As a partner with Acceleration Law Group, John Hallal provides a variety of business and corporate law services for his clients. The professionals at Acceleration Law Group focus on several aspects of legal maneuvers faced by early-stage companies, including entity formation and securing investor capital. In addition, the firm provides guidance in intellectual property protection and collaborates with client companies to structure employment relationships and devise fair executive compensation.
Since its inception, the firm has worked with a range of innovative technology companies. These entities turn to Acceleration Law Group for assistance with technology transfer and licensing arrangements. The firm’s professionals also have extensive experience with commercial transactions as well as merger and acquisition transactions.
Acceleration Law Group has played an instrumental role in the resolution of several business disputes that required navigation through complex legal and business issues. John Hallal has represented clients in both state and federal courts, including the Massachusetts Business Litigation Session of Suffolk County Superior Court.
Product lifecycle management (PLM) is a way of providing a comprehensive profile of a product, from its initial design to its applicability and market usage. First developed by American Motors Corporation (AMC), PLM is now frequently utilized by businesses in a variety of industries. Headquartered in Andover, Massachusetts, Aras is a leading provider of PLM software solutions. Aras is a client-centered firm run by a team of dynamic professionals with years of experience in information technology development, supply chain philosophy, and quality maintenance. Focused on meeting the needs of specific patrons and assisting them in expanding their market reach, Aras offers a host of ingenious solutions.
Built on the precept of service-oriented architecture, Aras software adjusts with the product through real-time modification and intuitive improvements. Aras software models use XML templates designed to interact with online programs, thereby ensuring up-to-date specialization and efficiency. Additionally, clients working with Aras software are pleased to find that application programming interface (API) services communicate easily in XML, and they benefit from highly effective simple object access protocol (SOAP) functions.
Dedicated to bringing success to a variety of business owners, Aras provides services to clients in the medical device, consumer goods, industrial equipment and supply, aerospace and defense, automotive, and high technology and electronics industries. Among Aras’ most prominent customers are a number of big names, including Xerox, Motorola, Rolls-Royce, and the U.S. Army. To learn more about Aras or to download a system today, visit aras.com.
Leveraging extensive experience in business and corporate law, John Hallal fulfills a leadership role at Acceleration Law Group. He also belongs to Boston Harbor Angels, an angel investing firm based in Boston. Since its inception, Boston Harbor Angels has invested in more than 25 companies in a wide range of industries.
To apply for funding from the firm, entrepreneurs must complete an application that outlines the most important details of the business plan. Applications which seem a good fit will qualify for a screening meeting, during which the internal committee will evaluate the business plan in person. Once these professionals decide that the plan is viable, the entrepreneur will present before the full membership.
If the membership demonstrates interest in the proposed business, the interested investors will form a due diligence team, which will include the entrepreneur. During this period, investors verify all the details of the business plan and research the background of the business team. After the due diligence stage, angel investors will prepare an investment deal that will outline equity, representation in the board of directors, and other important aspects of the business. The deal is executed when all members are content with the proposed terms.
Acceleration Law Group of Massachusetts, by John Hallal
Based in Andover, Massachusetts, Acceleration Law Group focuses on incorporate issues for science and technology start-ups. Led by entrepreneur and business lawyer John Hallal, Acceleration Law Group has performed contract negotiations, dispute resolution, and employment solutions for high-yield companies. Mr. Hallal also utilizes his expertise in the area of mergers and acquisitions, and holds an impressive track record of successfully representing high-yield companies from the healthcare, telecommunications, and Internet industries.
Other services available at Acceleration Law Group include licensing and technology transfer, commercial contracts, and counsel on protecting intellectual property rights. John Hallal received his Juris Doctor from Boston Law School, and served as a longtime partner at Gadsby Hannah, LLP. In addition to his practice at Acceleration Law Group, Mr. Hallal directs the business consulting firm Network Blue, Inc. and holds membership in the investing group Boston Harbor Angels.
