Randall Schai is a partner at the cutting edge business law firm of Joseph, Cohen & Del Vecchio, with over 30 years of legal experience. He has a core focus on corporate, mergers and acquisitions and related formation and transactional projects including extensive experience in the formation of venture capital and private equity fund vehicles and sponsor structures. He specializes in developing workable, efficient, and fundable governance and business structures, whether start-up or advanced, domestic, or international.
Mr. Schai enjoyed a successful 14-year tenure as partner and counsel at the San Francisco office of Jones Day, an AmLaw 25 Firm, where he and James C. Olson, now a senior partner at Joseph, Cohen & Del Vecchio, were colleagues.
At Jones Day, Mr. Schai served clients ranging from start-up and early-stage ventures through to large multinational and sovereign capital investment funds. Mr. Schai’s representative clients included The Bay Area Council, Bay City Capital, City of Hope, Key Principal Partners, Morgenthaler Ventures, NTUC Income Insurance Cooperative, Paul Capital, The Riverside Company, and SpringHill Enterprise Development. Randy’s clients also included the private equity arm of sovereign investors located in Singapore, Malaysia, and China (with respect to global venture, buyout, and real estate investment fund and direct investment opportunities), a major German landesbank, and a major Japanese automobile manufacturer. Mr. Schai also routinely represented institutional investors in strategic investments in the science and technology sectors.
Mr. Schai routinely served as counsel for equity (seed to HH) and debt financing transactions for businesses with domestic and international profiles. He also aided enterprises and their founders on structuring governance and executing exit strategies. Mr. Schai’s expertise includes extensive knowledge of the entrepreneurial culture and start-up space from initial concept, through seed and growth; in addition to decades of experience in both equity and debt financing and exit structures and concepts.
Before joining Jones Day, Mr. Schai was a partner at Heller Ehrman for 7 years. As an associate and then as a partner, he aided the entrepreneurial community as their ventures took root and matured. He participated in and led many equity financings and value-creation events such as restructurings, acquisitions, and mergers. Mr. Schai also enjoyed a stint at RBS Legal, where he worked as an attorney for non-profit enterprises and members of the “at-risk” community. He was general counsel for a media-focused enterprise addressing matters ranging from routine governance and risk-management to debt financing and real estate issues.
He also provided public company clients with regulatory and SEC/market filing requirements including initial public offerings and merger and acquisitions.
Mr. Schai is a director of the Alexander Valley Film Society and a past director of the Oakland Boys and Girls Clubs. Mr. Schai previously served as a member of the Corporations Committee of the State Bar of California, and of the Private Equity Committee of the American Bar Association. Mr. Schai is a member of the CanAm Bar Association. Mr. Schai has frequently lectured on capital raise and investment matters, including as a sessional speaker at Wharton School of Business (San Francisco) and at the Capital Roundtable.
Mr. Schai was awarded his Juris Doctor degree from the University of Saskatchewan in 1991 and was admitted to the State Bar of California in 1997.