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Privacy Policy

Last Updated: March 28, 2024

ImpactGC, PLLC (“us”, “we”, or “our”) operates the website www.ImpactGCLaw.com (the “Website”).

Your privacy is very important to us, and this privacy policy (“Policy”) represents our commitment to safeguard and protect your personal data. We have developed this Policy for you to understand how we collect, use, communicate and disclose and make use of personal data when you access our Website. This Policy governs our use, and disclosure of your personal data (as defined below) in connection with your use of Website and any services, transactions, interactions, or other engagements you might have with us (collectively, “Services”). 

This Policy does not apply to our collection, use, or disclosure of personal data when performing services on behalf of our clients. It also does not apply to our collection, use, or disclosure of personal data related to job applicants, employees, or their dependents and beneficiaries, or the collection, use, or disclosure of personal data by third parties.

BY VISITING AND USING OUR WEBSITE OR OUR SERVICES, YOU AGREE THAT YOUR VISIT OR USE, AND ANY DISPUTE OVER OUR ONLINE PRIVACY PRACTICES, IS GOVERNED BY THIS PRIVACY POLICY AND OUR TERMS OF USE, OF WHICH THIS POLICY FORMS A PART, unless federal, state, or local laws and regulations or our ethical obligations require a higher level of protection for your personal data, in which case they will take precedence over this Policy. 

Information Collection and Use

We collect and process information that personally identifies, relates to, describes, or is capable of being associated with you (“personal data”) solely for the purposes of providing and improving our Website and any services you may request. Personal data may include, but is not limited to:

  • Contact Information: Such as your email address, phone number, and mailing address.
  • Unique Identifiers:  Such as name, client number, date of birth, social security number.
  • Financial Information: Such as checking account, credit/debit card number, brand, and expiration date.
  • Commercial Information: Such as the legal services in which you are interested or have been provided, newsletters you have signed up to receive;
  • Usage Data: Information about how you use our Website, including IP address, browser type, device type, pages visited, and timestamps.
  • Communication Data: Any communications you send to us, including emails, messages, and feedback.

The specific personal data we collect about you may vary based on how you use the Website and/or Services and your relationship with us.

We also collect information about businesses that engage with us such as EIN, TIN, address, phone number, email address, bank account information. This information is generally not considered personal data because it relates to a business or a business contact.

We do not collect any “special categories of personal data” about you (this includes details about your race or ethnicity, religious or philosophical beliefs, sex life, sexual orientation, political opinions, trade union membership, information about your health, and genetic and biometric data). Nor do we collect any information about criminal convictions and offenses.

We may collect personal data:

  • directly from you when you engage with us;
  • indirectly from third-party sources including your organization, your representatives, publicly available sources, or our service providers;
  • our clients, when we handle personal data for the purpose of providing our services;
  • regulatory bodies; and
  • other companies providing services to us.

When we collect personal data directly from you it is your decision whether to provide data. If you do not provide data, it may hinder your use of, or make it not possible to use, our services or products, not allow you to remain in contact with us, to enter into contracts/agreements with us, or to exercise your rights. If you provide information to us about another person, you must ensure that you comply with any legal obligations that may apply to your provision of the information to us, and allow us, where necessary, to share that information with our service providers.

We may use personal data for the purposes of:

  • conducting due diligence, including on-boarding, compliance checks (including anti-money laundering and conflict checks) and other on-boarding processes;
  • managing our client relationships and providing legal advice and services including working with counterparties, providers of related services (such as litigation support, translation and other specialist services);
  • operating and giving you access to our legal technology tools;
  • managing billing, payments and financial records; and
  • responding to requests from regulators.

When we provide legal advice and services to clients, we may also process the personal data of individuals whose information is relevant to the matter(s) on which we are instructed for example, when we advise on a business transaction, a regulatory investigation or we represent a client in a legal dispute. When we process personal data collected from or on behalf of our clients to provide legal advice and services, we process this data subject to obligations of client confidentiality and legal professional privilege, as well as the terms of our engagement with our client.

