Purpose: Preserving Family Wealth

On this episode of The Founder's Sandbox, Brenda speaks with Alexa Steinberg – a corporate and transactional attorney for middle-market companies and entrepreneurs.

Acting as outside general counsel, Alexa represents privately held companies in a wide range of general corporate and transactional matters, including entity formation, structuring, and commercial transactions. With a focus on mergers and acquisitions, she offers clients guidance on structuring deals and ensuring compliance with relevant laws and regulations.

Brenda and Alexa discuss her journey from working at a small, all-female law firm to joining a full-service firm to better support her clients. Alexa shares how her parents—both deeply involved in business and community service—shaped her values around financial literacy, record-keeping, and the importance of building generational wealth. They speak about family-owned businesses and best practices in family governance, such as setting clear roles, regular meetings, and involving independent board members. Alexa also emphasizes the importance of building trust with clients and maintaining a purpose-driven, relational legal practice. Brenda and Alexa explore what "purpose-driven," "resilience," and "scalable" mean within the context of business and legal practice.

You can find out more about Alexa at:

https://www.greenbergglusker.com/alexa-steinberg/

 

 

 

 

episode transcript:

00:04
Hi, I'm pleased to announce something very special to me, a new subscription-based service through Next Act Advisors that allows members exclusive access to personal industry insights and bespoke

00:32
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01:01
As a thank you to Founders Sandbox listeners, you can use code SANDBOX25 at checkout to enjoy 25 % off your membership costs. Thank you.

01:18
Welcome back to the Founders Sandbox. I am Brenda McCabe, your host of this monthly podcast where I have guests that are either founders, professional service providers, corporate  board directors  that actually share a mission with me, which is bringing change to the world through great corporate governance, but building resilient, scalable and purpose-driven companies.  On a monthly basis,  my guests are going to tell their origin stories and kind of how I've met them.

01:48
through the work they do.  And I've recreated a fun sandbox environment in which we do storytelling. And ultimately we will touch upon resilience, purpose-driven  and  scalable or sustainable growth in the  businesses that they are  working in or owners of. 

02:17
l I'm absolutely delighted to have as my guest today, Alexa Steinberg, Alexa is counsel  at Greenberg, Glasgow.  And before that, she was actually practicing in a smaller law firm and where her story today is going to kind of have some some

02:47
lessons learned on  why she chose to leave the firm and move into Greenberg, the Greenberg Lasker. But more importantly, you and I go back a couple years. are part of an informal group of women. We call ourselves Women and Wealth.  We meet periodically to really refer business to each other for those women business owners that

03:16
are seeking perhaps an exit in the next three to five years.  And through our skillset, some of us are CPAs, strategy advisors, yourself as counsel. A lot of these businesses are family owned. And so you and I and another, know, seven other ladies  get to meet each other over lunch and discuss these opportunities. And we're all very passionate about helping women business owners. Aren't we,

03:44
We are Brenda, thank you so much for having me on the Founder's Sandbox.  I am an avid listener, so I'm very excited that I get to be a guest. Thank you, thank you.  you know,  we've had many, conversations, obviously,  but I wanted for my listeners  to really dive into  what you do today, right? Which is really  purpose.

04:12
driven and it's preserving family wealth, right?  And I know that you actually come from a background where your father owned his business. So tell us  a bit, us down memory lane and that first story that you told me.  Well, you know, growing up, I watched both of my parents. My mother was a career woman.  My father, a financial planner.

04:38
running his  own book.  My mother,  a buyer and then in fashion and then into real estate.  I watched they were both very involved in the community. My mother sat on  the Studio City Council,  the Neighborhood Council. She was on many boards involved with the temple. My father as well  sat on many boards involved with the

05:07
Boys and Girls Club,  and  involved with the Jewish Federation. So I watched as my parents  really instilled the importance of being involved in  community, being involved in family, being involved  in the greater good and in purposeful and meaningful  organizations.  And I...

