Business Law Specialty Consultants: 4

Blockchain Expert Consulting (BEC) was founded to offer Cryptocurrrency and Web3 Startups with sustainable business and Strategy and Innovation Consulting. BEC is a thought leader in blockchain architecture, smart contract outcomes, various blockchain networks including Ethereum, Blockchain, and various chains in the Cosmos ecosystem. BEC also provides services in blockchain law and Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAO) structuring as related to Series LLCs.

• For established players in web3 who need an unbiased take on a model., BEC helps ensure clients are growing in the right direction
• For existing business models looking  to incorporate tokenization, expected to be a $30 trillion industry by 2030, but don't know where to start, BEC keeps things as simple as possible since your business already works

J. Mason Bump, Founder, is a Blockchain Architectureand Cryptocurrency Expert.. An early adopter of decentralized technologies, he has extensive business acumen and deep knowledge of blockchain technology, tokenomics, and public policy. Mason holds a JD and MBA,  is a Certified Cryptocurrency Forensic Investigator, and is Certified by the Blockchain Council as both a Blockchain and Law Professional and as a Certified Blockchain Expert. 

Mason achieved success as a general practitioner with exposure to entity structuring and formation, contract drafting, land disputes, litigation, trial, and appellate work. In his appellate.practiced his arguments were heard and accepted by the Iowa Supreme Court.  

More recently, Mason's been employed by a blockchain startup as a Protocol Specialist and Governance Expert (previously Protocol Analyst), where he provides high-level insight into the architecture, the mechanics and economics of tokenomics, and parameters of dozens of blockchain networks the company supports. This company maintains its status as a "Unicorn" staking firm with a valuation in excess of $1 billion. *Blockchain Expert Consulting is a separate entity from this company.

Mason was featured as an in-person speaker at the International Blockchain Developer Conference called Nebular Summit in Paris, France in July 2023 where he spoke about the potential of smart contracts to improve the effectiveness of legal contracts in a presentation titled "Staking: Modern Building Materials for Contracts."

View J. Mason Bump's Expert Witness Profile.

Brian H. Cole is a Certified Specialist in Franchise and Distribution Law (California State Bar of Legal Specialization), with over 30 years of experience, including as in-house attorney for one of the world's largest franchisors (Pizza Hut). The focus of his practice is on corporate and transactional work, primarily for companies and individuals involved in franchise and distribution matters (franchisors, franchisees, manufacturers, and distributors).

Consulting Services For Franchisors:

• Draft franchise agreements and related documents (including confidentiality agreements, personal guarantees, and other ancillary documents)
• Prepare Franchise Disclosure Documents; register or file exemptions in all states where needed
• Represent franchisors in acquisitions or divestitures of either individual units or entire systems
• Advise with respect to termination and non-renewal issues.

Due Diligence Services for Acquisitions:

• Review compliance by franchisors with applicable franchise laws.
• Advise franchisees on viability of franchised business.

Consulting Services For Franchisees:

• Review Franchise Disclosure Documents and advise prospective franchisees on the franchise under consideration
• Represent franchisees selling their units or buying existing units
• Advise franchisees who have been harmed by franchisor practices contrary to provisions of applicable franchise laws

Areas of Expertise:

View Brian Cole's Expert Witness Profile.

Attorney, Lawrence H. Jacobson received his Bachelor's degree in political science in 1964 from U.C.L.A and his Juris Doctorate in 1967 from the U.C.L.A. School of Law. While at the U.C.L.A. School of Law, Mr. Jacobson was a senior editor of the U.C.L.A. Law Review and graduated as a member of the Order of the Coif. 

Mr. Jacobson is the former Vice-President of Legal Affairs for the California Association of Realtors, legal counsel to several Boards of Realtors, California Counsel to an international real estate brokerage firm, and legal counsel to numerous mortgage brokerage firms and related real estate service providers. He is also a Past President of the Beverly Hills Bar Association. He has served as a judge pro tem for the Los Angeles and Beverly Hills Municipal Court Systems as well as having been an adjunct professor of law in the area of real estate secured transactions and administrative law, earning a lifetime Community College Instructor Credential in the area of Law.

Legal Practice - In his 50 years of practice, Mr. Jacobson has counseled and represented both private and publically held clients in the following:

• Selection of Business Entities
• Formation and Restructure of Corporations
• Partnerships and Limited Liability Companies
• Purchase and Sale of Business
• Succession Planning
• General Advice on Finance, Employment, Intellectual Property, Taxation, Antitrust, and Securities Laws

Lawrence Jacobson has written and lectured extensively on business, real estate and ethics related matters including having taught for the U.S.C. Broker Development Program and Graduate Realtors Institute of the California Association of Realtors, as well as having lectured for the California Continuing Education of the Bar, and is the recipient of the California Continuing Education of the Bar's 2011 "Spirit of CEB" Award.

View Lawrence Jacobson's Expert Witness Profile.

William (Ned) McLeod, Esq., has been a party to many Licensing Arrangements as an attorney specializing in Intellectual Property in the Entertainment Industry (“IP”), both on the licensor and the licensee side of the table in different matters from hard media historical archives to blockchain based creations, and, as a non-attorney producer, both as owner  licensor and, alternately, as user / licensee.

As a result of his more than 40 years in the Entertainment Industry, Mr. McLeod has personally negotiated hundreds of licenses, and reviewed and evaluated hundreds more. His handling of licenses have covered a broad scope of venues and clientele, including The Rockefeller Center (NYC), the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry and The Navy Pier (IL), the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History (TX, with 8 associated museums), Graceland (TN), Niagara Falls (NY), The Smithsonian, the Kennedy Space Center (FL), Port of Los Angeles (CA), National Harbor (DC), Leadership Conference of Women Religious (“Catholic Sisters,” MD), the Tupperware Center (FL), Gatorland (FL), the Orlando Ballet (FL), Bob Ross (painter), Cousteau family ventures, 7 years of the Walt Disney World Christmas Day Parade (live and televised), and others.    

Consulting Services -  Mr. McLeod has been most effective serving the long term needs of someone unfamiliar with the entertainment trade. He helps teams :

• Reach a level of confidence in designing their venture step by step, through option and decision tree outlines, developing from content creation over a span of five years or more and identifying the desired stages of achievement for the work.
• Take a book idea through publication, licensing to media and exhibition platforms, and attaching merchandise and educational products that build out sustainable and successful models of exploitation, with seats for sequels.
•  Tent-polling a major artistic creation (e.g., a painting, graphic/comic series, story, song, a Non-Fungible Token item, or a celebrity brand), and designing the alliances and partnerships necessary for funding and moving to concentric wheels of ancillary and subsidiary derived products, experiences, and performances - all leading to revenue sharing.

View Ned McLeod's Expert Witness Profile.