Drew Morris is a seasoned startup and venture finance attorney who has spent his career advising early-stage technology companies at every stage of growth. He has served as both outside counsel at one of the country’s top startup law firms and as the first in-house lawyer at two fast-scaling, VC-backed companies.
Born and raised in Silicon Valley, Drew began his legal career at Wilson Sonsini in the firm’s Palo Alto headquarters, where he spent five years counseling dozens of startups and emerging growth companies—from incorporation to venture financings to exit transactions. While there, he represented founders, boards, and investors in numerous unicorn financing rounds and multi-billion-dollar exits.
Drew later went in-house as the first legal hire at two high-growth startups—TRM Labs (YC S19, backed by Tiger Global and Thoma Bravo) and WorkJam (backed by Inovia and Founder Collective). At both companies, he architected the legal infrastructure for commercial growth, built scalable processes to support deals, and led negotiations with mid-market, enterprise, and U.S. government customers. At TRM, he also led multiple funding rounds, including a $60M Series B and a $70M Series B extension.
Drew founded First Circle Law in 2024 with the belief that early-stage companies deserve legal counsel that is as entrepreneurial and efficient as they are. The firm combines the sophistication of Biglaw with the agility of a modern boutique—designed to scale alongside the founders it serves.
Awarded law school prize for top student in Contracts Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal, Member
Stanford Technology Law Review, Lead Editor
Justin Stone is a seasoned venture finance and healthcare regulatory attorney who has spent his career in the trenches of fast-scaling digital health companies. Justin has served as Chief Legal Officer for three VC-backed startups that each became unicorns.
He was the first lawyer and employee #10 at MDLIVE, helping lead the company from scrappy startup to over 500 employees and a high-profile exit to Cigna Healthcare—a landmark deal in virtual care.
He then joined Thirty Madison (Keeps, Nurx, Cove), again as an early employee and General Counsel. Over his tenure, he scaled legal ops across four funding rounds, culminating in a $150M Series C at a $1B+ valuation with backing from Johnson & Johnson Innovation, Polaris, and HealthQuest.
Justin later joined Papa, a Miami-based Y Combinator startup tackling senior loneliness, as General Counsel. There, he helped lead over $200M in venture financing, including a $150M Series D led by SoftBank Vision Fund, pushing Papa’s valuation to $1.4B.
Between in-house roles, Justin founded a boutique legal and strategy advisory practice focused on early-stage healthcare tech. He’s advised 40+ digital health founders on formation, financing, and compliance, supporting over $500M in combined fundraising.
We work with companies from the earliest idea stage all the way through exit. Most of our clients are Series Seed and Series A startups that are scaling quickly and building ambitious products.
We’re based in South Florida, with offices in Miami and Boca Raton. We also have deep professional and family ties in Silicon Valley and Austin, giving us strong national reach.
We move fast, structure our firm to match the needs of early-stage companies, and use AI to deliver better, faster results without the Biglaw bloat. We also genuinely love lawyering — we’re builders just like our clients.
Ideally, as early as possible. It’s much easier (and less expensive) to build a solid foundation from the start than to fix issues later down the line.