05:35
sort of learned a lot about that watching them both in their respective arenas being involved. And you know, they've, they've truly inspired me,  not only in my career path, but in  how I treat my clients  in the arenas that I've become involved in.  There's a specific story that I think I've shared with you, Brenda, about my father and how he sort of taught me

06:05
the value of wealth, the value of money, because as his career, that was what he did. He focused mainly on planning for retirement and financially setting yourself up and your family up to have generational wealth and what that looked like and how you could prepare for it when you were 10, 15, 20, 25 years old, preparing for family, preparing for children.

06:35
So when I turned 16, my father went into our QuickBooks. We had a family QuickBooks.  Oh, wow. That was before it was actually.  It was probably  a hard disk, right? Not even on the internet. Oh, yeah. It was like a hard disk. had a full set up, massive computers, the whole thing,  in our family office.  And he went into his QuickBooks. And he took.

07:03
what he spent on me in a year.  And he divided it by 12. And this  included insurance. Mind you, I just turned 16. So my car insurance, my car lease,  medical, entertainment,  my tennis lessons, all of these things that  were spent on me, what it cost  for me to function.  Children are expensive, you know.

07:32
I was very expensive because I will tell you that check was large  that he cut me every month.  And he laid out, these are the things that are monthly expenses for you that you need to pay with this money. And the rest you can use on entertainment,  gifts,  shopping, which I loved.  But I had to learn to balance my checkbook and balance

08:01
this amount of money, because I wasn't able to get any more until the next month.  And  that really taught me how that  money  was never something that was readily expendable to me. even if I went to Starbucks and I bought a drink with my father's credit card, he'd ask me for the receipt. He'd want to know where the receipt was, always.

08:28
I was very meticulous in his record keeping which I am now very much meticulous in my record keeping  and  I enforce with my clients and  make sure that record keeping is so important in your business as well.  You know and so when I when I graduated high school my father said to me okay the checks are done.  And you need to go get a job in college.

08:56
And what I will do is I will subsidize the paycheck that you bring home. So if you bring home $600, I will pay you 50 cents on the dollar for what you bring home, but only up to $300. So I could get a max of $300 every paycheck that he would subsidize. And then that was  how  I had money to live and to function. my parents,  I was lucky enough that my parents would pay for my college.

09:24
in my housing, in my dorms,  but  it was still really teaching me the value  of money.  And my father required that a certain portion of those funds get put away in savings and invested. And he would tell me how to do that.  And he would guide me.  because my father was a financial planner,  he would call me like a client and say, listen,

09:53
You're 70 % stocks, 30 % cash. I think you need to swap it. Let's talk about what that means. And of course, I'm like, you're my dad. Just do it. Why are we having this conversation? But it was so valuable because he wanted me to understand what he was doing and why he was doing it and how it really functioned. that I've also taken into how I guide and advise my clients.

10:22
I don't just do for them. understand, I want them to understand  how we're doing it, why we're doing it, what the alternatives  are and what it means if we do it this way or that way.  You know, a lot of my discussions with my clients are about strategy and about structure and  so they can make an informed decision.  You know, I think that that's extremely important, especially in a family business.  Working with your family is tough. So,

10:52
The way that you can make it that much easier is communication and understanding and knowledge. And I try to arm my clients with that. And that's something that my father really taught me.  my mother as well,  because my father managed our money and my mother  would bring it home and hand my father a check and be like, here, I don't know what you do with it, but do something with it.

