May 15, 2025 • 39 mins
On this episode of The Founder's Sandbox, Brenda speaks with Alexa Steinberg – a corporate and transactional attorney for middle-market companies and entrepreneurs.
Acting as outside general counsel, Alexa represents privately held companies in a wide range of general corporate and transactional matters, including entity formation, structuring, and commercial transactions. With a focus on mergers and acquisitions, she offers clients guidance on structuring deals and ensuring compliance with relevant laws and regulations.
Brenda and Alexa discuss her journey from working at a small, all-female law firm to joining a full-service firm to better support her clients. Alexa shares how her parents—both deeply involved in business and community service—shaped her values around financial literacy, record-keeping, and the importance of building generational wealth. They speak about family-owned businesses and best practices in family governance, such as setting clear roles, regular meetings, and involving independent board members. Alexa also emphasizes the importance of building trust with clients and maintaining a purpose-driven, relational legal practice. Brenda and Alexa explore what "purpose-driven," "resilience," and "scalable" mean within the context of business and legal practice.
You can find out more about Alexa at:
https://www.greenbergglusker.com/alexa-steinberg/
episode transcript:
00:04
Hi, I'm pleased to announce something very special to me, a new subscription-based service through Next Act Advisors that allows members exclusive access to personal industry insights and bespoke
00:32
corporate governance knowledge. This comes in the form of blogs, personal book recommendations, and early access to the founder's sandbox podcast episodes before they released to the public. If you want more white glove information on building your startup with information like what was in today's episode, sign up with the link in the show notes to enjoy being a special member of Next Act Advisors.
01:01
As a thank you to Founders Sandbox listeners, you can use code SANDBOX25 at checkout to enjoy 25 % off your membership costs. Thank you.
01:18
Welcome back to the Founders Sandbox. I am Brenda McCabe, your host of this monthly podcast where I have guests that are either founders, professional service providers, corporate board directors that actually share a mission with me, which is bringing change to the world through great corporate governance, but building resilient, scalable and purpose-driven companies. On a monthly basis, my guests are going to tell their origin stories and kind of how I've met them.
01:48
through the work they do. And I've recreated a fun sandbox environment in which we do storytelling. And ultimately we will touch upon resilience, purpose-driven and scalable or sustainable growth in the businesses that they are working in or owners of.
02:17
l I'm absolutely delighted to have as my guest today, Alexa Steinberg, Alexa is counsel at Greenberg, Glasgow. And before that, she was actually practicing in a smaller law firm and where her story today is going to kind of have some some
02:47
lessons learned on why she chose to leave the firm and move into Greenberg, the Greenberg Lasker. But more importantly, you and I go back a couple years. are part of an informal group of women. We call ourselves Women and Wealth. We meet periodically to really refer business to each other for those women business owners that
03:16
are seeking perhaps an exit in the next three to five years. And through our skillset, some of us are CPAs, strategy advisors, yourself as counsel. A lo
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:04):
Hi, I'm pleased to announce something veryspecial to me, a new subscription-based service
(00:25):
through Next Act Advisors that allows membersexclusive access to personal industry insights
and bespoke corporate governance knowledge.This comes in the form of blogs, personal book
recommendations, and early access to the founder'ssandbox podcast episodes before they released
to the public. If you want more white gloveinformation on building your startup with information
(00:52):
like what was in today's episode, sign up withthe link in the show notes to enjoy being a
special member of Next Act Advisors. As a thankyou to Founders Sandbox listeners, you can
use code SANDBOX25 at checkout to enjoy 25 %off your membership costs. Thank you.
(01:18):
Welcome back to the Founders Sandbox. I am BrendaMcCabe, your host of this monthly podcast where
I have guests that are either founders, professionalservice providers, corporate board directors
that actually share a mission with me, whichis bringing change to the world through great
corporate governance, but building resilient,scalable and purpose-driven companies. On
(01:41):
a monthly basis, my guests are going to telltheir origin stories and kind of how I've met
them. through the work they do. And I've recreateda fun sandbox environment in which we do storytelling.
And ultimately we will touch upon resilience,purpose-driven and scalable or sustainable
(02:04):
growth in the businesses that they are workingin or owners of. So I'm so happy to have as
my guest today, Alexis Steinberg. She is a lawyer. Are you partner? No, I'm counsel.
Okay. I'm absolutely delighted today. So that'llbe cut out. All right. I forgot to ask your
(02:27):
your rank. I'm absolutely delighted to haveas my guest today, Alexa Steinberg, Alexa is
counsel at Greenberg, Glasgow. And beforethat, she was actually practicing in a smaller
law firm and where her story today is goingto kind of have some some lessons learned
(02:48):
on why she chose to leave the firm and moveinto Greenberg, the Greenberg Lasker. But more
importantly, you and I go back a couple years.are part of an informal group of women. We
call ourselves Women and Wealth. We meet periodicallyto really refer business to each other for
(03:12):
those women business owners that are seekingperhaps an exit in the next three to five years.
And through our skillset, some of us are CPAs,strategy advisors, yourself as counsel. A lot
of these businesses are family owned. And soyou and I and another, know, seven other ladies
(03:33):
get to meet each other over lunch and discussthese opportunities. And we're all very passionate
about helping women business owners. Aren'twe, We are Brenda, thank you so much for having
me on the Founder's Sandbox. I am an avid listener,so I'm very excited that I get to be a guest.
Thank you, thank you. you know, we've hadmany, conversations, obviously, but I wanted
(04:03):
for my listeners to really dive into whatyou do today, right? Which is really purpose.
driven and it's preserving family wealth, right? And I know that you actually come from a background
where your father owned his business. So tellus a bit, us down memory lane and that first
(04:26):
story that you told me. Well, you know, growingup, I watched both of my parents. My mother
was a career woman. My father, a financialplanner. running his own book. My mother,
a buyer and then in fashion and then into realestate. I watched they were both very involved
(04:52):
in the community. My mother sat on the StudioCity Council, the Neighborhood Council. She
was on many boards involved with the temple.My father as well sat on many boards involved
with the Boys and Girls Club, and involvedwith the Jewish Federation. So I watched as
(05:14):
my parents really instilled the importanceof being involved in community, being involved
in family, being involved in the greater goodand in purposeful and meaningful organizations.
