We recently sat down with David Wilson, Principal of Stratocumulus Legal where he shared his business journey, what he’s working on and what he loves about being a part of the Spacecubed community.
Discussing his business journey, David shared that across his career he’s always enjoyed the challenge of helping clients apply the existing legal toolkit to emerging technologies, particularly given that the law often lags behind the evolution of new technologies.
“When I first escaped big law, I initially became a stay-at-home dad with an 8 month old and a 3.5 year old while my wife worked full time. A few years on, I started Stratocumulus Legal to let me focus on the areas of law that I most enjoy practising, while allowing me to pivot to a more flexible way of working.”
“I’m available for consulting work, and to work directly with other businesses and startups, all aimed at assisting clients with identifying, protecting, and exploiting their intellectual property.” He continued.
When asked what he’s been working on recently, David shared that he’s been working with the originators of some technology, assisting them to work through ownership of the resulting intellectual property vis-a-vis the organisation they are working with on the project.
“Who gets to own the IP and commercialise the technology? It’s not always as straightforward as you might expect. This is an issue often faced by startups.”
“Separately, I’ve also been working with a newly established business to advise on the implication of some restraint clauses in one of the directors’ former employment contracts. Does this affect what the new business can do? This can be a common issue facing business founders, who are attracted by the prospect of going it alone, but find their previous role still might have some sort of hold over them.”
“And currently, I’m working with another business startup to prepare copyright licence documentation so that the client can commence selling and marketing their creative content to purchasers online.” He continued.
When asked what he loves about being a part of the Spacecubed community, David shared his thoughts.
“After a career of working inside large law firms, it’s refreshing to work alongside non-lawyers - real people! Interacting with the network of other businesses at Spacecubed and learning their stories is a great opportunity to develop my own practice.”
“A coworking space also gives me a really important quiet space. Working at home with kids in the house can be distracting and full of interruptions and diversions. Coming into Spacecubed affords some much needed clear-headed time for me.” He continued.
When asked what one of his favourite success stories is, David states that for his business, success is helping his clients get to where they need to be to get on with business.
“I recently worked with a client to retrieve a cybersquatted domain name and take down an imposter website, thereby eliminating a source of risk and damage to the client’s business. I also worked with another client to resolve a dispute with a former business partner over online hosting of its niche copyright content, and allowing the client to get back on with the business of working with its own clients.”
“These are both great outcomes for clients that I’m quite happy to have achieved for them. On a personal level, success for me is managing this work for my clients against the juggle … which leads to my answer to the next question.” He shared.
When asked how he’s adapted to COVID-19 during the pandemic, David goes on to state that he in fact started his practice in May 2020 - just after everything shut down and the pandemic was in full swing.
“Now that things are fully opened up again, there’s more scope to get out there than I was able to previously. But I want to change the focus of this question. In my case, instead of the pandemic, I think that I’ve been more constrained in growing my practice by the time constraints that come from juggling career with parenting responsibilities of small children - pick ups & drop offs, after-school runs, weekday morning playgroups and kindy sessions - all these things eat into the work day very quickly. It’s hard to grow a business and maintain a career while also managing a 4 year old.”
"Of course these are things that working parents have had to juggle for a long time but we need to continue a broader conversation about how all parents manage work and family commitments." He continued.
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