Cozen O’Connor member Michael J. Heller recently participated in a panel on “How to Become a Client Advocate,” sponsored by The Legal Intelligencer and the Pennsylvania Law Weekly. The event focused on building and maintaining effective relationships with clients, and included as speakers both top local attorneys and the executives they represent. Resident in the Philadelphia office, Heller chairs the Business Law Department, is a member of the firm’s management and executive committees, and heads the emerging business and venture capital practice area. His practice is devoted to representing and counseling venture capital groups, private equity firms and other investors in equity and financing transactions as well as entrepreneurs and emerging growth companies, from the formation and business planning stage to forming, structuring and negotiating joint ventures and strategic alliances, technology licensing, transfer and development, and negotiating and structuring angel, venture and other capital-raising transactions, as well as mergers and acquisitions and initial public offerings.

Heller is a frequent speaker on venture capital and entrepreneurism in the Mid-Atlantic Region and is frequently quoted in local, regional and national publications on the subject. He is a member of the board of directors of the Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania and the Entrepreneurs’ Forum of Philadelphia, Inc.

A resident of Villanova, Pa., Heller received his undergraduate degree from the Pennsylvania State University (B.S., summa cum laude, 1986) and his law degree from Villanova University School of Law (J.D., magna cum laude, 1989), where he was editor of the Villanova Law Review and a member of the Order of the Coif.