The NYC startup landscape is exploding with venture capital and angel investment dollars increasingly finding their way here.  With that, it becomes important to find a lawyer who knows the lingo, knows the players and who has been around the block.  We can speak to this firsthand as we initially screwed up, in an effort to be frugal, by going with a firm and lawyer who didn’t know what they were doing when it came to option and fundraising documents.  Unwinding that fiasco cost us twice as much in money and time.  Yes – not fun.

So that we can help you avoid making the same mistakes as us, we’ve compiled this list of top NYC startup lawyers which you can hopefully use as your starting point for research.  We do NOT know all of these folks individually or personally (we actually don’t know most of them).  So our list is driven by seeing positive sentiment about these folks online from other startup entrepreneurs.  The list is just in alphabetical order and is not a ranking.  Also, our lawyer is on this list in case you are wondering, but to be fair to everyone, we’ve not highlighted who that is.

As always, you should do your own due diligence before picking a lawyer.  And this list is not exhaustive – or at least we hope NYC has more than 20 awesome startup lawyers.  So if you are a lawyer who feels you should be on the list or if you are a startup founder and you have an amazingly knowledgeable lawyer, let us know in the comments so we can add them to the list.  This will be a living, breathing list but without further delay, here are the top 20 NYC startup lawyers as of today.

If you’re an entrepreneur looking for angel investment or venture capital funding for your business, check out our free Funding Recommendation Engine.  It’s free (for now) so get an invite by just entering your email here.

Steven Baglio

Firm: partner at Gunderson Dettmer

Focus: later-stage venture capital and private equity funds in biotechnology, medical devices, healthcare services, energy, industrial technology, online media, software and consumer products

Education: J.D from Columbia University School of Law in 1999

Victor Boyajian

Firm: partner at SNR Denton

Focus: Venture Technology companies in IT, Media and Telecommunications

Education: J.D from The University of Pennsylvania Law School in 1985

David Concannon

Firm: partner at Andrews Kurth LLP

Focus: formation and organization of start-ups, VC financings and M&A’s

Education: J.D from Vanderbilt University School of Law in 1990

Previous employers: Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison LLP and Fried Frank Harris, Shriver & Jacobso LLP

Joseph Daniels

Firm: partner at Loeb and Loeb

Focus: startups and venture capital funds in biotech, cleantech, digital media, healthcare, financial services, semiconductor, software, and telecommunications

Education: J.D at University of Southern California’s Gould School of Law in 1996

Other experience: mentor to the Entrepreneur’s Roundtable Accelerator (ERA)

Selim Day

Firm: corporate partner at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati

Focus: tech companies in all stages in Internet, digital media, software, semiconductors, biotech, and clean technology

Education: J.D from University of Florida’s Levin College of Law in1988

Previous employers: has practiced corporate law for over 20 years, including a seven year stint in Silicon Valley.

Peter Fusco

Firm: Partner in the Tech Group at Lowenstein Sandler

Focus: all stages of venture capital transactions

Education: J.D from Seton Hall University School of Law in 1999

Previous employers: Brown Raysman LLP

Thomas Guida

Firm: Partner at Loeb and Loeb

Focus: digital content development and distribution companies

Education: J.D from Boston College Law School in 1997

Previous employers: partner at Baker & Hostetler LLP

Michael Horn

Firm: of counsel at Buhler Duggal & Henry LLP

Focus: emerging growth companies and venture capital investors, specially in the Internet sector

Education: J.D from Cornell Law School

Previous employers: Cahill Gordon & Reindel LLP

Brian Hutchings

Firm: Corporate Partner at Gunderson Dettmer

Focus: private emerging growth companies and venture capital and private equity funds that invest in those companies

Education: J.D from Villanova University School of Law

Previous employers: O’Melveny & Myers LLP

C. Andrew Im

Firm: Managing Partner at IM IP LAW PLLC

Focus: Intellectual Property Litigation, Patent, Trademark and Licensing.

Education: J.D from New York University School of Law in 1996

Previous employers: Fulbright & Jaworski LLP, Coudert Brothers and Anderson Kill & Ollick, P.C

Stephane Levy

Firm: Associate in the Business department at Cooley LLP

Focus: emerging growth companies in technology and life sciences

Education: Faculty of Law LLB and BCL from McGill University in 2002

Previous employers: corporate associate at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman

Language Skills: French and Hebrew

Camille Linson

Firm: of counsel at Hrbeck Law LLC

Focus: Internet Law

Education: J.D from Vanderbilt School of Law

Previous employers: Beck & Arad, LLP

Language Skills: German, French, Spanish and Mandarin Chinese

Kenneth McVay

Firm: founding partner at Gunderson Dettmer

Focus: fast-growing private and publicly held technology companies in Internet, media, mobile, semiconductors and financial services

Education: J.D from Harvard Law School

Previous employers: Latham & Watkins , law clerk at The Honorable Cynthia Holcomb Hall

Heather Miles

Firm: associate at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati

Focus: VC and Fund Services

Education: J.D/LL.M from Cornell University

Previous employers: Buhler Miles LLP and Gunderson Dettmer

Jay Rand

Firm: partner at Sorin Royer Cooper

Focus: early-stage, emerging growth and venture-backed companies

Education: J.D. from The University of Pennsylvania School of Law in 1987

Previous employers: Manatt, Phelps & Phillips LLP and Morrison & Foerster LLP

Lori Smith

Firm: partner at the Corporate Practice Group of Sedgwick LLP

Focus: all stages of emerging companies in technology, media, financial services, food and beverage, sports, textile, fashion, specialty chemicals, and drug and medical devices

Education: a J.D. from Duke University School of Law in 1984

Previous employers: Goodwin Procter LLP, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP and Proskauer Rose LLP

Charles Torres

Updated – Charles Torres has moved to Lowenstein Sandler

Firm: Lowenstein Sandler

Focus: M&A, minority and control investments and portfolio dispositions for emerging tech companies

Education: J.D from The University of Chicago Law School in 1995

Previous employers: Partner at Reitler Kailas & Rosenblatt LLC, Stroock & Stroock & Lavan LLP

Drew Wintringham

Firm: partner in DLA Piper’s Intellectual Property and Technology group

Focus: patent litigation practice in the medical device, software, and automotive industries

Education: J.D from the University of Michigan Law School in 1982

Previous employers: Americas Intellectual Property group, The Intellectual Property group, Corporate Intellectual Property practice and the e-commerce group at Chadbourne & Parker

Babak (Bo) Yaghmaie

Firm: partner at the Business department at Cooley LLP

Focus: technology and life science companies

Education: JD from Boston University School of Law in 1992

Previous employers: Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman and Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati

Language Skills: Farsi (Persian)

Edward Zimmerman

Firm: chair of Tech Group at Lowenstein Sandler

Focus: growth and start-up companies in Internet, software or hardware

Education: J.D from the University of Pennsylvania School of Law in 1992

Previous employers: adjunct professor at Columbia Business School.