And I... sort of learned a lot about that watchingthem both in their respective arenas being
(05:41):
involved. And you know, they've, they've trulyinspired me, not only in my career path, but
in how I treat my clients in the arenas thatI've become involved in. There's a specific
story that I think I've shared with you, Brenda,about my father and how he sort of taught me
(06:05):
the value of wealth, the value of money, becauseas his career, that was what he did. He focused
mainly on planning for retirement and financiallysetting yourself up and your family up to have
generational wealth and what that looked likeand how you could prepare for it when you were
(06:26):
10, 15, 20, 25 years old, preparing for family,preparing for children. So when I turned 16,
my father went into our QuickBooks. We had afamily QuickBooks. Oh, wow. That was before
it was actually. It was probably a hard disk,right? Not even on the internet. Oh, yeah.
(06:49):
It was like a hard disk. had a full set up,massive computers, the whole thing, in our
family office. And he went into his QuickBooks.And he took. what he spent on me in a year.
And he divided it by 12. And this includedinsurance. Mind you, I just turned 16. So my
(07:14):
car insurance, my car lease, medical, entertainment, my tennis lessons, all of these things that
were spent on me, what it cost for me to function. Children are expensive, you know. I was very
expensive because I will tell you that checkwas large that he cut me every month. And
(07:40):
he laid out, these are the things that are monthlyexpenses for you that you need to pay with
this money. And the rest you can use on entertainment, gifts, shopping, which I loved. But I had
to learn to balance my checkbook and balancethis amount of money, because I wasn't able
(08:03):
to get any more until the next month. And that really taught me how that money was
never something that was readily expendableto me. even if I went to Starbucks and I bought
a drink with my father's credit card, he'd askme for the receipt. He'd want to know where
(08:26):
the receipt was, always. I was very meticulousin his record keeping which I am now very much
meticulous in my record keeping and I enforcewith my clients and make sure that record
keeping is so important in your business aswell. You know and so when I when I graduated
(08:47):
high school my father said to me okay the checksare done. And you need to go get a job in
college. And what I will do is I will subsidizethe paycheck that you bring home. So if you
bring home $600, I will pay you 50 cents onthe dollar for what you bring home, but only
(09:08):
up to $300. So I could get a max of $300 everypaycheck that he would subsidize. And then
that was how I had money to live and to function.my parents, I was lucky enough that my parents
would pay for my college. in my housing, inmy dorms, but it was still really teaching
(09:30):
me the value of money. And my father requiredthat a certain portion of those funds get put
away in savings and invested. And he would tellme how to do that. And he would guide me.
because my father was a financial planner, he would call me like a client and say, listen,
(09:53):
You're 70 % stocks, 30 % cash. I think you needto swap it. Let's talk about what that means.
And of course, I'm like, you're my dad. Justdo it. Why are we having this conversation?
But it was so valuable because he wanted meto understand what he was doing and why he
was doing it and how it really functioned. thatI've also taken into how I guide and advise
(10:21):
my clients. I don't just do for them. understand,I want them to understand how we're doing
it, why we're doing it, what the alternatives are and what it means if we do it this way
or that way. You know, a lot of my discussionswith my clients are about strategy and about
structure and so they can make an informeddecision. You know, I think that that's extremely
(10:44):
important, especially in a family business. Working with your family is tough. So, The
way that you can make it that much easier iscommunication and understanding and knowledge.
And I try to arm my clients with that. And that'ssomething that my father really taught me.
my mother as well, because my father managedour money and my mother would bring it home
(11:14):
and hand my father a check and be like, here,I don't know what you do with it, but do something
with it. She also would, he would say, holdon a second. Like, I know you just sold a house
and here's your commission check, but let meshow you what we do with this and how we create
(11:34):
generational wealth and how we invest it andwhat the best benefit for these funds are and
how to use debt to our advantage. Um, you know,and that's all of these things were such a
value add that I I obtained understandingabout and that I've now turned this value add
(11:56):
to my clients and how they run their business. I'm not a financial advisor, I'm not a tax
attorney. These are just really sort of general understandings and general guidance points
for my clients to go out and have knowledgeableconversations with the appropriate guidance,
(12:22):
appropriate people, and the appropriate serviceproviders that are going to help them accomplish
those things. really, this is very loaded,but I really like the methods your father
used. very, well, first of all, intentional and bespoke. And that's really, and he did
(12:44):
communicate to your mother, right? To instillalso in her an understanding of although she's
bringing the check home because many, many womenbusiness owners today oftentimes do not own
a majority of their companies. Right. And thatis a shocking statistic that I run into time
(13:08):
and time again that women actually don't knowhow much equity they have in their own business.
Right. So just the informing and, and you'vetranslated that bespoke, you know, communicating
helping your clients understand, pardon me,and providing options as well as access to
(13:28):
other professional service providers as yourown bespoke offering to your clients. But
it wasn't always like, yeah, go. That's sortof the benefit of the group that you and I
met in and all of the networking opportunitiesthat I've been involved in. Of course, networking
(13:49):
is about building um, your brand and your bookand, um, but a majority of it and the real
value there is meeting and learning and understanding,um, and really coming to know people that can
help your clients where you can't, um, andhaving trustworthy referral sources to do
(14:15):
that, because I'm not just going to tell myclient, Oh, this individual can help you with
wealth management, call them without knowinghow this person functions, without knowing
how they run their clientele, how they dobusiness. Those are really important things
and to have trustworthy referral sources isreally important. And that's sort of what our
(14:40):
group is all about. That's right. And it wasn'talways like this. Right, you graduated from
law school and started with a small, it wasa, I think a female-led law firm. all female
attorneys. Yeah, so what was your, this is rightout of college, what were you doing and what
(15:05):
then informed your decision at a very tenderage to leave? So right out of law school,
had worked my way through law school. I workedin family law for about five or six years.
during the day, I was at a law firm. And inthe evening, I took classes from 5 to 10 PM,
(15:35):
four days a week for four years. took me fouryears to get through law school. And when I
graduated, unfortunately, I wasn't afforded All of the opportunities in law school that
most law students take advantage of, externships, fellowships, things like that, because I was
(15:57):
working my way through. I had already beenfinancially independent and I wanted to stay
that way. So I didn't want to quit my job togo to school. I wanted to be able to do it
all. So as a result, I really didn't have the summer clerkships that turn into job offers.