11:21
She also  would, he would say, hold on a second. Like, I know you just sold a house and here's your commission check, but let me show you what we do with this and how we create generational wealth and how we invest it and what the best benefit for these funds are and how to use debt to our advantage.  Um, you know, and that's all of these things were such a value add that  I

11:51
I obtained understanding about and that I've now turned this value add to my clients  and how they run their business.  I'm not a financial advisor, I'm not a tax attorney. These are just really sort of  general  understandings and general guidance points for my clients to go out and  have knowledgeable conversations with the appropriate

12:21
guidance, appropriate people,  and the appropriate service providers that are going to help them accomplish those things. really,  this is very loaded, but I really like  the methods your father used. very, well, first of all, intentional  and bespoke. And that's really, and he did communicate to your mother, right? To instill also in her an understanding

12:52
of although she's bringing the check home because many, many women business owners today oftentimes do not own a majority of their companies. Right. And that is a shocking  statistic that I run into time and time again that women actually don't know how much  equity they have in their own business. Right. So just the informing and,  and you've translated that bespoke, you know, communicating

13:22
helping your clients understand,  pardon me, and  providing options as well as access to other professional service providers as  your own bespoke  offering to your clients. But it wasn't always like, yeah, go. That's sort of the benefit of the group that you and I met in and all of the networking opportunities that I've been involved in.  Of course,  networking is about building

13:51
um, your brand and your book and,  um, but a majority of it and the real value there  is  meeting and learning and understanding, um, and really coming to know people that can help your clients  where you can't,  um, and having  trustworthy referral sources to do that, because I'm not just going to tell my client, Oh,

14:18
this individual can help you with wealth management, call them without knowing how this person functions, without knowing  how they run their clientele,  how they do business. Those are really important things and to have trustworthy referral sources  is really important. And that's sort of what our group is  all about. That's right.  And it wasn't always like this.

14:46
Right, you graduated from law school  and started with a small, it was a, I think  a female-led law firm.  all female attorneys. Yeah, so what was your, this is right out of college, what were you doing  and what then informed your decision at a very tender age to leave?  So  right out of law school,

15:17
had worked my way through law school. I worked in family law for about five or six years. during the day, I was at a law firm. And in the evening, I took classes from 5 to 10 PM, four days a week for four years. took me four years to get through law school. And when I graduated, unfortunately, I wasn't afforded

15:47
All of the opportunities in law school  that most law students take advantage of, externships,  fellowships, things like that, because I was working my way through. I  had already been financially independent and I  wanted to stay that way. So I didn't want to quit my job  to go to school. I  wanted to be able to do it all.

16:15
So as a result, I really didn't have  the summer clerkships  that turn into job offers.  And I was a little lost because I had taken the bar exam and I was like, OK,  I'm not an attorney yet. But in three months, if I pass the bar exam, I could be.  Am I applying for law clerk positions? Am I applying for associate positions? Like, know, I was so lost.  And I went on Craigslist.  Oh my goodness.

16:44
And I found law firms that were hiring because I figured those people, you know, they're they're looking to hire somebody now, which is what I'm looking for. and hopefully those people, you know, will transition me into an associate role. If I pass the bar exam in a few months. And that was that was like my first sort of in. And I joined a very boutique law firm in West Hollywood. It was

17:13
By the time I left, we were three female attorneys. were  all female  for my entire tenure there. I was there for six and a half years.  And it was  in  late 2019,  early 2020 that I really decided I wanted more for my career and for my book of business. And I wanted to be able to  provide my clients  with a well-rounded

17:43
advice and guidance. I can't do it all, nor should I. I'm pretty sure my malpractice of insurance wouldn't like that. Not at all. But more and more, had clients that were asking me to help with litigation matters or employment matters. And those are arenas that I know just enough about to be dangerous. But I'm not going to run a full litigation.

18:13
I can't willfully and knowledgeably advise on employment matters.  You know, especially to  do justice by my client, do well by them.  I'd like to be able to  have somebody for them that they can speak to and trust and get the advice and counsel that they need.  And that really stemmed  my yearning to  branch out.

18:42
and go to a firm where I had all of those resources at my fingertips. I wanted more for my career, but my biggest drive was I wanted more for my clients.  I wanted really to be able to provide them with well-rounded, multidisciplinary  counsel.  And so I sought out  full-service law firms.

