Steve Schmidt

About Steve Schmidt

As a corporate counsel and head of operations who knows how to help a startup scale, I am so much more than a lawyer. My time at Wilson Sonsini trained me to be a business lawyer; my time at REPOWER America and Swell Energy have honed this training. I analyze problems from both a legal and business perspective and provide creative solutions. I pursued my MBA, Finance at Wharton to further enhance my business skills.Major accomplishments while with Swell Energy include:• Drafting all venture capital financing and bank financing documents for Swell, and guiding management through negotiations about the financial and legal impacts of material terms.• Advising Swell through the constantly changing COVID legal landscape to ensure compliance with restrictions in multiple jurisdictions.• Leading the in-house team that purchased another solar developer and then integrated that developer with Swell.• Advising the grid services business unit on contracts with major utilities for implementing virtual power plants.• Advising the finance business unit on establishing a tax equity fund, a loan fund, and creating consumer documents.Major accomplishments while with REPOWER include:• Upon joining REPOWER, I was put in charge of managing the business operations of the company’s partnership with its most strategic finance provider, where I created and refined a process flow and managed a five-person team that processed 350 deals a month.• When presented with a “buy versus build” decision, I worked to structure a stock-for-stock transaction that allowed us to implement a new business strategy at minimal upfront cost.• I led our litigation strategy when we needed to sue a franchise partner who had violated the terms of our franchise agreement, resulting in a favorable outcome.As an in-house general counsel and VP of “Everything Else”, I manage the following:• employment matters, human resources and immigration visas• intellectual property protection• accounting audits; complex sales and use tax issues; payroll and cash management• corporate governance, including Board matters, options and 409A issues• regulatory procedures and compliance• ESG reporting to investors and other partners• procurement and vendor negotiationsAs an outside general counsel, I counseled clients, both US and foreign-based, in the following industries:• medical devices• SAAS• security software• cloud computing• mobile software• microprocessors• hardware• telecommunications• consumer internetThe best way to contact me is at s••••@smschmidt.com

Experience

1. General Counsel

   TransGrid Energy

   May 2025 — Present · Irvine, CA, US

Education

• Dartmouth College

  AB, Religion & History

  1993 — 1997

• Regis High School

  HS, Liberal Arts and Sciences, General Studies and Humanities

  1989 — 1993

• The Wharton School

  Master of Business Administration (MBA), with Honors, Finance and Strategic Management

  2017 — 2019

• Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law

  JD, Law

  1998 — 2001

Skills

• Cross-Border Transactions
• Corporate Law
• Cleantech
• Mergers
• Contract Negotiation
• Start-Ups
• Private Equity
• Securities Regulation
• Venture Capital
• Securities
• HR Management
• Licensing
• Capital Markets
• Payroll Management
• Due Diligence
• Back Office Operations
• General Awesomeness
• Financial Modeling
• Finance
• Securities Law
• Awesomeness
• Corporate Transactions
• Ipo
• Human Resources
• Mergers & Acquisitions
• Corporate Finance
• Mergers
• Private Placements
• Corporate Governance
• Corporate Development