Jonathan T. Rubens
Top rated Business & Corporate attorney in San Francisco, California
Moscone Emblidge & Rubens LLP
Practice areas: Business & Corporate, Mergers & Acquisitions, Intellectual Property
Licensed in California since: 1990
Education: University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) School of Law
Languages spoken: English, French, German
Selected to Super Lawyers: 2021 - 2026 Call today:
415-362-3599
Moscone Emblidge & Rubens LLP
423 Washington St7th Floor
San Francisco, CA 94111 Visit website
Jonathan T. Rubens is a dedicated attorney and partner at the law firm of Moscone Emblidge & Rubens LLP. For more than three decades, he has been successfully helping the residents of San Francisco, California, with their business and intellectual property law needs. He offers comprehensive legal representation to clients of all sizes and from various industries, including but not limited to technology, clean energy, health care, hospitality, automation, and food and beverage. His practice focuses on private business ownership succession and lower-middle-market mergers and acquisitions, representing closely-held, founder-led and family businesses in steering toward and moving through exit, and he works with search firms, strategic buyers, and individual buyers on buy-side US acquisitions.
Known for being innovative and practical, Mr. Rubens fiercely advocates for his clients’ rights and provides straightforward advice during every stage of the legal process. He guides closely-held and family-owned businesses through every stage of the M&A process, advising on working with and hiring investment bankers, preparing for transactions, negotiating the deal, and getting to closing and preparing for earnouts and post-closing issues. With private company clients, he provides outside general counsel services, advising on a full range of business matters, including commercial loan transactions, business formations and succession planning, corporate and LLC structuring, director fiduciary duty, trademark and copyright infringement and privacy compliance.
After graduating cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts with honors in comparative literature from Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, in 1985, and interning at the French small business administration (the credit equipment des PMEs) Mr. Rubens received his Juris Doctor from the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law, in 1990. During his time there, he served as the managing editor of the Federal Communications Law Journal. He worked as a litigator in a large los Angeles firm, then moved to the Bay Area to work as a business transactions attorney in a San Francisco law firm for several years, followed by a merger into a large national multi-practice firm, before co-founding his current firm.
Fluent in English, French and German, Mr. Rubens constantly upskills himself by presenting and taking part in many continuing legal education seminars and conferences across California. He has also contributed a number of publications to reputable legal journals.
A long-serving member of the American Bar Association, Mr. Rubens is currently the Secretary and will be Chair of its Business Law Section (2027-2028), he is a liaison to the ABA Board of Governors, he previously served as editor-in-chief of the Business Law Section's digital platform BusinessLawToday.org, and hde formerly chaired its Cyber & Technology Law Committee. He also holds membership in the Association for Corporate Growth – San Francisco Chapter, where he previously served as President.
Practice areas
Business/Corporate, Mergers & Acquisitions, Intellectual Property- 30% Business/Corporate
- 50% Mergers & Acquisitions
- 20% Intellectual Property
First Admitted: 1990, California
Professional Webpage: https://www.mosconelaw.com/jonathan-rubens/
Bar / Professional Activity
- Chair, American Bar Association Business Law Section cyberspace law committee, member venture capital & private equity committee, middle-market and small business committee; Association for Corporate Growth - SF chapter member.
Educational Background
- Dartmouth College, B.A., cum laude, 1985
Scholarly Lectures / Writings
- Editor-in-chief, www.BusinessLawToday.org, 2017-2020
- “Term Sheets for Early Stage Private Financing Transactions – From Start-Up to Series A,” University of Maryland Robert Smith School of Business Entrepreneurship Program, November 2003, November 2004 and Spring 2006
- “A Survey of Intellectual Property Protection Strategies for the New Entrepreneur,” University of Maryland Robert Smith School of Business Entrepreneurship Program, November 2003, November 2004, Spring 2006
- “Representing Startups and Emerging Growth Companies,” Bar Association of California Continuing Education of the Bar, 2002, 2004, 2006 2008, 2011, 2013, 2015, and 2017
- “Now that You’re Running the Club, who is Protecting Your Members’ Private Information?” Club Industry (health and fitness industry association), 2008
- “’Technotainment’ IP Law: A Year in Review,” Oregon State Bar Intellectual Property Section, 2009
- “Data Security Breaches: The Growing Liability Threat – Crafting and Implementing Policies to Prevent and Respond to Inadvertent Disclosures,” Strafford Publications, February 2010
- “Online Networking Media and Lawyer Ethics: How Many Tweets Are Too Many?” Continuing Education of the Bar – California, November 2009
- “Lawyers in the Cloud: Professional Responsibility Issues Raised by Cloud Computing,” Continuing Education of the Bar – California, May 2010
- “Exit Planning: What Every CEO, Business Owner and Board Advisor Needs to Know,” TiE Interconnect, November 2010
- “The e-Discovery weather is cloudy: Practical and Professional Responsibility Problems in litigation and e-discovery raised by reliance on Cloud Computing Services”, California women in e-discovery, January 2011
- “The Technology Industry in San Francisco: Outlook and Forecast”, Association for Corporate Growth –San Francisco, Fall, 2011
- Organizer and Moderator, “Institute on the Law of Cyberspace”, ABA cyberspace law committee, San Francisco, January 2012, Los Angeles, January 2013, Denver, January 2014
- “Trademarks and the startup or early-stage company“, ABA Institute for the Young Business Lawyer, March 2012
- “Ethical Considerations for Lawyers Using Social Media”, and “”Like” My Brand: Promoting and Defending IP on Social Media”, California Continuing Education of The Bar, Spring, 2014
- “Privacy and Data Security Soup to Nuts,” ABA Business Law Basics, May 2015, ABA Institute for the Young Business Lawyer, April 2014, Institute for the Young Business Lawyer, 2010
- Contributing Columnist, Business formation and financing issues, TechTV Working the Web, 2006-2007
- “Ethical Problems in Representing Early-Stage Companies,” Bar Association of California Business Law News, Winter 2005
- Editor-in-Chief, www.safeselling.org, information on legal issues raised by launching a new online business, established August 2007
- “Launching the New Online Business,” The IP Deskbook for the Business Lawyer, second edition 2010, third edition 2012, fourth edition, 2019, ABA Publishing
- “Survey of the Law of Cyberspace: Intellectual Property Cases 2007,” The Business Lawyer, November 2008
- “Survey of the Law of Cyberspace: Intellectual Property Cases 2008“, The Business Lawyer, November 2009
- “So Many Privacy Rules!” Business Law Today, July/August 2009
- Introduction to Internet for the Business Lawyer, Second Edition, ABA Publishing 2012
- Introduction to Survey of the Law of Cyberspace, The Business Lawyer, November 2011, November 2012, November 2013 and November 2014
- “Survey of the Law of Cyberspace – Copyright in Cyberspace“, The Business Lawyer, November 2015
- Emerging Companies
- Food & Beverage
- Technology
Office location for Jonathan T. Rubens
423 Washington St
7th Floor
San Francisco, CA 94111
Phone: 415-362-3599
Selections
- Super Lawyers: 2021 - 2026