(16:23):
And I was a little lost because I had takenthe bar exam and I was like, OK, I'm not an
attorney yet. But in three months, if I passthe bar exam, I could be. Am I applying for
law clerk positions? Am I applying for associatepositions? Like, know, I was so lost. And
I went on Craigslist. Oh my goodness. And Ifound law firms that were hiring because I
(16:47):
figured those people, you know, they're they'relooking to hire somebody now, which is what
I'm looking for. and hopefully those people,you know, will transition me into an associate
role. If I pass the bar exam in a few months.And that was that was like my first sort of
in. And I joined a very boutique law firm inWest Hollywood. It was By the time I left,
(17:14):
we were three female attorneys. were all female for my entire tenure there. I was there for
six and a half years. And it was in late2019, early 2020 that I really decided I wanted
more for my career and for my book of business.And I wanted to be able to provide my clients
(17:39):
with a well-rounded advice and guidance. Ican't do it all, nor should I. I'm pretty sure
my malpractice of insurance wouldn't like that.Not at all. But more and more, had clients
that were asking me to help with litigationmatters or employment matters. And those are
(18:04):
arenas that I know just enough about to be dangerous.But I'm not going to run a full litigation.
I can't willfully and knowledgeably adviseon employment matters. You know, especially
to do justice by my client, do well by them. I'd like to be able to have somebody for
(18:29):
them that they can speak to and trust and getthe advice and counsel that they need. And
that really stemmed my yearning to branchout. and go to a firm where I had all of
those resources at my fingertips. I wanted morefor my career, but my biggest drive was I wanted
(18:54):
more for my clients. I wanted really to beable to provide them with well-rounded, multidisciplinary
counsel. And so I sought out full-servicelaw firms. I found my home at Greenberg Gloucester,
which is a fantastic place to be. I'm veryhappy there and everybody is so fantastic and
(19:22):
everybody is so good at what they do. We'vegot employment and tax and IP and litigation,
environmental, entertainment, you name it. And it's been such a benefit not only to my
career, to my clients, but I've learned somuch. And is it true? How would you characterize
(19:49):
the typical clients without revealing, you know,confidential matters? Is it also a firm that's
very oriented towards family owned businesses?Would you say that? Yeah, I would. You know,
I'm a counsel in the corporate and tax department. And you we don't have a ton of institutional
(20:10):
clients. A lot of our clients are family ownedbusinesses, mostly held entities, you know,
which I love on a daily basis. I am workingwith two sisters that own a business together
or a multi-generational company where, you know,senior is working with G2 and G3 or were
(20:39):
actually this morning I was working on assigninginterests and reorganizing and restructuring
a bunch of entities that own a bunch of realestate for clients. And that's also the kind
of benefit that I get that I get to be pulledinto real estate matters with my corporate
expertise to help a family office restructuretheir ownership. You know, and I love that
(21:06):
stuff. We're extremely, the way that Greenberg provides advice and counsel is on a very
personal level. The way that the firm andmyself, especially, we're a lifestyle firm.
You know, we understand that attorneys arepeople outside of the walls of the office and
(21:34):
that we all have lives. And we, you know, Itranslate that to my clients. My clients have
lives. My clients have other things going onthan their business. And especially when you
deal with family offices and family businesses,there's a whole different dynamic of family
interaction. Yes. You know, and, and I havenow experienced that not only with my clients
(21:59):
and sometimes I become therapist in that regard,although I'm a very expensive therapist. I'm
sure there people that are less per hour. But I'm experiencing it firsthand because my husband
has his own business with his brother andI have become advice and counsel for them
(22:23):
as well. And so I'm seeing it sort of froma different angle too, but I think that my
clients truly appreciate that when I talk tothem, I talk to them as a person. It's not
just as a business owner. It's not just as I'm guiding you with this legal advice. It
(22:43):
has to make sense. And it has to be actuallyapplicable. And sometimes what my advice and
guidance would be in sort of this like legal box is not the best. for my client and how
their business is operating. And you've gotto be sort of fluid with that. And bespoke.
(23:08):
Yeah, so it's really beyond, it's not a transactionalrelationship. It is a trustworthy relationship
based on the values of the family businessesthat and their goals in preserving wealth
or continuing to generate family wealth. Yeah,absolutely. This is a great segue because you
(23:29):
know, I also passionate and have often gueststhat are sitting on corporate boards. As counsel,
have you observed any best practices and familygovernance structure? You talk about G1, G2,
G3, Have you observed any best practices? Wedon't have to talk about bad practices, right?
(23:50):
But any best practices that you would like toshare here? Yeah, you know, I think that
I've observed that Some of the most effectivefamily governance structures prioritize clear
communication, well-defined roles, professionalizeddecision-making. I use this in a very loose
(24:16):
sense of the word, but you could establisha family constitution. Creating a board of
advisors is always really important. havingindependent members in your board of advisors
is so incredibly valuable to have a knowledgeable,independent person that can help through disputes.
(24:45):
business disputes are one thing, but when youinclude a family dynamic in these disputes,
emotions can get high and heated. And so having an independent third board Third party board
is extremely valuable. Somebody that can guideyou, something that your family trusts. Those
(25:09):
are some big things that I've seen as best practices.And I think that lastly, holding dedicated,
regular meetings. You'll talk about business,you know, at the dinner table or, you know,
out and about you're at a kid, one of your niece'sbirthday parties and everyone's there and you're
(25:31):
like, Hey, did you see that email from XYZ?We got to figure out how to handle that. But
those are not the time and place and you'renot going to have a productive conversation.
And so you need to set aside and create boundariesbetween your family life and your business
life and set aside regular times. weekly,bi-weekly, to have an hour conversation about
(25:59):
what's going on, any disputes that need to bediscussed, any decisions that need to be made.
