intricate deal structures, cross-border components, or institutional capital.
- Venture Capital & Fundraising: Representation of startups and emerging companies from Seed and Series A through later-stage financing.
- Outside General Counsel Services: Ongoing legal and strategic counsel for privately held businesses without internal legal teams.
- Startup & Entity Formation: Advising founders on initial structuring, governance, IP, and operational planning.
Outside of work, James’s passions include his family, his westie (Kevin), baseball, music, foreign languages, mountaineering, motorcycles, high fantasy books, and dive bars.
