This event is open to SLS and GSB students only.

A conversation with associates at local firms who have an emerging companies / venture capital practice that focuses on organizations doing social impact or climate work, either as mission-driven for-profits or as PBCs / non-profits. Joining the panel are:

Jesse Finfrock

Jesse is an attorney and advisor on nonprofit, benefit corporation, tandem structures, blended funds, and myriad other impact matters for investors, philanthropists, boards and social entrepreneurs. In 2015, he helped launch the Social Enterprise & Impact Investment practice group at Morrison & Foerster LLP, where he served as its first Impact Counsel until 2021. He is a lecturer at UC Berkeley’s School of Law, Haas School of Business and USF’s School of Management, among other institutions and is currently a general counsel to a public benefit corporation that supports independent, public, and local media, and maintains a private practice advising impact investors and social enterprises. In a prior life, he co-founded and ran an international social enterprise in the diamond industry. Jesse graduated from Berkeley Law in 2014, where he co-teaches a Social Enterprise course with Jen Barnette.

Jen Barnette
Jen Barnette is an associate at Cooley whose practice focuses on the representation of companies and investors in the social impact and sustainability space. She counsels startups to late-stage private companies, venture capital investors and family offices on a broad range of general corporate and transactional matters. She has particular expertise working with new corporate forms like Delaware’s public benefit corporation (PBC) and counseling around B Corp certification and environmental, social and governance and impact reporting. Jen is a member of Cooley’s San Francisco pro bono committee and teaches Social Enterprise Law at UC Berkeley School of Law.

Olga Terets
Olga Terets is an associate in the San Francisco office of Morrison Foerster and a member of the firm’s Social Enterprise + Impact Investing and Emerging Companies + Venture Capital practice areas. She graduated from Georgetown Law in 2019. In addition to the traditional equity financings and M&A work, Olga has done significant work assisting companies with hybrid structures and forming and converting into PBCs and other new corporate forms. She has also devoted significant time to pro-bono projects, which included assisting the California Task Force with the California Small Business Rebuilding Fund and COVID-19 Resource Guide and collaborating with The Lex Mundi Pro Bono Foundation on drafting a global report that includes recommendations to assist policymakers in accelerating the formation and growth of social enterprises.