Scott Friedman is a partner and the immediate past chairman of Lippes Mathias LLP, a full-service law firm, Co-Founder and Managing Director of Varia Ventures, a management consulting firm with a capital raising platform, and a General Partner in Impact Capital of New York, LLC, an Upstate New York venture capital fund.
 
The author of seven books and over 100 articles on business, he serves as an Entrepreneur in Residence at the University at Buffalo’s School of Management. Mr. Friedman is also a frequent speaker at professional, university, and corporate sponsored events across the United States on a variety of topics entrepreneurship, innovation, and family businesses.
 
Working with entrepreneurs, business leaders, and investors across the United States, and as local counsel for companies with headquarters in China, Canada, and Europe, Mr. Friedman provides guidance on a range of issues, including strategy, financing, and innovation. His work also includes providing counsel on strategic joint ventures and other forms of cooperative agreements and his experience includes negotiating joint ventures with strategic partners in China, Europe, Israel, and Canada. 
 
Helping to pioneer the application of a variety of new strategies informed by melding traditional legal, economic, and business principles with insights from science, including the fields of positive psychology, social neuroscience, and behavioral economics, Friedman also assists with cultural transformations, effective governance, and dispute resolution and conflict management.
 
 In addition to sitting on a number of private company boards, Friedman is an active volunteer in the WNY community, currently serving as a Member of the University at Buffalo Council, the Daemen College Board of Trustees, the Board of Directors of the WNY Law Enforcement Foundation, and the Western New York Venture Association. 


Articles & Publications

Books:

  • Family Business and Positive Psychology: New Planning Strategies for the 21st Century
  • Secrets From The Delphi Café: Unlocking the Code to Happiness (co-author with Bob Rich, co-author)  
  • The Successful Family Business
  • How to Profit by Forming Your Own Limited Liability Company!
  • How to Run a Family Business (co-author with Michael Friedman)
  • The Law of Parent-Child Relationships
  • Sex Law: A Legal Sourcebook on Critical Sexual Issues

Journals:

  • Advising Family Businesses in the 21st Century: An Introduction to “Stage 4 Planning” Strategies (with Andrea HusVar and Eliza Friedman) (upcoming, 2017)
  • The Application of Positive Psychology to Medical Groups (with Elad Levy, M.D.) (MGMA 2014)
  • The Application of Positive Psychology to Family Businesses (Family Business Magazine, Summer, 2010)
  • Bequeathing Your Most Important Assets: An introduction to Ethical Wills (Family Business Magazine, 2006)
  • A New, More Effective Planning Strategy for Family Businesses (Estate Planning, June, 1999)
  • Using LLCs to ‘Change the Game’ for Family Businesses, (Journal of Limited Liability Companies, 1998)
  • Estate Planning Vehicle of Choice for the 1990s: FLLC or FLP? (Journal of Limited Liability Companies, 1997)
  • The LLC and S Corporation: Choice of Entity Redux (New York State Bar Journal, 1997)
  • The Lowdown on LLCs (Delta Sky magazine, May, 1995).
  • Creative Uses of LLCs for Family Owned Businesses  (New York State Bar Journal, 1996.

Publications:

Author, "Failure To Launch: How Dependent Adult Children Impact The Family Business," Forbes, October 2021.
Author, "Family business planning through the Covid-19 pandemic," Invest Buffalo Niagara, November 2020.
Author, "Positive psychology can help family firms in tough times" Family Business Magazine, December 2020

ADMITTED TO PRACTICE
  • New York
  • Ontario Canada - Foreign Legal Consultant

Education
  • Trinity College, B.A.
  • Washington University School of Law, J.D.
  • University of Pennsylvania School of Law, LLM.

Honors & Awards
  • The Daily Record, Power 50, 2021
  • The Best Lawyers in America©, 2021-2024
  • Buffalo Business First, Power 250 List
  • Who’s Who in America
  • Who’s Who in American Law
  • Upstate New York Super Lawyers®, 2019-2023
  • Business First of Buffalo and Buffalo Law Journal, Legal Elite of WNY, 2017, 2019

Community Involvement
  • Daemen College, Board of Trustees
  • VIRIDI Parente, Inc., Board of Directors
  • Council for the State University of New York at Buffalo, Board Member
  • WNY Law Enforcement Foundation, Board Member
  • Western New York Venture Association, Board Member
  • Buffalo Capital Partners, LLC, Board Member and General Counsel
  • Impact Capital Partners, LLC, Board Member and General Counsel
  • MimiVax, LLC, Board Member and General Counsel

Frequent Lecturer
  • Columbia University, Cornell University, University at Buffalo, Canisius College

Professional Associations
  • Erie County Bar Association
  • New York State Bar Association
  • American Bar Association
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