William Carleton CV

William Carleton (Twitter: @wac6) is a nationally known lawyer with 24 years experience counseling emerging companies, their founders, and their investors. As a member of McNaul Ebel Nawrot & Helgren PLLC in Seattle, Bill leads a boutique practice serving emerging companies in Web, Digital Media, FinTech, Robotics, IT, Gaming, Custom Software Development, and other internet and software-based industries.

Bill is active in national policy impacting angel investors and the private financing ecosystem for startups and emerging companies. He serves as Chair of the Angel Capital Association's Public Policy Committee Advisory Council, and writes, speaks and presents frequently on general solicitation, accredited investor verification, and other reforms under the JOBS Act. He has written articles on these topics for the Wall Street Journal, TechCrunch, GeekWire and VC Experts, and has been quoted on the JOBS Act by the Wall Street Journal, Reuters, Inc.com, Crowdsourcing.org, Compliance Week, KQED.org, and other publications.

Speaking Engagements:

Press & Editorial:

Want to Avoid "General Solicitation?" Focus on Relationships!	ACA Angel Insights Blog	November 23, 2015
Referenced in Crowdfunding Gets State-Level Test Run	Wall Street Journal	December 4, 2013
Quoted in JOBS Act Secretly Cramps Friends-and-Family Funding	Inc.com	October 1, 2013
The Trojan Horse of Accredited-Investor Verification	The Accelerators, Wall Street Journal	September 27, 2013
Quoted in General Solicitation Brings Startups Capital, Risks	Wall Street Journal	September 23, 2013
Angel investing: The walls come tumbling down	GeekWire	September 23, 2013
Quoted in FINRA tackles private securities as investors seek yield	Reuters	August 29, 2013
Interviewed in SEC Plans for New Disclosures on Private Offerings Draw Fire	Compliance Week	August 27, 2013
Let's have general solicitation as Congress intended it	TechCrunch	July 19, 2013
Interviewed for SEC votes to lift general solicitation ban	Crowdsourcing.org	July 10, 2013
Interviewed for No more secrecy? SEC votes to allow startups, VCs, hedge funds to talk about fundraising	GeekWire	July 10, 2013
Co-author of Expert Q&A on Accredited Crowdfunding	Practical Law Company	June 20, 2013
Referenced in What Does Gay Marriage Have to do with Private Equity	WSJ Private Equity Beat	June 19, 2013
Quoted in What's Really Going on With Crowdfunding	Inc.com	April 10, 2013
Quoted in Solar Company Can "Crowd Fund" $100 Million, Regulators Say	KQED.org	April 8, 2013
What the SEC letters to FundersClub and AngelList mean for investment crowdfunding	Crowdsourcing.org (editorial)	April 2, 2013
Visual language: Stagecraft in Obama’s Google Hangout	GeekWire	February 15, 2013
Three things broken in investment crowdfunding that SEC regulations won't fix	Crowdsourcing.org (editorial)	January 7, 2013
Legal lessons from Amazon’s ‘noncompete’ battle with Google	GeekWire	December 31, 2012
(Cited in) Website names tied to crowdfunding spike	Reuters REFILE	December 5, 2012
Congratulations President Obama, Now Please Help Fix Equity Crowdfunding	Crowdsourcing.org (editorial)	November 9, 2012
Quoted in Does the U.S. Equity Crowdfunding Legislation Need a "Do- over"?	Crowdsourcing.org (editorial)	October 5, 2012
Driverless cars: Looking under the legislation’s hood	GeekWire	September 26, 2012
Quoted in Kickstarter Clarifies Refund Policy After News Report	KQED News Fix	September 5, 2012
Interviewed in In 'Crowdfunding,' Money Trail is Murky	KQED Radio	August 23, 2012
Questions I'd ask before listing a startup on FundersClub	GeekWire	August 23, 2012
Boss signing in to your Facebook account? There's a law for that	GeekWire	June 4, 2012
Interviewed for Crowdfunding Is Coming, But Skeptics Say the 1 Percent Still Rule the Financing Game	Seattle Weekly's The Daily Weekly	May 22, 2012
Interviewed for Crowd funding warning from Washington and the SEC	KIRO FM	May 16, 2012
Facebook may be discovering that mobile users don't like ads	GeekWire	May 12, 2012
Reality Check: Twitter's patent pledge not what it seems	GeekWire	April 18, 2012
Live Chat: What Will the JOBS Act Mean for U.S. Start-Ups?	Wall Street Journal	April 12, 2012
Fiddling with user timelines: A wrong turn for Twitter?	GeekWire	March 29, 2012
The JOBS Act means different things to different people in the startup community	GeekWire	March 27, 2012
Crowdfunding is white-hot on Capitol Hill - will it survive the fire?	Crowdsourcing.org	March 19, 2012
Quoted in State regulators fight for 'crowdfunding' control	Reuters	March 16, 2012
Crowdfunding for the 1%	Crowdsourcing.org	March 13, 2012
Crowding out angels from startup financings?	GeekWire	March 3, 2012
Imagined Obama Address in "Thanksgiving Guest Post #2"	Atlantic (James Fallows' blog)	November 24, 2011
On the Scene: A Geek's Guide to the Wall Street Occupation	GeekWire	October 16, 2011
Guest on Episode 133: Beyonce, Bad Laws, and Breastaurants	This Week in Law	October 13, 2011
Quoted in Why Zillow insiders want to keep the stock above $25 per share	GeekWire	August 3, 2011
Quoted in mobile apps and startup costs	Wall Street Journal, Small Talk Column	May 16, 2011
Guest on Episode 108: The Other Pump Drops	This Week in Law	April 23, 2011
Fred Wilson's $5,000 Startup Lawyer Challenge	GeekWire	March 23, 2011
The future of privacy law in the era of Foursquare and check-ins	TechFlash	August 11, 2010
Rules for angel financing saved	TechFlash (co-authored w/ Dan Rosen & Joe Wallin)	April 22, 2010
Compromising on Private Placement Regulation	Wall Street Journal (Suzanne Barlyn video interview)	April 16, 2010

Literature:

• Plan B (2005), a book of sonnets, in print and available on Amazon
• The Abecedarian Procedure, a journal on poetics co-authored with A. R. Ammons and Cynthia Bond, published 2004 in Epoch Vol. 52, No. 3, This is Just a Place: The Life and Work of A.R. Ammons (Cornell University)

Film:

• Dot Con (2000), originally titled Back Spot Turn, the first full length feature shot on HDCAM

Blogging:

• Counselor @ Law (ran from 2009-2013; now archived)
• Geekwire guest posts
• Crowdsourcing.org editorials

Personal Profiles:

• Bio on McNaul Ebel Nawrot & Helgren PLLC site (where Bill works)
• Twitter (@Wac6)
• AngelList
• LinkedIn
• Disqus

This page last revised January 27, 2016.