Old Dogs; New Tricks
VMG lawyers have decades of experience in the world's leading financial markets, acting for the largest, most sophisticated clients at the highest reaches of the market. VMG makes this talent and experience available to you at a lower than market cost. We're small and focused. You are not paying us to train junior associates fresh out of law school. You are not paying an active practice area to cover the expenses of a less active practice area. We do one thing, and we do it well and efficiently. In addition to our vast experience in legal practice, we are adept at using the latest available technology to get answers and solve problems quickly, without running the clock at your expense. There's very little we haven't seen. Booms and bubbles? Check. Crises and busts? Check. We've seen just about every upside opportunity and know how to act quickly to seize them. We've also seen pretty much everything that can go wrong, and we know how to protect our clients without wasting time on the things that don't matter.
Michael Greene
Founder and Managing Partner
Mike Greene has worked at the intersection of private investment funds and global financial markets for over 25 years. He began in Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer's Finance Practice, then worked in-house at Bridgewater Associates, managing the legal aspects of the firm's global trading relationships.
Those experiences inspired VMG Law. Mike founded the firm to deliver world-class legal advice using cutting-edge technology—faster, sharper, and more cost-effective than traditional big-firm models.
Before law school, Mike was a pilot in the U.S. Navy, flying from aircraft carriers around the globe—experience that taught him to stay calm and make good decisions under the most extreme pressures. These days, when he has free time, he races sailboats offshore and on Long Island Sound.
Mike's approach is intelligent, transparent, and well-informed, with deep respect for both clients and opposing counsel. He takes his clients and their goals very seriously. Himself? Not so much.
Mike is admitted to practice in New York, Connecticut, and the District of Columbia. VMG Law is based in Norwalk, Connecticut.
Paul Kelly
Partner
Paul Kelly has spent nearly thirty years around private investment funds, and he has seen them from nearly every seat. He began in New York securities practices, advising on securities regulations, taking companies public and placing private offerings, then moved to a boutique fund practice in Connecticut to build hedge funds and advise them on regulatory and operational matters. He spent thirteen years at Bridgewater Associates as Senior Counsel for the firm’s funds and managed accounts. He was also intimately involved in counseling the operations department on its outsourcing. He then joined PwC NewLaw in the UK, as a Director, delivering that same quality work as an outsourced legal function for managers and institutions that wanted the seasoned and efficient capabilities without the headcount.
That last decade is why he is now at VMG Law. Sophisticated managers and service providers are no longer willing to choose between a law firm that bills by the hour and a legal department they have to build and carry. Paul spent years proving there is a third way to do it. VMG Law was built to deliver it.
Paul opens every engagement with the same two questions: what is the client trying to accomplish, and what is standing in the way. Everything else follows from the answers — the best available business outcome, reached without the client absorbing risk it never meant to accept. He is at his best when a negotiation has stalled and both sides have stopped listening. An impasse is usually two parties describing the same problem in different terms, and finding language that works for both is the part of the practice he enjoys most.
Paul was admitted to practice in New York and Connecticut in 1998. VMG Law is based in Norwalk, Connecticut.