Social Media

If you engage with us via social media, use your social media credentials to access the Website or Services, or interact with social media buttons or widgets embedded in our Website or Services, we may collect personal data available on your social media profile and usage data. For information about privacy controls available through your social media provider, please visit their website.

Cookies and Other Automated Tools

We use cookies (a small text file placed on your computer to identify your computer and browser) and other automated tools such as tracking pixels to improve the experience of the Website and Services, such as saving your preferences from visit to visit to present you with a customized version of the Website. Many web browsers are initially set up to accept cookies. You can reset your web browser to refuse all cookies or to indicate when a cookie is being sent. However, certain features of the Website and Services may not work if you delete or disable cookies.

Third-Party Websites

If you arrive at the Website by “clicking through” from another website, then certain information about you that you provided to that other website, such as the terms you were searching on that led you to our Website, may be transmitted to us and we may use it. You should review the privacy policy of any website from which you reached the Website to determine what information was collected by that website and for what purpose(s) you agreed that website could use that information. 

Social Media Widgets

The Website may include social media features, such as the LinkedIn and Twitter widgets. These features may collect information about your IP address and the pages you visit on our Website as well as other personal data. A cookie may be set to ensure that a feature properly functions. Your interactions with features are governed by the privacy policies of the companies that provide them.

Third-Party Personal Data Collection on Website

Certain third parties collect personal data and/or usage data from users of our Website using automatic information collection tools such as cookies and tracking pixels. The collection, use, and disclosure of personal data and/or usage data by these third parties is governed by their privacy policies. This following third parties may collect personal data via our website:

Google: https://policies.google.com/privacy?fg=1

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/legal/privacy-Policy

Twitter: https://twitter.com/en/privacy

Legal Basis for Processing Personal Data

We process personal data for the following lawful bases:

  • Performance of a Contract: To fulfill our obligations under any contracts entered into with you and to provide you with the Website and Services, including our legal services.
  • Legitimate Interests: To pursue our legitimate interests, such as providing and improving our services, marketing our products, contacting you for customer service purposes or to inform you of changes to our Website, our services, or terms and policies included in this Policy, collecting on client accounts, and ensuring the security of our Website.
  • Consent: Where you have provided consent for specific processing activities, such as receiving marketing communications or using cookies. You have the right to withdraw your consent at any time by contacting us using the details set out under “Contacting Us” below.

Data Retention

We retain your personal data for as long as we have a relationship with you. We may also retain your personal data for a period of time after our relationship with you has ended where there is an ongoing business need to retain it. This includes retention to comply with our legal, ethical, regulatory, tax, and/or accounting obligations, and retention that is advisable in light of our legal position.

Data Sharing and Disclosure

We will not share your personal data with any third party who is not affiliated with us except as described in this Policy. 

We are committed to conducting our business in accordance with these principles in order to ensure that the confidentiality of personal data is protected and maintained. We may share your personal data with third parties for the following purposes:

  • Service Providers: We may engage third-party service providers to assist with the operation of our business and the provision of our services. Each Service Provider is required to use reasonable security measures appropriate to the nature of the information involved to protect your personal data from unauthorized access, use, or disclosure. Service Providers are prohibited from using personal data that we provide them other than as specified by us.
  • Legal Compliance: We may disclose personal data if required to do so by law or in response to valid legal requests.
  • Business Transactions: In the event of a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets, your personal data may be transferred to a third party as part of the transaction. 

Third-Party Selling

We do not sell your personal data to third-party companies for their direct marketing purposes or for any other purpose. 

Other Websites

Third-party websites accessible through our Website or recommended through our Services may have their own privacy and data collection policies and practices. We are not responsible for any actions, content of websites, or privacy policies of such third parties. You should check the applicable privacy policies of those third parties when providing information.

Security

We employ commercially reasonable administrative, technical, and physical safeguards to protect personal data from unauthorized access, disclosure, and use. Even with these safeguards, no data transmission over the Internet or other network can be guaranteed 100% secure. As a result, while we strive to protect information transmitted on or through our Website or Services, you do so at your own risk.