And that's your time to solely be in your businessmode. Because having these conversation piece
meals, dinner on a Saturday night, or a family'sbirthday party, or a holiday party, It's
(26:23):
not effective for your business. And one ofthe biggest, best practices and the most,
one of the most important goals is to preserveyour family relationships. Beautiful. You heard
it here on the founder's sandbox to preservefamily. Absolutely. Cause if you don't have
(26:50):
family, do you have? That's right. Family first.really important. It's really important. And
sometimes business can get in the middle offamily relationships. And it hurts to see
that. It hurts to see business tear between brothers, tear between father and son.
(27:14):
And I've seen those things in it. There needsto be just a second to breathe. Yes. and realize
that there are bigger things than business and that they need to be resolved, but they
can only be resolved if you have a good relationshipwith your business partner slash your family.
They're your biggest support. This has beenimmensely actionable in terms of governance,
(27:45):
the best practice you've seen in family offices.So thank you. Thank you for that. It's not
often that I do have a lawyer that worksin this arena. Although family businesses
just in the LA ecosystem is It's very predominant.very, very, you know, third, actually third
(28:10):
and fourth generation now. So very relevantto your business and mine. Let's switch gears.
You are, I believe, sitting on the board ofdirectors or one of the committees of the Association
of Corporate Growth. Yes. And tell us a bitwhat why what is the Association of Corporate
(28:30):
Growth and what committees do you serve on?And how do you further your business there?
Thank you. The Association of Corporate Growthor ACG is a national organization for professionals
in the M &A sphere. So you've got members thatare VCs, investment bankers, M &A attorneys,
(28:57):
wealth managers, insurance specialists. Yousort of name it. Anybody that's has some sort
of involvement in the purchase or sale of abusiness or just surround sort of just general
business governance that either prepare foran exit. You know, those are the kind of people
(29:18):
that are members of ACG. And I got involveda few years ago. And I think three years now,
I've been sitting on the Women's Committee, which is a Fantastic. We schedule and create
women-focused programming within the confinesof the ACG organization and really promote
(29:46):
networking amongst women. More and more, I havehad clients that have requested that they only
work with women. You know, and this sort ofgoes back to what I was talking about earlier
about being able to provide trustworthy referrals. And I've met some incredible, incredible women
(30:10):
in connection with ACJ. In fact, our group kindof came out of ACJ. This is how I met you,
Brenda. And so it's been a fantastic, fantastic network to be a part of. You know, I love
planning the programming, our programming. ranges everywhere from talking about the state
(30:33):
of the market to balancing family and careerand what that looks like and mental health.
I think I hate calling out a distinction thatwe are women in business because I think a
(30:57):
A business person is a business person. I don'tthink it needs to be defined as such, but there
is something to be said about the fact that women have a different set of challenges in
the workplace than men do. And a lot of thosestem from family life. And that needs to
(31:19):
be balanced. And so there's a lot of programming that the women's committee puts on that sort
of talks about that and gears us in that direction and gives us tools to be successful and to
strive in the face of everything else thatwomen just have to deal with and take care
(31:42):
of. That's for another episode here. Yes, verymuch so. Very much so, yes, as we all have
balanced our careers and family priorities,right? Let's switch gears. How do my listeners
contact you? How's the best way? Well, soI'm at again, I'm at Greenberg Gloucester.
(32:06):
We're in Century City. They can email me. It's a Steinberg at gg firm.com. And on our Greenberg
Gloucester website, if you search people, I'vegot my whole bio and all of my contact information
as well. Excellent. Well, that will appear inthe show notes. All right. So we're coming
(32:30):
into the final part of this podcast in whichI actually enjoy asking my guests what the
meaning is of certain terms that I actuallypractice with my clients. I'm working with
purpose-driven companies, resilience. We workon resilience tactics and scalable business
(32:51):
is sustainable. So I always love the opportunityto hear firsthand from my guess. What does
purpose-driven mean to you, Purpose-driven means a mission that goes beyond profit. It taps
into creating meaningful value for your customers, for your employees, for the community that
(33:18):
you operate in. It's sort of about buildinga company that that stands for something.
And I'm very pleased to say that we have seenso many more companies start out of a purpose-driven
goal. There's a bunch of old companies andnew companies. There's a lot of companies
(33:47):
that have this sort of one-for-one model. Youbuy one, we donate one. There are socks companies,
there are eyeglass companies, there are shoecompanies, there are cleaning product companies
that sort of have this as their motto. And then you see additionally, know, products
(34:10):
and companies that are committed to the environmentor sustainability and cleanup efforts. You
know, that's really what purpose-driven meansto me is that these companies have a goal.
They want to accomplish something more thanwhat they can show on their balance sheet.
(34:32):
consumers of that product are helping them achievethat. Excellent. Excellent. You've touched
on even other aspects like sustainable growth,right? Yeah. Right. What is resilience? You've
been particularly resilient. You having a fatherlike your father, building life skills early.
(34:54):
would resilience, what's the meaning to you?Resilience is about navigating challenges
with adaptability and with determination. It'sabout learning from your setbacks instead
(35:15):
of being defined by them, having them be a fireto your growth and having them be the galvanization
of your progress forward. You know, and inbusiness, it also can be about the ability
to pivot while staying aligned with your long-termgoals, about the ability to, you know, okay,
(35:42):
there's a new regulatory, new regulation that'sgonna affect the way we operate. Okay, how
are we gonna pivot to continue doing what wedo, but still can stay in compliance? You
know, that's really, what it's all beyond yourtoes. Excellent. And you're scalable. I'd
(36:04):
like you to kind of share the meaning withinthe context of scaling the legal practice.
What have you found to be particularly challengingor easy to do? Right. And scaling, right. Because
it's a very bespoke practice. Is there any important,right? Scaling is absolutely important. Okay.
(36:26):
In my practice and in my business, numberone goal and the biggest galvanization
point of scaling my practice are my clients,my current clients. If you do a good job for
(36:54):
them, they'll continue to come back. and they'llcontinue to give you more business. Creating
a network. I watched my parents in their, bothof their practices. All of our family friends
at this point have at one point or anotherbeen a client of my mother's or of my father's.
