Fahd Riaz, left, and Joe Kernan, right, with DLA Piper. Courtesy photos

Joe Kernan and Fahd Riaz, DLA Piper

Joe Kernen and Fahd Riaz are continually looking toward innovative ideas to expand opportunities for their firm and solutions for their clients. Fahd's work focuses on corporate counseling and finance transactions, mergers and acquisitions and strategic transactions, and venture capital and private equity. His clients range from startups to Fortune 50 companies, to family offices. He serves as outside general counsel for clients and advises both public and private boards of directors on disclosure issues, corporate communication policies and fiduciary duty matters. From small businesses to multibillion-dollar public companies, entities of all levels seek his advice. The Philadelphia-based partner is an avid supporter of entrepreneurs and emerging growth companies with an interest in developing strategies for success in their early stages. He often serves as a legal adviser to the companies he has supported.

Kernan is the office managing partner for the Philadelphia office and previously served as litigation chair and hiring partner. He also maintains a diverse litigation practice with an emphasis on commercial litigation, class action matters and construction litigation. He has significant experience counseling and defending companies in a variety of employment-related matters and also advises employers in connection with investigations into employee misconduct. Kernan and Riaz have combined their experience and acumen to create DLA Innovation Boost, a program in which DLA Piper attorneys coach, mentor and represent a select group of emerging growth company clients. After learning of a similar project in a university setting, Joe envisioned a comprehensive program where startups can take advantage of DLA Piper counsel, while feeding off the ideas of other nascent enterprises.

Amidst a recently completed office renovation, the idea came to life. In a newly designed wing within DLA Piper's Philadelphia office, participating startups have access to a 24-hour communal workspace, called the Boost Space, while three select companies are offered private offices, called the Boost Pad. The concept is among the first-of-its-kind nationwide in a law firm environment.