What Makes Cobalt Unique?

We're nice. We're ethical.

We believe companies are not faceless. We are personable, and we treat everyone honestly and with integrity.

We are client-centered.

While many aspects of legal practice must remain consistent, we understand that business needs and risk levels are different for different companies, and may also vary over time. Cobalt looks at clients as individuals and helps them prioritize their needs, assess the risk for any given project, and move forward with the legal strategy that fits the big picture.

We believe in house calls.

We welcome our clients to our Berkeley offices for face-to-face visits (especially when the weather is warm and the courtyard is filled with bougainvillea). We also know time is money. We are happy to come to you when your time is short. We travel nationally, and we do not charge travel time for anywhere in the Bay Area.

We are not order-takers.

We believe that proper execution of any legal strategy begins with interaction and understanding. We give thought to even the simplest tasks to ensure that whatever move our clients make is an informed one.

We understand business.

We recognize that the realities and complexities of the business environment do not always make for simple legal decisions. The decision to proceed with any legal strategy should be tempered with the focus of the company, including time-to-market concerns, global vs. local branding issues, erecting effective barriers to entry, manufacturing concerns, and other company-specific issues. Because we listen carefully to our clients needs, our recommendations take into account the business constraints around which companies must operate.

We work with great litigation firms.

Cobalt has strong ties in the legal community, both nationally and internationally. We concentrate on providing clients with quality legal counsel for advertising, promotions, and intellectual property transactions. Should the need ever arise for litigation services, our relationships can make your transfer to litigation counsel seamless and painless. The partners we work with are seasoned practitioners who share our commitment to a client-centered, ethical approach to the law.

We embrace the digital millennium.

We get IT. Cobalt uses tested, secure, innovative technology to manage information and work with clients. From email to VOIP to digital document storage, we take advantage of the best technology the new millennium has to offer. But if our clients prefer fountain pens to FTPs, we also have all the comforts of a traditional law firm: paper files, conference rooms, Peet's coffee. Here are some of the ways we make technology work for clients:

Client documents are stored on a secure server.

Clients may request access to their documents from anywhere in the world with Internet access. Clients may opt to have files stored on a keychain hard drive, available to them on 24 hours notice, with their entire document history. Clients with multiple legal counsel with need for document access may request special direct routing.

We have e-conferencing capacity.

Clients may opt to have most work completed digitally. Internet and voicemail technology makes Cobalt attorneys accessible worldwide.

We don't provide solutions that are impractical.

We strive to provide clients with comprehensive advice. The best legal strategy in the world, however, only works when put into practice. With that in mind, wherever possible, we offer alternative strategies that are specifically tailored to our clients' business and current market conditions.