(37:20):
They've swapped clients, referred to eachother. And these individuals either started
as friends and became clients. or became friendsbecause they were clients. And that is the
way that both of my parents have built theirpractice and their brands. And that's how
(37:41):
I want to do it too. It's a value add when, attorneys are scary to begin with. Nobody
wants to talk to an attorney. It's expensive.Half the time you have no idea what they're
talking about. It's language. You know, butif you create this relationship of trust and
(38:04):
of loyalty and friendship and when you feellike your attorney sees beyond just you as
a dollar figure or you as a business, it goessuch a long way. And that's my main value add
to my clients. And in turn, they help me scale.my business, clients continue to come back
(38:25):
to me and I'm able to continue to grow thatbecause I can satisfy all of their needs with
the network that I'm creating through placeslike ACG. You know, so that's, that's what
I see is as scalable in my industry. It's extremelyimportant. And it goes to the heart of how
(38:45):
I practice law and how, how I guide and advisemy clients. Beautiful. Thank you. heard it
here on the Founder's Sandbox. Last question,Alexa. Did you have fun in the sandbox today?
Oh, it was so fun. Brenda, thank you so muchfor having me. This was fantastic. Thank you.
(39:06):
So to my listeners, if you've enjoyed this monthlyepisode with Alexa Steinberg, counsel at Greenberg,
Greenberg Gloucester, right? Greenberg Gloucester.Yep. I encourage you to sign up, subscribe
either on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. I'm onall main podcasts streaming services where
(39:29):
my guests talk about how they felt resilient,scalable and purpose driven practices informed
by their origin stories. You can find it hereon the founder sandbox. Thank you and signing
off for this month. Thank you, Alexa. Thankyou. This was fantastic.
Hi, I'm pleased to announce something veryspecial to me, a new subscription-based service
(00:25):
through Next Act Advisors that allows membersexclusive access to personal industry insights
and bespoke corporate governance knowledge.This comes in the form of blogs, personal book
recommendations, and early access to the founder'ssandbox podcast episodes before they released
to the public. If you want more white gloveinformation on building your startup with information
(00:52):
like what was in today's episode, sign up withthe link in the show notes to enjoy being a
special member of Next Act Advisors. As a thankyou to Founders Sandbox listeners, you can
use code SANDBOX25 at checkout to enjoy 25 %off your membership costs. Thank you.
(01:18):
Welcome back to the Founders Sandbox. I am BrendaMcCabe, your host of this monthly podcast where
I have guests that are either founders, professionalservice providers, corporate board directors
that actually share a mission with me, whichis bringing change to the world through great
corporate governance, but building resilient,scalable and purpose-driven companies. On
(01:41):
a monthly basis, my guests are going to telltheir origin stories and kind of how I've met
them. through the work they do. And I've recreateda fun sandbox environment in which we do storytelling.
And ultimately we will touch upon resilience,purpose-driven and scalable or sustainable
(02:04):
growth in the businesses that they are workingin or owners of. So I'm so happy to have as
my guest today, Alexis Steinberg. She is a lawyer. Are you partner? No, I'm counsel.
Okay. I'm absolutely delighted today. So that'llbe cut out. All right. I forgot to ask your
(02:27):
your rank. I'm absolutely delighted to haveas my guest today, Alexa Steinberg, Alexa is
counsel at Greenberg, Glasgow. And beforethat, she was actually practicing in a smaller
law firm and where her story today is goingto kind of have some some lessons learned
(02:48):
on why she chose to leave the firm and moveinto Greenberg, the Greenberg Lasker. But more
importantly, you and I go back a couple years.are part of an informal group of women. We
call ourselves Women and Wealth. We meet periodicallyto really refer business to each other for
(03:12):
those women business owners that are seekingperhaps an exit in the next three to five years.
And through our skillset, some of us are CPAs,strategy advisors, yourself as counsel. A lot
of these businesses are family owned. And soyou and I and another, know, seven other ladies
(03:33):
get to meet each other over lunch and discussthese opportunities. And we're all very passionate
about helping women business owners. Aren'twe, We are Brenda, thank you so much for having
me on the Founder's Sandbox. I am an avid listener,so I'm very excited that I get to be a guest.
Thank you, thank you. you know, we've hadmany, conversations, obviously, but I wanted
(04:03):
for my listeners to really dive into whatyou do today, right? Which is really purpose.
driven and it's preserving family wealth, right? And I know that you actually come from a background
where your father owned his business. So tellus a bit, us down memory lane and that first
(04:26):
story that you told me. Well, you know, growingup, I watched both of my parents. My mother
was a career woman. My father, a financialplanner. running his own book. My mother,
a buyer and then in fashion and then into realestate. I watched they were both very involved
(04:52):
in the community. My mother sat on the StudioCity Council, the Neighborhood Council. She
was on many boards involved with the temple.My father as well sat on many boards involved
with the Boys and Girls Club, and involvedwith the Jewish Federation. So I watched as
(05:14):
my parents really instilled the importanceof being involved in community, being involved
in family, being involved in the greater goodand in purposeful and meaningful organizations.
And I... sort of learned a lot about that watchingthem both in their respective arenas being
(05:41):
involved. And you know, they've, they've trulyinspired me, not only in my career path, but
in how I treat my clients in the arenas thatI've become involved in. There's a specific
story that I think I've shared with you, Brenda,about my father and how he sort of taught me
(06:05):
the value of wealth, the value of money, becauseas his career, that was what he did. He focused
mainly on planning for retirement and financiallysetting yourself up and your family up to have
generational wealth and what that looked likeand how you could prepare for it when you were
(06:26):
10, 15, 20, 25 years old, preparing for family,preparing for children. So when I turned 16,
my father went into our QuickBooks. We had afamily QuickBooks. Oh, wow. That was before
it was actually. It was probably a hard disk,right? Not even on the internet. Oh, yeah.
(06:49):
It was like a hard disk. had a full set up,massive computers, the whole thing, in our
family office. And he went into his QuickBooks.And he took. what he spent on me in a year.
