SPZ Legal Recognized By Chambers Spotlight California

In April, 2025, SPZ Legal received recognition in the category of Startups & Emerging Companies in the inaugural Chambers Spotlight California 2025 Guide. We are absolutely honored and humbled to be one of only three small/mid-size law firms in all of California to be recognized in the Startup category by Chambers. 

This recognition would not be possible without the many impact-focused clients that we serve who are doing amazing work that meaningfully benefits society and our natural environment. Clients like Verto Education, Winborne Systems, and Sown to Grow are scaling social impact in areas ranging from access to education and exposure to international cultures and worldviews, to developing tools to battle climate change. We are incredibly fortunate to support these (and many other) early stage companies using technology and scaling business models to positively impact our world. 

We are deeply grateful to have the opportunity to provide high-quality, cost-efficient corporate law services to our startup clients while staying rooted in our firm’s core values. SPZ was started a decade ago with a belief that business can be a force for good. That doing well and doing good are not mutually exclusive concepts. That for-profit business – not just government and nonprofits – can improve the lives of people. And we view this recognition from Chambers as a validation of that belief.

One of our core values at SPZ is a fundamental focus on being good people. In our view, that means treating people with kindness,respect, and integrity, with a focus on core human values. For us, that starts with our team, who earned this recognition. We believe that delivering high-quality services to our startup clients and maintaining balance in our personal lives are not at odds. In fact, they go hand in hand. 

That’s because attorneys who are not unhappy and burned out can better advise and counsel their clients. Smaller teams and less turnover allows for building long-term relationships with clients who are not passed around from one junior associate to another. 

Another core value at SPZ is being excellent at what we do. Our team went to some of the best law schools in the country and learned the ropes at top law firms. We take great pride in our work and strive to be the best counsel to our clients.

But we are also intentional about creating a firm-wide culture focused on balance, where everyone feels empowered to live to their fullest potential, both at work and outside of it. Everyone at SPZ has interests and passions outside of work – like woodworking, traveling, camping, cooking, baking, and being active – with time to explore these things in full. 

80% of our full time staff have children, and the vast majority of all of those kids are under 5 years old. For those with kids, you know how much work it is to raise a child and how valuable each day is with your children. 

Our firm was intentionally set up in a way to allow our staff to be very present with their families and with their interests outside of work. This should not be groundbreaking. But, the fact is that many startup law firms (and much of the corporate culture generally) mandates such excessive workloads and high billable hour requirements that it truly devastates work-life balance.  

This deliberate focus on excellence, compassion, and balance (combined with the support of our amazing network of specialist partner firms) allows us to support our startup clients on complex matters that many boutique firms are unequipped to handle, whether it is advising our clients on $1B valuation financings, tracking ever-changing data privacy laws and advising our growing clients like Tango on how to grapple with those laws, or tackling complex acquisitions of our clients such as the sale of an ESG-focused fintech client for $100M to one of the world’s largest financial institutions. 

Yes, this is a recognition of our incredible team and our amazing clients scaling impactful companies. But more importantly, it is validation that staying grounded in core values can be good for business. 

Learn more about our core values here.