Before becoming a successful lawyer in the state of Massachusetts, John Hallal received his J.D. from Boston College Law School. Founded in 1926 as a part of the private Jesuit institution, Boston College Law School is located a short distance away from the main Boston College campus. The law school maintains one of the most selective admissions processes in the country, accepting only slightly more than 20 percent of applicants. Well known for its superior career placement opportunities, Boston College Law School routinely ranks in The Princeton Review’s top-10 programs for career prospects. According to the National Law Journal, Boston College Law School is one of the top-15 schools in the country regarding placement in top American law firms. Additionally, The Princeton Review ranks the law school in the top-five for professor quality. The relaxed and communal atmosphere at Boston College Law School led U.S. News & World Report to name it the Disneyland of Law Schools, and rank it as one of the top-five Most Collegial Law Schools, Boston College Law School awards J.D., M.A., and Ph.D. degrees as part of its academic curriculum. Additionally, Boston College Law School partners with a number of other graduate schools at Boston College to furnish joint degrees in business, social work, and education. The law school divides many of its academic endeavors into research centers and institutes, which cover wide-ranging topics, such as human rights, asset management, and urban ecology. Students at Boston College Law School also have the opportunity to study abroad, in locations such as London, The Hague, and Argentina. Law degree candidates benefit from guest speaker presentations from top judges and legal scholars. Students at Boston College Law School currently publish six journals, including the Boston College Law Review, the school’s oldest publication. Other journals focus on topics such as international and comparative law, environmental affairs law, and third world law. Boston College Law School also sponsors the Intellectual Property and Technology Forum, the first publication of its kind available entirely online.
by John Hallal
I have been involved with start-up and high-growth companies in the Boston area for several years. In 2005, I co-founded Orthosupply Management, LLP, taking it through various stages of funding and growth. In 2007, I joined the Boston Harbor Angels, a group of enterprise leaders and investors dedicated to raising capital for emerging, early-stage companies. My current law practice, Acceleration Law Group, focuses on innovative companies in high-growth sectors such as information technology and the life sciences. With this extensive legal and entrepreneurial experience, I feel privileged to participate as a panelist at numerous events held by the MIT Enterprise Forum, Inc., a global network connecting entrepreneurs with their local communities.
The MIT Enterprise Forum was founded in 1978 as an outgrowth of the MIT Alumni Association and is open to all individuals interested in entrepreneurship. Based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the volunteer-run Forum has provided networking and educational resources for over 30 years. The Forum has 27 chapters and more than 2,000 members who benefit from its extensive partnerships with 200 corporate and educational entities. The Forum offers a wonderfully diverse networking platform, giving a core group of entrepreneurs access to venture capitalists, industry leaders, business experts, and executives.
Beyond its valuable networking events, the MIT Enterprise Forum offers hundreds of educational courses online through MIT OpenCourseWare, a free community resource disseminating course materials to MIT faculty, students, and entrepreneurs around the globe. One of its popular offerings is a special seminar in management, The Nuts and Bolts of Business Plans, offered each January through the Sloan School of Management. Taught by the MIT Enterprise Forum’s Chairman of the Board, the four-week course brings together 250 students, evenly divided between scientist/engineers and Sloan students. The seminar is particularly useful for individuals interested in engineering start-ups, as speakers in the seminar include judges of the annual MIT $50K Entrepreneurship Competition.
Another MIT OpenCourseWare offering I recommend is Law for the Entrepreneur and Manager. The course is taught by an MIT professor and covers business law with an emphasis on the early stages of company growth prior to taking a firm public. For more details on the MIT Enterprise Forum and the extensive entrepreneurial resources it provides, visit enterpriseforum.mit.edu.
One of Mr. John Hallal’s favorite contemporary American authors, Dennis Lehane grew up outside of Boston, Massachusetts, as the youngest of five children. After Boston College High School, Lehane enrolled at Eckerd College and then pursued his passion for writing as a creative writing graduate student at Florida International University. Lehane published his first book, A Drink Before War, in 1994, which won the Shamus Award for Best First P.I. Novel the following year. The book commenced a series based around two central characters, Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro. Gone, Baby, Gone, the fourth novel in the series, was the most popular, largely due to its conversion to the silver screen in 2007. Several of Lehane’s other works have also become films, including Mystic River and Shutter Island. Lehane published his most recent novel, The Given Day, in 2008. The book concentrates on two protagonists, a Boston Police patrolman and an amateur baseball player, after the end of the First World War when laborers were forming unions. The policeman struggles with a salary below the poverty level while the baseball player becomes involved with a local gangster to support his pregnant wife. When he is caught trying to cheat the gangster, he is forced to abandon his wife and make a living elsewhere. In November 2010, Lehane released Moonlight Mile, the sixth novel in the Kenzie and Gennaro series and a direct sequel to Gone, Baby, Gone. After saving Amanda McCready once, the detective duo must again seek her out at the age of 16, uncovering the seedy events of the previous decade in the process.
