Gabriel Mbanefo
Gabriel Mbanefo is the owner and founder of Law Offices of Gabriel C. Mbanefo, P.C., a unique New York based law practice geared towards providing business transactional and IP related legal services to both US and Non-US based entrepreneurs. The international focus of his practice stems from the fact that he is licensed to practice as an attorney in New York State, and as a solicitor in England and Wales, and therefore often advises on matters pertaining to both English law and New York State law. His international experience extends across the globe, having lived in various countries, and he currently advises entrepreneurs and businesses based in over 25 countries, including the US, UK, France, Germany, Italy, Israel, Poland, Nigeria, Equatorial Guinea, and Brazil. Gabriel brings his clients an international perspective as he helps startups and established businesses navigate the legal complexities of launching, financing, and growing their business in the US and/or expanding their business outside the US. “Having practiced law in two different countries, alternative perspectives of doing business can be brought to the table. When you have a comparator, there is a broader foundation on which ideas can be tested and solutions found,” he explains.
Gabriel opened his practice in 2014 with the specific purpose of addressing the legal needs of entrepreneurs and providing solutions to the legal problems often faced by startups. Based in New York, the firm offers a broad range of transactional legal services, primarily in the areas of business formation and reorganization, mergers and acquisitions, business finance, securities law, international commercial transactions, employment law, trademarks, copyright and business taxation. Though he is a third-generation attorney, with the law in his veins, from a very prominent legal family in Nigeria, Gabriel’s practice is far from that of his parents or his grandparents before him. Built for the 21st century, it is an efficient, modern, and tech-driven practice, designed to handle and solve complex legal issues efficiently and accurately, while minimizing client costs.
Gabriel’s international perspective comes to him naturally, having spent seven years in Nigeria in his youth before moving to England, where he received both his Bachelor of Laws and his Master of Laws in international commercial law from the University of Nottingham. He moved to New York in 2010 and was admitted to the New York State bar just a year later. Interestingly, the idea to set up his own firm was not driven by his legal lineage or the singular desire to be a business owner. It began with a chance meeting with a stranger in an elevator. “I saw a guy reviewing an IP license agreement who I initially assumed was an attorney but actually turned out to be a business owner who had found it difficult to find a good attorney that could assist. He was ready to hire me right there and then, in the elevator, to help him review this,” Gabriel recalls. “That’s when it really dawned on me that entrepreneurs and business owners need assistance with a broad range of legal services, which sometimes require specialist knowledge, but often don’t have the cash to go to a large firm, so the idea of my practice was to help them by building a gamut of services around that.” With that in mind, Gabriel launched his practice, and the experience so far is that “if you do great work consistently, your clients usually refer people and it kind of snowballs from there.”
Gabriel Mbanefo
Principal Attorney — Law Offices of Gabriel C. Mbanefo, P.C.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gabriel-mbanefo-a25a5221/
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