19:11
I found my home at Greenberg Gloucester, which  is a fantastic place to be.  I'm very happy there and everybody is so fantastic and  everybody is so good at what they do.  We've got employment and tax and  IP and litigation,  environmental, entertainment,  you name it.  And it's been such a benefit not only to my career,

19:41
to my clients, but I've learned  so much.  And is it true?  How would you characterize the typical clients without revealing, you know, confidential matters? Is it  also a firm that's  very oriented towards family owned businesses? Would you say that? Yeah, I would. You know, I'm  a counsel in the corporate and tax department.

20:08
And you we don't have a ton of institutional clients.  A lot of our clients are family owned businesses, mostly held entities,  you know, which I love on a daily basis. I am working with  two sisters that own a business together or a multi-generational company where, you know, senior is working with G2 and  G3  or

20:37
were actually this morning I was working on  assigning interests and reorganizing and restructuring a bunch of entities that own a bunch of real estate for clients.  And that's also  the kind of benefit that I get that I get to be pulled into  real estate matters with my corporate expertise to help a family office restructure their ownership.

21:04
You know, and I  love that stuff. We're extremely,  the way that Greenberg  provides advice and counsel  is on a very personal level. The way that  the firm  and myself, especially, we're a lifestyle firm.  You know, we understand that attorneys are people outside of

21:33
the walls of the office and that we all have lives.  And we, you know, I translate that to my clients. My clients have lives. My clients have other things going on than their business.  And especially when you deal with family offices and family businesses, there's a whole different dynamic  of  family interaction. Yes. You know, and, and I have now experienced that  not only with my clients  and sometimes I become

22:03
therapist in that regard, although I'm a very expensive therapist. I'm sure there people that are less per hour.  But  I'm experiencing it firsthand because my husband  has his own business with his brother  and I have  become  advice and counsel for them  as well. And so I'm  seeing it sort of from a different angle too, but I think that my clients truly appreciate

22:32
that when I talk to them, I talk to them as a person. It's not just as a business owner. It's not just as  I'm guiding you with this  legal advice.  It has to make sense.  And it has to  be actually applicable.  And sometimes what my advice and guidance would be  in sort of this like legal  box  is not the best.

23:00
for my client and how their business is operating.  And you've got to be  sort of fluid with that. And bespoke.  Yeah, so it's really beyond, it's not a transactional relationship. It is a trustworthy relationship based on the values of the family businesses that and their goals in preserving wealth  or continuing to generate family wealth. Yeah, absolutely. This is a great segue because you know, I also

23:29
passionate and have often guests that are sitting on corporate boards.  As counsel, have you observed any best practices and family governance structure? You talk about G1,  G2, G3, Have you observed any  best practices? We don't have to talk about bad practices, right? But any best practices that you would like to share here?  Yeah, you know,  I think that  I've observed that

23:59
Some of the most effective family governance structures prioritize clear communication,  well-defined roles,  professionalized decision-making.  I use this in a very loose  sense of the word, but you could establish a family constitution. Creating a board of advisors is always really important.

24:28
having independent members  in your board of advisors  is so incredibly valuable to have a knowledgeable, independent  person that can help through disputes. business disputes are one thing, but when you include a family dynamic in these disputes,  emotions can get high and heated. And so having  an independent third board

24:57
Third party board is extremely valuable. Somebody that can guide you, something that your family trusts. Those are some big things that I've seen as best practices. And I think that lastly, holding dedicated, regular meetings.

25:23
You'll talk about business, you know, at the dinner table or, you know, out and about you're at a kid, one of your niece's birthday parties and everyone's there and you're like, Hey, did you see that email from XYZ? We got to figure out how to handle that.  But  those are not the time and place and you're not going to have a productive conversation. And so you need to set aside and create boundaries between your family life and your business life  and set aside regular times.