Your Data Protection Rights

You have certain rights with respect to your personal data, including the right to access, rectify, and delete your data. To exercise these rights, please contact us using the contact information provided below.

Childrens’ Privacy

Our website is not directed at children under the age of 16, and we do not knowingly collect personal data from children under the age of 16. If you believe we have collected information from a child under 16, please contact us immediately.

Privacy Policy Changes

This Policy is subject to change. We encourage you to review this Policy frequently for any revisions or amendments. Changes to this Policy will be posted on the Website and will be effective immediately upon posting. You will be deemed to have been made aware of and have accepted the changes by your continued use of our Website or Services. 

Commitment to Clients

Although this Policy does not apply to our collection, use, or disclosure of personal data when performing services on behalf of our clients, as a law firm we take our obligations of client confidentiality seriously and commit to the following with regard to confidential information we obtain from clients:

  • We will use reasonable technical, administrative, and physical safeguards to protect client confidential information.
  • We will never sell client confidential information.
  • We will only disclose client confidential information as permitted by our ethical obligations.
  • If you become a former client, we will continue to honor our commitment so long as we possess your confidential information.

California “Do Not Track” Disclosure

Do Not Track is a web browser privacy preference that causes the web browser to broadcast a signal to websites requesting that a user’s activity not be tracked. Currently, our Website and Services do not respond to “do not track” signals.

Governing Law & international Transfers

The Website and Services are provided in the District of Columbia and the laws of the District of Columbia will apply to your use of the Website and Services, without regard to conflicts of law principles. You acknowledge that personal data will be transferred to and accessible from locations within the United States of America. 

For non-U.S. residents: The majority of our computer systems, networks and devices are based in the United States.  Your personal data may be processed in the United States, where data protection and privacy regulations may not offer the same level of protection as in other parts of the world, such as the European Union, by us, our contractors, and our service providers that we use to support our business and who are bound by contractual obligations to keep personal data confidential and use it only for the purposes for which we disclose it to them.  If you use this Website, you consent to the collection and/or processing in the United States of your personal data and tracking technologies/cookies as described in the Privacy Policy.  You may withdraw this consent by contacting us at [email protected].

Your Rights in Relation to Your Personal Data

To the extent that our processing of your personal data is subject to the GDPR or other data protection legislation with data subject rights, you may have rights which are explained below. To exercise these rights, please contact us at [email protected].

You have the right to ask us for a copy of your personal data. This right is subject to applicable law and relevant exemptions. You can ask us to correct or complete any inaccurate or incomplete personal data. You can (in certain circumstances) ask us to delete your personal data. We may be unable to delete your data if we are legally obliged to retain it. You can (in certain circumstances) object to our processing of your personal data or ask us to “restrict” our use of it. If you have consented to our processing of your personal data, you can withdraw your consent. 

You have the right to ask that personal data which you have provided to us be provided to you in machine readable format if we process that data using automated means, you have consented to its use or so that we can enter into a contract with you. 

We aim to respond to all legitimate rights requests within the relevant statutory time limits; however, where permitted by law, we may take longer if the request is complex.

Contact Us

If you have any questions or concerns about this Policy, please contact us at:

ImpactGC, PLLC

5028 Wisconsin Ave. NW, Suite 100

Washington, DC 20016

Tel: +1.310.926.6255

Email: [email protected]. 

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Meagan Olsen

PARTNER

CONTACT

EDUCATION

J.D., Fordham University School of Law

B.S. Business Administration (Accounting and Finance), Georgetown University

PRACTICE AREAS

TBC

BAR ADMISSION

New York, California

Meagan is an accomplished lawyer with twenty years of experience, including as a partner at a top-tier global law firm, in house counsel at a Fortune 500 company and general counsel to multiple growth companies.

Leveraging her deep experience as a corporate and securities lawyer and broad experience as a general counsel, Meagan works with companies across industries and at all stages of their lifecycle, making her a versatile legal partner. She works with clients to understand their strategic goals and KPIs, identify risks and opportunities, and collaborates with them to implement legal solutions that support the business’s objectives. 

