Jason Wiener

President

I believe the 21st century will be defined by how mindfully and equitably we re-calibrate ownership, capital, innovation and opportunity. I am moved in this work to expand and democratize access to all of the above.

(720) 445-6860
jason@dev.jrwiener.com
Boulder, CO

Jason enjoys the challenge of creatively designing legal and business solutions to persistent social and environmental challenges. Jason comes to this work with a wide range of experience as an entrepreneur, litigator, activist, organizer and worker-owner. With more than a dozen years of experience as an attorney – including several years in BigLaw litigation, and as a labor lawyer – Jason’s range of expertise and experience brings an innovative approach to solving client issues. Jason has walked in the shoes of his clients, as a social entrepreneur in his own right, on the board of non-profits, cooperatives and corporations. Jason has served on executive strategy, human resources, finance and other management level teams. Jason has been a thought, do and practice leader in the cooperative, employee ownership, impact finance and capital, and teal lawyering movements. Jason’s client work and public speaking have charted a new and grander course for the potential of democratized economic structures to re-calibrate the hazardous course set by “business as usual.”

Jason has published more than six scholarly law review articles on international, human rights and renewable energy topics and speaks regularly about worker-owned and cooperative business model, non-extractive finance, the future of work, the contemporary and teal practice of law, distributed solar policy and sharing economy legal issues. Jason is an adjunct professor in Colorado State University’s Global Sustainability and Social Enterprise program, where he teaches an MBA course on business law and ethics. He is also a guest lecturer at the University of Colorado Law School’s Entrepreneurial Law Clinic.

His hobbies include mountain biking, yoga, hiking and running with his two dogs, coffee, cooking and traveling, his amazing wife, Meghan and son, Alden.

Sectors

LOHAS brands
Craft beer
Freelance and gig economy
Technology and #platformcoops
Local and independent food and beverage
Co-working
Impact investing
Local and impact investing
User, consumer, producer, multi-stakeholder ownership models
Farming, agriculture, and food producer
Mental health
Transportation
Employee ownership
Consulting and professional services
Solar and renewable energy and electric utility regulation

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Practice Areas

Business Model Architecture and Design
Social Enterprise Entity Formation
Basic Tax
Equity allocations and equity incentive plans
Founders agreements
Financing and capitalization; securities compliance
Employment, consulting and independent contractor agreements
Custom transactional support
Employment compliance
Mergers & acquisitions
General outside (virtual inside) counsel
Cooperative development
Training, Organizational Development, Education and Public Speaking

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Education

B.S. Cornell University, School of Industrial and Labor Relations

Coursework at Bocconi Institute, Milan, Italy

J.D. cum laude Suffolk University Law School (concentration with honors in international law)

Honors/Awards

2017 “Who’s Who in Impact Investing” by the Denver Business Journal and the Impact Finance Center

Fellow, New York City Environmental Law Leadership Institute

2013 Best Corporate Counsel Award, Denver Business Journal

2014 COSEIA President’s Award

Bar Admissions

Massachusetts – 2005

New York – 2006

Southern District of New York – 2006

Colorado – 2009

Speaking Engagements

Harvard Law School’s “Harvard Law Forum” (March, 2018) (video)
Regular Contributor to “Coop Power Hour, It’s the Economy” on KGNU
Association of Cooperative Educators (July, 2017)
Platform Cooperativism Conference (November, 2016)
Transform Finance: Democratized Tech and Distributed Ownership as an Exit Strategy (April, 2017)
Silicon Flatiron Student Group (2015)
Boulder Start-up Week (2016-2017)
Startup Day Across America, hosted by Rep. Jared Polis (2017)
Democracy at Work Institute & Rocky Mountain Employee Ownership Center (April 2017)

National Cooperative Business Association Webinar: “The Creative Application of the Cooperative Business Model” (2015)
Governor’s Forum on Colorado Agriculture (2017)
Intermountain West Funder Network (2016)
Colorado Bar Association’s Business Law Institute (2015-2016)
Slow Money (2016)
Cooperative Professionals Conference (2014-2017)
Colorado Solar Energy Industries Association contributor (2010-2014)

Publications

The Practitioner’s Guide to Colorado Business Organizations; Cooperative Businesses. Volumes 1 & 2; 2nd Ed. Linda D. Phillips, Esq. & Jason Wiener, Esq. Colorado Bar Association CLE (2017).
An Introduction to Financing for Cooperatives, Social Enterprises, and Small Businesses. Community Wealth Building. R.P. Burrasca, Susan Grossberg, Anne Misak and Jason Wiener (June, 2015).
Colorado Cooperative Law (Apr 25, 2014).
On-Site Renewable Energy and Public Finance: How and Why Municipal Bond Financing is the Key to Propagating Access to On-Site Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency, 26 Santa Clara Comp. & High Tech. Law Journal 559 (June 2010).
Sharing Potential and the Potential for Sharing: Open Source Licensing as a Legal and Economic Modality for the Dissemination of Renewable Energy Technology, 18 Geo. Int’l Envtl. L. Rev. 277 (Winter 2006).
Neighbors Up North: Nunavut’s Incorporation In Canada As A Model For Multicultural Democracy, 28 Suffolk Transnat’l L. Rev. 267 (July 2005).
A New Globalization: Mediating the Role of Mediation in Enforcing International Fair Labor Standards, 23 Wis. Int’l L.J. 205 (Apr. 2005).
World Trade Organization’s Identity Crisis: Institutional Legitimacy and Growth Potential in the Developing World, Manchester J. Int’l Econ. L., Vol. 2, Issue 2, 2005.
Lady in Red: Privatizing a Local Treasure, The Green Gavel, Suffolk University Law School Environmental Law Society Newsletter (Oct. 2004).
The Right To Teach, The Right To Speak, And The Right To Be A Valuable Contributor To A Child’s Upbringing: Public School Teachers’ First Amendment Right To Free Speech And Expression, 32 W. St. U.L. Rev. 105 (Oct. 2004).