25:53
weekly, bi-weekly, to have an hour conversation about what's going on, any disputes that need to be discussed, any decisions that need to be made.  And that's your time to solely be in your business mode.  Because having these conversation piece meals,  dinner on a Saturday night,  or  a family's birthday party, or  a holiday party,

26:22
It's not effective  for your business. And one of the biggest,  best practices  and the most, one of the most important goals  is to preserve your family relationships. Beautiful. You heard it here on the founder's sandbox to preserve family.  Absolutely.  Cause if you don't have family, do you have? That's right.

26:52
Family first. really important.  It's really important. And sometimes business can get in the middle of family relationships.  And it hurts to see that. It hurts to see  business  tear between  brothers,  tear between  father and son.  And I've seen those things in it.  There needs to be just a second to breathe. Yes.

27:21
and realize that there are bigger things than business  and that they need to be resolved, but they can only be resolved if you have a good relationship with your business partner slash your family.  They're your biggest support.

27:37
This has been immensely  actionable  in terms of  governance, the best practice you've seen in family offices. So thank you. Thank you for that. It's not often that I do have  a  lawyer  that works in this  arena.  Although family businesses just in the LA  ecosystem is

28:05
It's very predominant. very, very, you know, third, actually third and fourth generation now. So very relevant to your business and mine. Let's switch gears. You are, I believe, sitting on the board of directors or one of the committees of the Association of Corporate Growth. Yes. And tell us a bit what why what is the Association of Corporate Growth and what committees do you serve on?

28:35
And how do you further your business there? Thank you. The Association of Corporate Growth or ACG is a national organization  for professionals in the M &A sphere. So  you've got members that are  VCs, investment bankers,  M &A attorneys, wealth managers,  insurance specialists.  You sort of name it. Anybody that's

29:03
has some sort of involvement  in the purchase or sale of a business  or just surround sort of just general business governance that either prepare for an exit. You know,  those are the kind of people that are members of ACG.  And I got involved a few years ago.  And I think three years now, I've been sitting  on the Women's Committee,  which is a

29:31
Fantastic. We schedule and create women-focused programming within the confines of the ACG organization and really promote networking amongst women. More and more, I have had clients that have requested that they only work with women.

29:58
You know, and this sort of goes back to what I was talking about earlier about being able to provide  trustworthy referrals.  And I've met some incredible, incredible women in connection with ACJ. In fact, our group kind of came out of ACJ. This is how I met you, Brenda. And so  it's been a fantastic, fantastic  network to be a part of.  You know, I love planning the programming, our programming.

30:28
ranges everywhere from  talking about the state of the market  to  balancing family and career and what that looks like and  mental health. I think  I hate calling out a distinction that we are women in business  because I think a

30:57
A business person is a business person. I don't think it needs to be defined as such, but there is something to be said about the fact that  women have a different set of challenges in the workplace  than men do.  And a lot of those stem from  family life.  And that needs to be  balanced. And so there's a lot of programming  that the women's committee puts on that sort of

31:26
talks about that and  gears us in that direction  and gives us tools to be successful and to strive  in the face  of everything else that women just have to  deal with and take care of. That's for another episode here. Yes, very much so. Very much so, yes, as we all have balanced our careers and family priorities, right?

31:56
Let's switch gears. How do my  listeners contact you? How's the best way?  Well,  so I'm at again, I'm at Greenberg Gloucester. We're in Century City.  They can email me. It's  a Steinberg at gg firm.com.  And on our Greenberg Gloucester website, if you search people, I've got my whole bio and all of my contact information as well. Excellent.

