On June 8th - 9th, the DuPont Country Club of Wilmington,
DE will host Early Stage East, a venture capital hunting ground for
emerging companies in the Mid Atlantic. Chosen from hundreds of firms
for this event, Animators at Law will showcase its unique talent: producing
computer animation & graphics for lawyers and business.
So what makes this company unique? Animators at
Law is believed to be the only firm of its type in the world to have
grown out of a multimedia firm and be attorney owned and operated. And
these are not just any attorneys . . . two are 1995 graduates of the
Widener University School of Law.
One 29-year-old graduate is Mr. Kenneth J. Lopez,
President, CEO & Founder of Animators at Law and a former Greenville,
DE resident. He talks of the times during law school where in addition
to studying until the wee hours of the morning he taught himself 3-D
animation in his “spare time.”
Upon graduation from law school, Mr. Lopez was able
to strike a deal with a Washington, D.C. computer animation firm to
get Animators at Law started. Not long after that, Mr. Lopez saw the
need for seed money to help fund existing business and to help look
for new business. Enter 59-year-old businessman and South Philadelphia
native, Lawrence J. Acchione.
“He is kind of our own personal Godfather,”
Lopez said. Mr. Acchione provided considerable startup capital to Animators
at Law and became the company’s Chairman. Not only did he see a
great investment opportunity, he saw the ability to help a fledgling
business get off the ground.
And get off the ground the company did. In 1997, the company saw revenues
grow by over 1000%, and in 1998 growth is already approaching the 500%
mark. It is therefore no surprise that the company has attracted many
investors looking to cash in on this high tech startup.
One of those investors is a law school friend of
Mr. Lopez’s. Her name is Michele Gallagher also a former Delawarean.
Today, she is an attorney in Baltimore with the law firm of Venable,
Baetjer, Howard & Civiletti. Mr. Lopez’s notes that her litigation
experience is a true asset to the firm.
Another high profile investor and the company’s
Senior Litigation Consultant is Allen S. Melser. He is not only valuable
to the Company because he is the Washington, D.C. Chair of New York-based
Reid & Priest’s Intellectual Property Division, but also because
of the fact that after law school he attended film school. This truly
bizarre combination of talents was exactly what Animators at Law was
looking for. This is especially true since approximately half of the
Company’s clients are patent attorneys. “Allen & I are
two of maybe five or ten attorneys worldwide who have this combination
of talents,” Lopez said.
Why patent attorneys? Well, patent attorneys routinely
work with complex and boring subject matter. This is where Animators
shines. The Company brags that it promises to make the boring interesting
and the complex easy to understand.
Animators has done high profile work in the Delaware
Valley. In 1995, the firm produced a complex medical malpractice animation
for Wilmington attorney Bruce Hudson. Although ultimately settled out
of court, the case of McCool v. Gehret got front page attention in Wilmington.
Photographs and images suitable for publication are included in this
package.
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©1995-2003 Animators at Law, Inc. All Rights Reserved
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Animators at Law
National Headquarters
814 King Street
Alexandria, Virginia 22314
800.337.7697
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