Primum Law Group

Focus and practice areas

The firm works in business law from a base in San Francisco, and it describes itself as a boutique firm. Its services cover company formation, venture capital transactions, business and technology transactions, mergers and acquisitions, international expansion, and corporate governance and compliance. It also offers outsourced general counsel, which places a lawyer in an ongoing advisory role for a company that runs without an internal legal team.

These areas track the life of a business. Company formation sets up the legal entity and the early equity split among founders. Venture capital work covers the term sheets, stock purchase agreements, and closing documents that a funding round needs. Corporate governance and compliance keeps a company's records and decisions in order as it grows. In my opinion, the range reads as coherent for a firm that means to keep a client through formation and the deals that follow.

How the team is built

Svetlana Kamyshanskaya founded the firm in 2017 and is its Founding Partner. She graduated from UC Berkeley School of Law and has more than two decades of experience advising companies on corporate strategy and international transactions. She works with entrepreneurs and growing businesses to structure deals and handle cross-border matters.

Three other lawyers work alongside her. Joni Laura is a senior counsel for product and regulatory work. Konstantin Lapshin is a senior corporate counsel. Sergey Khvesenya is a junior corporate attorney. Non-attorney staff round out the team. The pairing of a senior corporate counsel with a junior attorney points to a firm that spreads work by seniority, which can keep routine tasks off a partner's desk.

Who the firm works with

The firm sorts its clients into a few groups, and each group draws on a different set of services. Startups work with it on entity formation, equity planning, venture capital transactions, and investor-ready documentation. For investors, the firm structures transactions, reviews governance, and handles securities compliance. Businesses going through a transition turn to it for mergers and acquisitions, governance work, and international expansion.

The firm also names outsourced general counsel as a fourth way it works with clients, which serves companies that want steady legal support across many small questions. This client map explains why the practice areas sit where they do. A startup and an acquirer need different documents and different timelines, and the firm's areas line up with both. As a reviewer, I read this as a sign the firm has thought about where a company sits when it first makes contact.

What the transactional work involves

Much of the firm's work runs through deals and documents. Company formation begins with choosing an entity type and drafting the founding paperwork, then building the cap table that records who owns what. Equity planning follows, and it covers the vesting schedules and option pools that shape how founders and early employees hold their stake.

Venture capital transactions bring in outside money. That work moves through a term sheet, then the definitive agreements, then a closing where funds change hands and shares issue. Mergers and acquisitions run on a similar path of diligence, negotiation, and closing. As a reviewer, I note that these areas connect, so a client can often keep an entire matter inside the firm.

Business and technology transactions cover the contracts a company signs to buy, sell, or license what it makes. International expansion adds another layer, since a company moving into a new country has to align its structure with local rules on ownership, tax, and employment. The firm names both as part of what it handles, and both draw on the same corporate base as the rest of the firm's work.

How clients engage the firm

The firm structures its engagements to suit ongoing needs. It offers monthly subscription plans at three levels, which gives a company a predictable way to keep counsel available month to month. It also runs webinars for founders, and this puts some of the firm's knowledge in front of people who run early-stage companies, often before they become clients.

This mix suits the client base the firm names. A founder watching cash flow can plan for a fixed monthly legal cost, and a growing company can move up a tier as its needs change. The subscription model works alongside the outsourced general counsel service, which gives a company a standing legal contact for the questions that come up between deals.

Reach and scope

The firm works with clients across the Bay Area, the wider United States, and other countries. International expansion and cross-border structuring appear as named parts of the firm's work, and that fits a founder whose own background includes international transactions. The San Francisco office puts the firm close to the region's startup and venture activity.

A boutique firm keeps a small roster of lawyers, so a client tends to work with the same people across a matter. For a company choosing counsel, that continuity can matter as much as the list of practice areas, since the lawyer who formed the entity is often the one who later handles its funding round. That kind of familiarity with a company's history can shorten the ramp-up on each new piece of work.

The brand carries two names, Primum Law Group and the short form PLG, and both have been in use since the firm opened in 2017.