32:25
Well, that will appear in the show notes. All right. So we're coming into the final  part of this podcast in which I actually  enjoy asking my guests  what the meaning is of certain terms that I actually practice with my clients. I'm working with purpose-driven companies, resilience. We work on resilience tactics  and  scalable business is sustainable. So I  always love the opportunity to hear

32:55
firsthand from my guess. What does purpose-driven mean to you, Purpose-driven means  a mission that goes beyond profit.  It taps into creating meaningful value for your customers,  for your employees,  for the community that  you operate in.  It's sort of about  building a company that

33:25
that stands for something.  And I'm very pleased to say that we have seen so many more companies  start out of a purpose-driven  goal.  There's a bunch of old companies and new companies. There's  a lot of companies that have this sort of one-for-one model. You buy one, we donate one.

33:52
There are socks companies, there are eyeglass companies, there are shoe companies, there are cleaning product companies  that sort of have  this  as their motto. And  then you see  additionally,  know, products and companies that are committed to the environment or sustainability and cleanup efforts. You know, that's really what  purpose-driven

34:21
means to me is that  these companies have a goal.  They want to accomplish something more than what they can show on their balance sheet. consumers of that product are helping them achieve that.  Excellent. Excellent. You've touched on even other aspects like  sustainable growth, right? Yeah. Right. What is resilience? You've been particularly resilient.

34:49
You having a father like your father,  building life skills early. would resilience,  what's the meaning to you?

35:00
Resilience is about  navigating challenges  with adaptability and with determination. It's about learning from your setbacks  instead of being defined by them, having them be a fire to your growth and having them  be the galvanization of your progress forward.

35:30
You know, and in business, it also can be about the ability to  pivot while staying aligned with your long-term goals, about the ability to,  you know, okay, there's a new regulatory,  new regulation that's gonna affect the way we operate. Okay, how are we gonna pivot to continue doing what we do,  but still can  stay in compliance?  You know,  that's really,

35:59
what it's all beyond your toes.  Excellent. And you're scalable. I'd like you to kind of share the meaning within the context of scaling the legal practice. What have you found to be  particularly  challenging or easy to do? Right. And scaling, right. Because it's a very bespoke practice. Is there any important, right? Scaling is absolutely important. Okay.

36:28
In my practice and in my business,  number one  goal  and  the biggest  galvanization point of scaling my practice  are my clients, my current clients. If you do a good job for them, they'll continue to come back.

36:59
and they'll continue to give you more business.  Creating a network. I watched my parents in their, both of their practices. All of our family friends  at this point have at one point or another been a client of my mother's or of my father's.  They've swapped clients,  referred to each other. And these individuals either started as friends and became clients.

37:29
or  became friends because they were clients.  And  that is the way that both of my parents have built their practice and their brands.  And that's how I want to do it too. It's a value add when,  attorneys are scary to begin with.  Nobody wants to talk to an attorney. It's expensive. Half the time you have no idea what they're talking about. It's language.

37:57
You know, but if you create this relationship of trust and of loyalty and friendship  and when you feel like your attorney  sees beyond just you as a dollar figure or you as a business,  it goes such a long way. And that's my main value add to my clients.  And in turn, they help me scale.

38:22
my business, clients continue to come back to me  and I'm able to continue to grow that because I can satisfy all of their needs with the network that I'm creating through places like ACG. You know, so that's, that's what I see is as scalable in my industry. It's extremely important.  And it goes to the heart of how I practice law and how, how I guide and advise my clients. Beautiful.

38:52
Thank you. heard it here on the Founder's Sandbox. Last question, Alexa.  Did you have fun in the sandbox today?  Oh, it was so fun.  Brenda, thank you so much for having me. This was fantastic. Thank you. So to my listeners, if you've enjoyed this monthly episode with Alexa Steinberg, counsel at Greenberg, Greenberg Gloucester, right? Greenberg Gloucester. Yep.  I encourage you to

39:22
sign up, subscribe either on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. I'm on all main podcasts streaming services where my guests talk about how they felt resilient, scalable and purpose driven  practices informed by their origin stories. You can find it here on the founder sandbox. Thank you and signing off for this month.  Thank you, Alexa.  Thank you. This was fantastic.