And he divided it by 12. And this includedinsurance. Mind you, I just turned 16. So my
(07:14):
car insurance, my car lease, medical, entertainment, my tennis lessons, all of these things that
were spent on me, what it cost for me to function. Children are expensive, you know. I was very
expensive because I will tell you that checkwas large that he cut me every month. And
(07:40):
he laid out, these are the things that are monthlyexpenses for you that you need to pay with
this money. And the rest you can use on entertainment, gifts, shopping, which I loved. But I had
to learn to balance my checkbook and balancethis amount of money, because I wasn't able
(08:03):
to get any more until the next month. And that really taught me how that money was
never something that was readily expendableto me. even if I went to Starbucks and I bought
a drink with my father's credit card, he'd askme for the receipt. He'd want to know where
(08:26):
the receipt was, always. I was very meticulousin his record keeping which I am now very much
meticulous in my record keeping and I enforcewith my clients and make sure that record
keeping is so important in your business aswell. You know and so when I when I graduated
(08:47):
high school my father said to me okay the checksare done. And you need to go get a job in
college. And what I will do is I will subsidizethe paycheck that you bring home. So if you
bring home $600, I will pay you 50 cents onthe dollar for what you bring home, but only
(09:08):
up to $300. So I could get a max of $300 everypaycheck that he would subsidize. And then
that was how I had money to live and to function.my parents, I was lucky enough that my parents
would pay for my college. in my housing, inmy dorms, but it was still really teaching
(09:30):
me the value of money. And my father requiredthat a certain portion of those funds get put
away in savings and invested. And he would tellme how to do that. And he would guide me.
because my father was a financial planner, he would call me like a client and say, listen,
(09:53):
You're 70 % stocks, 30 % cash. I think you needto swap it. Let's talk about what that means.
And of course, I'm like, you're my dad. Justdo it. Why are we having this conversation?
But it was so valuable because he wanted meto understand what he was doing and why he
was doing it and how it really functioned. thatI've also taken into how I guide and advise
(10:21):
my clients. I don't just do for them. understand,I want them to understand how we're doing
it, why we're doing it, what the alternatives are and what it means if we do it this way
or that way. You know, a lot of my discussionswith my clients are about strategy and about
structure and so they can make an informeddecision. You know, I think that that's extremely
(10:44):
important, especially in a family business. Working with your family is tough. So, The
way that you can make it that much easier iscommunication and understanding and knowledge.
And I try to arm my clients with that. And that'ssomething that my father really taught me.
my mother as well, because my father managedour money and my mother would bring it home
(11:14):
and hand my father a check and be like, here,I don't know what you do with it, but do something
with it. She also would, he would say, holdon a second. Like, I know you just sold a house
and here's your commission check, but let meshow you what we do with this and how we create
(11:34):
generational wealth and how we invest it andwhat the best benefit for these funds are and
how to use debt to our advantage. Um, you know,and that's all of these things were such a
value add that I I obtained understandingabout and that I've now turned this value add
(11:56):
to my clients and how they run their business. I'm not a financial advisor, I'm not a tax
attorney. These are just really sort of general understandings and general guidance points
for my clients to go out and have knowledgeableconversations with the appropriate guidance,
(12:22):
appropriate people, and the appropriate serviceproviders that are going to help them accomplish
those things. really, this is very loaded,but I really like the methods your father
used. very, well, first of all, intentional and bespoke. And that's really, and he did
(12:44):
communicate to your mother, right? To instillalso in her an understanding of although she's
bringing the check home because many, many womenbusiness owners today oftentimes do not own
a majority of their companies. Right. And thatis a shocking statistic that I run into time
(13:08):
and time again that women actually don't knowhow much equity they have in their own business.
Right. So just the informing and, and you'vetranslated that bespoke, you know, communicating
helping your clients understand, pardon me,and providing options as well as access to
(13:28):
other professional service providers as yourown bespoke offering to your clients. But
it wasn't always like, yeah, go. That's sortof the benefit of the group that you and I
met in and all of the networking opportunitiesthat I've been involved in. Of course, networking
(13:49):
is about building um, your brand and your bookand, um, but a majority of it and the real
value there is meeting and learning and understanding,um, and really coming to know people that can
help your clients where you can't, um, andhaving trustworthy referral sources to do
(14:15):
that, because I'm not just going to tell myclient, Oh, this individual can help you with
wealth management, call them without knowinghow this person functions, without knowing
how they run their clientele, how they dobusiness. Those are really important things
and to have trustworthy referral sources isreally important. And that's sort of what our
(14:40):
group is all about. That's right. And it wasn'talways like this. Right, you graduated from
law school and started with a small, it wasa, I think a female-led law firm. all female
attorneys. Yeah, so what was your, this is rightout of college, what were you doing and what
(15:05):
then informed your decision at a very tenderage to leave? So right out of law school,
had worked my way through law school. I workedin family law for about five or six years.
during the day, I was at a law firm. And inthe evening, I took classes from 5 to 10 PM,
(15:35):
four days a week for four years. took me fouryears to get through law school. And when I
graduated, unfortunately, I wasn't afforded All of the opportunities in law school that
most law students take advantage of, externships, fellowships, things like that, because I was
(15:57):
working my way through. I had already beenfinancially independent and I wanted to stay
that way. So I didn't want to quit my job togo to school. I wanted to be able to do it
all. So as a result, I really didn't have the summer clerkships that turn into job offers.
(16:23):
And I was a little lost because I had takenthe bar exam and I was like, OK, I'm not an
attorney yet. But in three months, if I passthe bar exam, I could be. Am I applying for
law clerk positions? Am I applying for associatepositions? Like, know, I was so lost. And
I went on Craigslist. Oh my goodness. And Ifound law firms that were hiring because I
(16:47):
figured those people, you know, they're they'relooking to hire somebody now, which is what
I'm looking for. and hopefully those people,you know, will transition me into an associate
role. If I pass the bar exam in a few months.And that was that was like my first sort of
in. And I joined a very boutique law firm inWest Hollywood. It was By the time I left,
(17:14):
we were three female attorneys. were all female for my entire tenure there. I was there for
six and a half years. And it was in late2019, early 2020 that I really decided I wanted
more for my career and for my book of business.And I wanted to be able to provide my clients
(17:39):
with a well-rounded advice and guidance. Ican't do it all, nor should I. I'm pretty sure
my malpractice of insurance wouldn't like that.Not at all. But more and more, had clients
that were asking me to help with litigationmatters or employment matters. And those are
(18:04):
arenas that I know just enough about to be dangerous.But I'm not going to run a full litigation.
