{"id":50231,"date":"2018-05-09T08:52:05","date_gmt":"2018-05-09T12:52:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/?p=50231"},"modified":"2018-12-19T10:38:17","modified_gmt":"2018-12-19T15:38:17","slug":"jonathan-ondrejko-joins-cooley-llp","status":"publish","type":"bu-article","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/record\/articles\/2018\/jonathan-ondrejko-joins-cooley-llp\/","title":{"rendered":"Jonathan Ondrejko Joins Cooley LLP"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ondrejko pursued law school\u2014and corporate and transactional law in particular\u2014to become an ally to entrepreneurs, giving vital support to their ventures.<\/h2>\n

\"ondrejko-jon-21654-web\"Jonathan Ondrejko\u2019s (’17) time at Boston University began with an undergraduate degree in international relations. Born and raised in the city of Boston, he wanted a law school that would keep him in this market and provide a well-rounded experience in transactional law. After applying to BU Law, he received an Early Decision Distinguished Scholarship<\/a>,<\/span> which covered his tuition for all three years. \u201cIt put me in a position to graduate without much debt and try to do whatever I wanted\u2014an opportunity that\u2019s so rare. I\u2019m grateful for it,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

While at BU Law, Ondrejko participated in the Transactional Law Program <\/a>and tried to steer his experiences in the classroom toward corporate law. With his goal of joining a law firm after graduation, he focused on business law classes where he could continuously build up his academic experience and bring it to bear on his work outside the classroom.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you start as a summer associate, you\u2019re always the most confused person in the room,\u201d he says. \u201cI wanted to have as much substantive background as I could going into my summers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Experiential learning also played a key role in Ondrejko\u2019s time in law school. A transactional law simulation course, Auction and Sale of a Private Company, asked students to handle the negotiations and drafting for a mock corporate merger. In that setting, he could test the waters of corporate law under the guidance of Kent Coit<\/a>, director of the Transactional Law Program, himself a former Mergers & Acquisitions partner at Skadden. It was an opportunity to \u201cexperience a really complex environment where it\u2019s okay to make mistakes and it\u2019s easier to ask questions.\u201d<\/p>\n

After the simulation course, the Entrepreneurship & IP Clinic<\/a> gave him the opportunity to counsel real clients. Working with student entrepreneurs from BU and MIT on the formation and financing of their startups, Ondrejko and his team drafted corporate formation documents, helped students navigate university policies and applicable law with respect to funding and IP ownership, and negotiated and drafted commercial contracts.<\/p>\n

After gaining more experience communicating with clients and providing counsel, Ondrejko found a new confidence to accompany his growing legal expertise. \u201cThe more that you have that interaction and that contact, the more confidence you develop and the more able you are to run with the next transaction,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Ondrejko brought that confidence to his current position as an associate in the Boston office of Cooley LLP. In this position, he has continued supporting local technology and life sciences startups from their formation onward. His work so far has focused on helping these companies execute financings, including private placements and public offerings, and mergers and acquisitions.<\/p>\n

During his 1L year, Ondrejko applied for a summer position at Cooley after learning about its focus on emerging companies throughout their life cycles. The firm\u2019s practice aligned with his passion for assisting entrepreneurs. That same passion carried on to his second summer at Cooley and into the job he holds now. While Ondrejko\u2019s career is just beginning, he has plunged straight into the work he has always wanted to pursue.<\/p>\n

For those hoping to follow the same path, Ondrejko urges they cultivate a passion for helping their clients. \u201cPassion is what\u2019s going to keep you there,\u201d he says. As a lawyer, no matter where you go, it\u2019s going to be stressful. \u201cIf you\u2019re not passionate about what you\u2019re doing, you\u2019re going to lose your mind. It helps you get there and helps you stay there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reported by Josee Matela (CAS\/COM’20)<\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ondrejko pursued law school\u2014and corporate and transactional law in particular\u2014to become an ally to entrepreneurs, giving vital support to their ventures.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14374,"featured_media":50266,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"bu_prepress_billboard":"","_bu_prepress_primary_term":"","_bu_prepress_primary_term_manual":""},"tags":[2330,3266,3008],"bu-publication":[3742],"record-article-category":[3746],"record-topic":[],"bu_edition":[],"media_type":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/50231"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/bu-article"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14374"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50231"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/50231\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50399,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/50231\/revisions\/50399"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50231"},{"taxonomy":"bu-publication","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-publication?post=50231"},{"taxonomy":"record-article-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/record-article-category?post=50231"},{"taxonomy":"record-topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/record-topic?post=50231"},{"taxonomy":"bu_edition","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu_edition?post=50231"},{"taxonomy":"media_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media_type?post=50231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}