Meagan has significant experience working with boards of directors and executives on corporate governance and investor relations, and guiding companies through complex domestic and international M&A transactions, debt and equity financings (public and private), SEC reporting obligations, stock exchange compliance and commercial contracts. She also has experience advising companies on a wide array of strategic and operational matters, including international market and product expansion, marketing, sustainability programs, equity plan management, executive compensation, employment/HR matters, intellectual property matters, litigation management and compliance.   

Meagan is passionate about supporting purpose-driven organizations, a commitment that is evident in her personal consumer choices and volunteer efforts, as well as her professional pursuits. She enjoys working with organizations on implementing people- and planet-focused initiatives. She also has a demonstrated commitment to non-profit organizations, including assisting multiple non-profits with formation and tax-exempt qualification and advising AIDS Project Los Angeles and I am a voter (an organization focused on voter registration and civic engagement) on transformative corporate transactions, all on a pro bono basis. 

Meagan is based in Los Angeles. In her free time, she enjoys spending time outdoors and volunteering with her family, playing pickleball, and exploring the city’s vibrant food scene.

Key Experience: 

  • General Counsel and Corporate Secretary, Parachute Home, a premium home essentials company with a commitment to responsible materials, circularity and emissions reduction 
  • General Counsel and Chief of Staff, Byte (subsidiary of Nasdaq-listed Dentsply Sirona Inc.), a mission-driven teledentistry platform and clear aligner brand dedicated to improving access to oral health and straight smiles  
  • Partner, Paul Hastings LLP 
  • Senior Counsel, Corporate & Securities, Mattel 

Memberships/Activities:

  • Guest lecturer at UCLA School of Law and USC School of Law 
  • Member of TechGC and Women’s General Counsel Network 

Jim Black

MANAGING PARTNER

CONTACT

EDUCATION

J.D., University of Virginia School of Law

PRACTICE AREAS

TBC

BAR ADMISSION

New York, District of Columbia

Jim is a highly experienced corporate lawyer with more than two decades of legal experience, including as a partner in a leading global law firm and most recently as Chief Legal and Compliance Officer and Member of the Executive Leadership Team of a publicly traded international company.   

 

Jim’s career has shown him the importance of working with a clear focus on ethical and sustainable business practices, which led him to co-found ImpactGC to further his personal mission of helping make business a force for good.  Jim is fully committed to operating with a triple-bottom-line approach (People, Planet, Profit) and to helping mission-driven clients of all types pursue their important social, environmental and governance aims. 

Jim has extensive experience counseling founders and executive teams on corporate strategy, major transactions and other important matters, including litigation management, corporate governance and compliance. He has advised on numerous complex commercial contracts across a range of industries, as well as mergers and acquisitions and corporate finance deals. His commitment to social justice and human rights is reflected in a long track record of pro bono and other volunteer work, including advising a prominent LGBTQ civil rights organization, the Innocence Project and the American Academy in Berlin, among others.   

Jim spent well over a decade working and studying overseas, including in Germany and the Czech Republic, and he speaks fluent German.  He is a frequent author and speaker on a wide range of business law topics, including those of particular relevance to mission-driven companies. He is based in the Washington D.C. area, where he loves to spend time hiking, biking and running the trails and communing with nature in the woods of Northern Virginia.  In his personal time, he is a devoted father of two, partner and dog dad of a highly opinionated Shiba Inu.  

Key Experience: 

  • Chief Legal and Compliance Officer and Member of the Executive Leadership Team, Northern Data Group 
  • Partner, White & Case, LLP 
  • Partner, Acceleron Law Group, LLP 
  • Counsel, Morrison & Foerster LLP 
  • Counsel, Linklaters LLP 

Select Speaking Engagements and Publications: 

  • “The Benefit Corporation Movement”, presentation at ABA Business Law Section Meeting, Orlando, FL April 2024 
  • “Leading Evolving Organizations”, panel discussion on employee ownership at BLD Southeast, September 2024 
  • Various contributions to ABA M&A Committee Deal Points studies and the Annual Survey of Judicial Developments Pertaining to M&A 
  • Numerous other articles in ABA publications and the legal and financial press on various aspects of business law 

