About

Welcome! My name is Peter Kovalsky. Since becoming a lawyer, I've been serving corporate, startup, and social entrepreneur clients of many sizes and in many industries. Because this often involves effectively acting as in-house counsel, my legal experience has ranged from intellectual property, to securities, to commercial contracts, to corporate governance, to compliance, and beyond. Most recently, I was general counsel for an ambitious event production and marketing strategy startup working in fandom spaces.

Before I became a lawyer, I made a living writing documentation, user manuals, and assorted support materials for a Silicon Valley startup. At the same time, I moonlighted as an editor and translator for a major European university.

I've found that what I excel at and am passionate about falls at intersection of these things. Through my broad experience in law, tech, and philosophy, I've become an expert at breaking systems down to understand what they're made of in order to identify loopholes and workarounds. From my years of experience as a technical writer and translator/editor, I've honed a mastery of communicating complex issues and concepts in ways that are structured and accessible, without sacrificing clarity or precision.

I've also been on both ends of the startup/attorney relationship, can read and write code, and genuinely love helping people reach their goals. 

In short, my value add is helping you figure stuff out, explain stuff, and make informed decisions quickly, effectively, and affordably.

If you'd like to see an example of my commitment to making legal materials accessible to non-lawyers, click here (pdf) to see the engagement letter you'll sign to hire me if you're a business or entrepreneur (though the interactive components won't work right unless you download the file).

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Bio at a Glance

Born in Moscow. Moved to the States in '92. Nerdy about tech, languages, philosophy, travel, systems, games. Living in Long Beach, technically, but let's be honest, here  really, I live in cyberspace. May or may not be part robot (maybe).

Credentials

California bar member

UC Irvine School of Law, JD, class of 2013

  • Community Economic Development Clinic
  • Pro Bono Achievement Award
  • Law and Economics Society (founding member)
  • Space Law Society (founding member)
  • Intellectual Property and Cyberlaw Society


UC Santa Cruz, BA Philosophy, class of 2007

CELTA (Cambridge Certificate of English Language Teaching to Adults)