I can't willfully and knowledgeably adviseon employment matters. You know, especially
to do justice by my client, do well by them. I'd like to be able to have somebody for
(18:29):
them that they can speak to and trust and getthe advice and counsel that they need. And
that really stemmed my yearning to branchout. and go to a firm where I had all of
those resources at my fingertips. I wanted morefor my career, but my biggest drive was I wanted
(18:54):
more for my clients. I wanted really to beable to provide them with well-rounded, multidisciplinary
counsel. And so I sought out full-servicelaw firms. I found my home at Greenberg Gloucester,
which is a fantastic place to be. I'm veryhappy there and everybody is so fantastic and
(19:22):
everybody is so good at what they do. We'vegot employment and tax and IP and litigation,
environmental, entertainment, you name it. And it's been such a benefit not only to my
career, to my clients, but I've learned somuch. And is it true? How would you characterize
(19:49):
the typical clients without revealing, you know,confidential matters? Is it also a firm that's
very oriented towards family owned businesses?Would you say that? Yeah, I would. You know,
I'm a counsel in the corporate and tax department. And you we don't have a ton of institutional
(20:10):
clients. A lot of our clients are family ownedbusinesses, mostly held entities, you know,
which I love on a daily basis. I am workingwith two sisters that own a business together
or a multi-generational company where, you know,senior is working with G2 and G3 or were
(20:39):
actually this morning I was working on assigninginterests and reorganizing and restructuring
a bunch of entities that own a bunch of realestate for clients. And that's also the kind
of benefit that I get that I get to be pulledinto real estate matters with my corporate
expertise to help a family office restructuretheir ownership. You know, and I love that
(21:06):
stuff. We're extremely, the way that Greenberg provides advice and counsel is on a very
personal level. The way that the firm andmyself, especially, we're a lifestyle firm.
You know, we understand that attorneys arepeople outside of the walls of the office and
(21:34):
that we all have lives. And we, you know, Itranslate that to my clients. My clients have
lives. My clients have other things going onthan their business. And especially when you
deal with family offices and family businesses,there's a whole different dynamic of family
interaction. Yes. You know, and, and I havenow experienced that not only with my clients
(21:59):
and sometimes I become therapist in that regard,although I'm a very expensive therapist. I'm
sure there people that are less per hour. But I'm experiencing it firsthand because my husband
has his own business with his brother andI have become advice and counsel for them
(22:23):
as well. And so I'm seeing it sort of froma different angle too, but I think that my
clients truly appreciate that when I talk tothem, I talk to them as a person. It's not
just as a business owner. It's not just as I'm guiding you with this legal advice. It
(22:43):
has to make sense. And it has to be actuallyapplicable. And sometimes what my advice and
guidance would be in sort of this like legal box is not the best. for my client and how
their business is operating. And you've gotto be sort of fluid with that. And bespoke.
(23:08):
Yeah, so it's really beyond, it's not a transactionalrelationship. It is a trustworthy relationship
based on the values of the family businessesthat and their goals in preserving wealth
or continuing to generate family wealth. Yeah,absolutely. This is a great segue because you
(23:29):
know, I also passionate and have often gueststhat are sitting on corporate boards. As counsel,
have you observed any best practices and familygovernance structure? You talk about G1, G2,
G3, Have you observed any best practices? Wedon't have to talk about bad practices, right?
(23:50):
But any best practices that you would like toshare here? Yeah, you know, I think that
I've observed that Some of the most effectivefamily governance structures prioritize clear
communication, well-defined roles, professionalizeddecision-making. I use this in a very loose
(24:16):
sense of the word, but you could establisha family constitution. Creating a board of
advisors is always really important. havingindependent members in your board of advisors
is so incredibly valuable to have a knowledgeable,independent person that can help through disputes.
(24:45):
business disputes are one thing, but when youinclude a family dynamic in these disputes,
emotions can get high and heated. And so having an independent third board Third party board
is extremely valuable. Somebody that can guideyou, something that your family trusts. Those
(25:09):
are some big things that I've seen as best practices.And I think that lastly, holding dedicated,
regular meetings. You'll talk about business,you know, at the dinner table or, you know,
out and about you're at a kid, one of your niece'sbirthday parties and everyone's there and you're
(25:31):
like, Hey, did you see that email from XYZ?We got to figure out how to handle that. But
those are not the time and place and you'renot going to have a productive conversation.
And so you need to set aside and create boundariesbetween your family life and your business
life and set aside regular times. weekly,bi-weekly, to have an hour conversation about
(25:59):
what's going on, any disputes that need to bediscussed, any decisions that need to be made.
And that's your time to solely be in your businessmode. Because having these conversation piece
meals, dinner on a Saturday night, or a family'sbirthday party, or a holiday party, It's
(26:23):
not effective for your business. And one ofthe biggest, best practices and the most,
one of the most important goals is to preserveyour family relationships. Beautiful. You heard
it here on the founder's sandbox to preservefamily. Absolutely. Cause if you don't have
(26:50):
family, do you have? That's right. Family first.really important. It's really important. And
sometimes business can get in the middle offamily relationships. And it hurts to see
that. It hurts to see business tear between brothers, tear between father and son.
(27:14):
And I've seen those things in it. There needsto be just a second to breathe. Yes. and realize
that there are bigger things than business and that they need to be resolved, but they
can only be resolved if you have a good relationshipwith your business partner slash your family.
They're your biggest support. This has beenimmensely actionable in terms of governance,
(27:45):
the best practice you've seen in family offices.So thank you. Thank you for that. It's not
often that I do have a lawyer that worksin this arena. Although family businesses
just in the LA ecosystem is It's very predominant.very, very, you know, third, actually third
(28:10):
and fourth generation now. So very relevantto your business and mine. Let's switch gears.
You are, I believe, sitting on the board ofdirectors or one of the committees of the Association
of Corporate Growth. Yes. And tell us a bitwhat why what is the Association of Corporate
(28:30):
Growth and what committees do you serve on?And how do you further your business there?
