Juan Monteverde Provides Look at Running Own Firm in New York City

Running your own business can be both rewarding and incredibly challenging, perhaps one of the clearest examples of this is in the field of law. Law firms can represent a great opportunity for their heads to contribute to real and lasting change in the world, however, there are often many associated regulations and other considerations that must be navigated. In order to better understand this field, we turned to the work of Juan Monteverde, a leading securities attorney based in New York City. Through looking at his professional career and work with his own law firm, readers can gain a better understanding of the legal field and more insight into running a business in general.

Professional history

An initial look at the foundations of the career of Juan Monteverde can be instrumental when seeking to analyze his more recent work. Originally from Barcelona, Spain, the attorney opted to attend California State University, Northridge to pursue his undergraduate degree in Finance. At that time, the attorney was interested in exploring a career related to stock markets and possibly becoming a stockbroker himself. That goal, however, changed when he took a job in a law firm to help pay his bills. His experiences supporting the firm’s legal actions gave him a newfound appreciation for the ways in which a career in the field of law could bring lasting positive change to the world.

After graduating with a B.S. in Finance, the attorney went on to study law at St. Thomas University. There, he maintained a rigorous schedule that included his academic studies, a range of teaching assistant duties, extracurricular activities, and work at a local law firm. While this density of activities carried a host of challenges with it, it also served to better prepare the attorney for his future career in law and the experience of one day running his own firm. One of the key preparatory undertakings here was his work at Diaz Reus, the law firm at which he was exposed to a number of different aspects of law such as commercial disputes and government investigations.

Early career

After graduating from law school, and before setting out to run his own law firm, the attorney accrued an extensive degree of experience at multiple different firms, each with its own set of learnings to provide to him. He spent time working as a defense attorney, which helped to give him a more in-depth understanding of that type of legal work. These efforts focused on civil litigation with concentrations in construction law, product liability, and civil rights litigation.

After working as a defense attorney, the young lawyer transitioned to a career more focused on areas of law relating to securities and corporate mergers. At subsequent firms, he helped to represent victims of securities fraud, consumer fraud, ERISA violations, and mutual fund abuse.  He also gained experience as the head of his own department, which not only helped provide him with a greater degree of expertise in cases related to mergers and acquisitions, it also helped to better educate him on the logistics of leading a large group of individuals. As we’ll see, this work helped prepare him for his future efforts in running his own firm.

Initial challenges

While experienced in leading teams of people, the transition to running his own firm did confront Juan Monteverde with a host of new challenges that were initially novel to him. One sizable challenge he encountered was the large number of logistical considerations involved with heading a firm of your own. In previous leadership positions, he had always had a support team that was skilled in handling paperwork and other administrative considerations. However, when going into business for himself, he soon found that these responsibilities ultimately fell to him to handle.

One of the ways that the attorney worked to accomplish this was by hiring and contracting skilled professionals who were experienced in important administrative areas. This allowed the attorney to let administrative and other logistical work be accomplished by individuals who were specialized in this field and allowed him to focus on the work to which he was specialized — practicing law. This strategy has worked well for his firm and helps to illustrate the importance of understanding one’s strengths when starting a new business venture. If there’s an area in which one feels they could use additional support, it can be quite helpful to seek out professionals who can provide that support and improve the overall strength of the business.

Benefits of firm

While the above overview helps to show some of the challenges that can crop up when starting a law firm of your own, the attorney’s work also helps to illustrate many of the positives aspects of engaging in such an endeavor. One thing that stands out for the attorney when he reflects on his work is the way in which he’s been able to capitalize on opportunity through the creation of his firm. 

Around the time of the firm’s creation, he had begun to notice that the courts were changing and shareholders were not being afforded the rights they once were. This observation gave the attorney a chance to step up and provide legal services that would help safeguard those rights and serve clients in a manner that may have been difficult to otherwise find. This allowed him to help make a difference in the lives of his clients and fill a gap that he felt was being underserved. In part, due to that entrepreneurial spirit, the firm is now considered by some to be one of the top firms in the country for representing shareholders.

While running any business can come with a host of challenges and rewards, there are many considerations in the field of the law that make running your own firm even more challenging than other endeavors. The above look at the professional life of Juan Monteverde helps to illustrate that by showing the level of experience and drive he’s exhibited to get where he is today. By understanding his set of skills, as well as the obstacles he has faced while starting his own firm, you’ll be better placed to understand the field of law as a whole and the more general pursuit of running one’s own business.

More about Juan Monteverde on Crunchbase