Memberships/Activities:

  • Member of Steering Committee of B Local Mid-Atlantic
  • B Academics  
  • National Center for Employee Ownership 
  • American Bar Association Business Law Section, Middle Market & Small Business Committee (MMSB) and M&A Committee 
  • Former Co-Chair of International Business Transactions Subcommittee of the ABA MMSB Committee 
  • Real Leaders  
  • Global Alliance of Impact Lawyers 
  • American Council on Germany 

Julie Ryan

MANAGING PARTNER

CONTACT

EDUCATION

J.D., cum laude, Georgetown Law

PRACTICE AREAS

Complex commercial contracts | Cross-border M&A | Venture capital | Private equity | Corporate governance | Impact investing | Employment matters | Technology start-ups | Regulatory compliance | Partnerships | Secured transactions | Data privacy | Entity formation and structuring | E-commerce | Intellectual property licensing

BAR ADMISSION

New York, District of Columbia, California

Julie is an accomplished global corporate and securities lawyer with over 25 years’ legal and entrepreneurial experience. She is recognized for her unique problem-solving, collaborative approach, and enjoys working with clients to understand their specific business concerns and creating tailored, practical legal solutions. 

Starting her career at the law firms of Clifford Chance LLP and Akin Gump LLP, Julie developed broad expertise representing major clients in a range of complex cross-border transactions.  She also has significant experience working with entrepreneurs and small- to mid-cap companies. She is the co-founder of AltaClaro, an innovative experiential online learning platform, and has represented numerous successful tech start-ups in all stages of growth.  

Most recently, Julie served in an in-house counsel role as Chief Regulatory Officer and Deputy General Counsel at Northern Data, a German public company, where she spearheaded the company’s U.S. restructuring and successfully negotiated several high-stakes commercial transactions. 

Julie is passionate about supporting women and minority-owned businesses and working with purpose-driven clients, believing that every business, large or small, deserves high quality, practical legal support from a lawyer who understands their business goals and concerns. She also enjoys being involved with the community. She currently is an adjunct professor at Georgetown Law, volunteers with several non-profit organizations and accelerators, has published a textbook as well as numerous articles, blogs, and presentations, and served on the corporations committee for the State Bar of   California for over 8 years. 

Julie spent several years working overseas, including Bogotá, Colombia, and Montreux, Switzerland, and speaks fluent French and Spanish. She is based in the Washington D.C. area where she loves to spend time with her family on the Potomac River paddling and sailing.

Key Experience: 

  • Chief Regulatory Officer and Deputy General Counsel, Northern Data AG 
  • Partner, Acceleron Law Group, LLP 
  • Partner, Russ, August & Kabat 
  • Senior Attorney, Akin Gump LLP 
  • Co-Founder and Chief Learning Officer, AltaClaro, Inc. 

Select Speaking Engagements and Publications: 

  • Collaboration with Halcyon House, an accelerator for impact-driven businesses and ChIPs, an organization that advances and connects women in technology, law, on a series of presentations on starting a business. 
  • Startup Law 101: Negotiating to “Yes,” Virtual Event hosted by ChIPs Advancing Women and sponsored by Halcyon House (panelist). 
  • “Silicon Beach Jeopardy: 6 Essential Areas for In-House Counsel to Consider When Managing Venture Capital or M&A Transactions,” CLE Presentation, Namwolf Annual Meeting, Los Angeles, CA. 
  • Transaction Lawyering: An Experiential Approach to Communication & Problem-Solving (Carolina Academic Press). 
  • “Advising the Pre-public Company,” CLE Presentation, Annual Meeting of the State Bar of California, Monterrey, CA. 

Memberships/Activities: 

  • Adjunct professor of law at Georgetown Law  
  • Real Leaders  
  • Global Alliance of Impact Lawyers 
  • Association of Corporate Counsel 
  • Women’s Bar Association of DC 
  • Women Owned Law 
  • WeTheChange 
  • Business for America 
  • Conscious Capitalism 
  • B Local Mid-Atlantic