Thank you. The Association of Corporate Growthor ACG is a national organization for professionals
in the M &A sphere. So you've got members thatare VCs, investment bankers, M &A attorneys,
(28:57):
wealth managers, insurance specialists. Yousort of name it. Anybody that's has some sort
of involvement in the purchase or sale of abusiness or just surround sort of just general
business governance that either prepare foran exit. You know, those are the kind of people
(29:18):
that are members of ACG. And I got involveda few years ago. And I think three years now,
I've been sitting on the Women's Committee, which is a Fantastic. We schedule and create
women-focused programming within the confinesof the ACG organization and really promote
(29:46):
networking amongst women. More and more, I havehad clients that have requested that they only
work with women. You know, and this sort ofgoes back to what I was talking about earlier
about being able to provide trustworthy referrals. And I've met some incredible, incredible women
(30:10):
in connection with ACJ. In fact, our group kindof came out of ACJ. This is how I met you,
Brenda. And so it's been a fantastic, fantastic network to be a part of. You know, I love
planning the programming, our programming. ranges everywhere from talking about the state
(30:33):
of the market to balancing family and careerand what that looks like and mental health.
I think I hate calling out a distinction thatwe are women in business because I think a
(30:57):
A business person is a business person. I don'tthink it needs to be defined as such, but there
is something to be said about the fact that women have a different set of challenges in
the workplace than men do. And a lot of thosestem from family life. And that needs to
(31:19):
be balanced. And so there's a lot of programming that the women's committee puts on that sort
of talks about that and gears us in that direction and gives us tools to be successful and to
strive in the face of everything else thatwomen just have to deal with and take care
(31:42):
of. That's for another episode here. Yes, verymuch so. Very much so, yes, as we all have
balanced our careers and family priorities,right? Let's switch gears. How do my listeners
contact you? How's the best way? Well, soI'm at again, I'm at Greenberg Gloucester.
(32:06):
We're in Century City. They can email me. It's a Steinberg at gg firm.com. And on our Greenberg
Gloucester website, if you search people, I'vegot my whole bio and all of my contact information
as well. Excellent. Well, that will appear inthe show notes. All right. So we're coming
(32:30):
into the final part of this podcast in whichI actually enjoy asking my guests what the
meaning is of certain terms that I actuallypractice with my clients. I'm working with
purpose-driven companies, resilience. We workon resilience tactics and scalable business
(32:51):
is sustainable. So I always love the opportunityto hear firsthand from my guess. What does
purpose-driven mean to you, Purpose-driven means a mission that goes beyond profit. It taps
into creating meaningful value for your customers, for your employees, for the community that
(33:18):
you operate in. It's sort of about buildinga company that that stands for something.
And I'm very pleased to say that we have seenso many more companies start out of a purpose-driven
goal. There's a bunch of old companies andnew companies. There's a lot of companies
(33:47):
that have this sort of one-for-one model. Youbuy one, we donate one. There are socks companies,
there are eyeglass companies, there are shoecompanies, there are cleaning product companies
that sort of have this as their motto. And then you see additionally, know, products
(34:10):
and companies that are committed to the environmentor sustainability and cleanup efforts. You
know, that's really what purpose-driven meansto me is that these companies have a goal.
They want to accomplish something more thanwhat they can show on their balance sheet.
(34:32):
consumers of that product are helping them achievethat. Excellent. Excellent. You've touched
on even other aspects like sustainable growth,right? Yeah. Right. What is resilience? You've
been particularly resilient. You having a fatherlike your father, building life skills early.
(34:54):
would resilience, what's the meaning to you?Resilience is about navigating challenges
with adaptability and with determination. It'sabout learning from your setbacks instead
(35:15):
of being defined by them, having them be a fireto your growth and having them be the galvanization
of your progress forward. You know, and inbusiness, it also can be about the ability
to pivot while staying aligned with your long-termgoals, about the ability to, you know, okay,
(35:42):
there's a new regulatory, new regulation that'sgonna affect the way we operate. Okay, how
are we gonna pivot to continue doing what wedo, but still can stay in compliance? You
know, that's really, what it's all beyond yourtoes. Excellent. And you're scalable. I'd
(36:04):
like you to kind of share the meaning withinthe context of scaling the legal practice.
What have you found to be particularly challengingor easy to do? Right. And scaling, right. Because
it's a very bespoke practice. Is there any important,right? Scaling is absolutely important. Okay.
(36:26):
In my practice and in my business, numberone goal and the biggest galvanization
point of scaling my practice are my clients,my current clients. If you do a good job for
(36:54):
them, they'll continue to come back. and they'llcontinue to give you more business. Creating
a network. I watched my parents in their, bothof their practices. All of our family friends
at this point have at one point or anotherbeen a client of my mother's or of my father's.
(37:20):
They've swapped clients, referred to eachother. And these individuals either started
as friends and became clients. or became friendsbecause they were clients. And that is the
way that both of my parents have built theirpractice and their brands. And that's how
(37:41):
I want to do it too. It's a value add when, attorneys are scary to begin with. Nobody
wants to talk to an attorney. It's expensive.Half the time you have no idea what they're
talking about. It's language. You know, butif you create this relationship of trust and
(38:04):
of loyalty and friendship and when you feellike your attorney sees beyond just you as
a dollar figure or you as a business, it goessuch a long way. And that's my main value add
to my clients. And in turn, they help me scale.my business, clients continue to come back
(38:25):
to me and I'm able to continue to grow thatbecause I can satisfy all of their needs with
the network that I'm creating through placeslike ACG. You know, so that's, that's what
I see is as scalable in my industry. It's extremelyimportant. And it goes to the heart of how
(38:45):
I practice law and how, how I guide and advisemy clients. Beautiful. Thank you. heard it
here on the Founder's Sandbox. Last question,Alexa. Did you have fun in the sandbox today?
Oh, it was so fun. Brenda, thank you so muchfor having me. This was fantastic. Thank you.
(39:06):
So to my listeners, if you've enjoyed this monthlyepisode with Alexa Steinberg, counsel at Greenberg,
Greenberg Gloucester, right? Greenberg Gloucester.Yep. I encourage you to sign up, subscribe
either on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. I'm onall main podcasts streaming services where
(39:29):
my guests talk about how they felt resilient,scalable and purpose driven practices informed
by their origin stories. You can find it hereon the founder sandbox. Thank you and signing
off for this month. Thank you, Alexa. Thankyou. This was fantastic.
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