Lawyer Craig Johnson Dies, Co-Founded Virtual Law Partners
A founding partner of a law firm that employs lawyers working at home has died of a stroke.
Craig Winfield Johnson died on Tuesday at the age of 62, according to the Wall Street Journal Law Blog and the San Jose Business Journal. He and two other lawyers founded Virtual Law Partners last year. The aim was to employ hundreds of lawyers who bill at lower rates than their big firm counterparts, while keeping 85 percent of the fees. The firm now has more than 40 lawyers, most of whom went to Ivy League law schools and worked at large firms.
It wasn’t the first new venture for Johnson, who “had a knack for sprouting both law firms and businesses,” according to the San Jose Business Journal. In 1993 he left Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati to co-found the Venture Law Group, a firm that helped launch companies such as Yahoo and Hotmail. But the Venture Law Group struggled after the dot-com bust, according to the Wall Street Journal Law Blog, and it later merged with the now dissolved law firm Heller Ehrman.
Johnson also founded several companies, including venture capital fund Garage Technology Ventures. He is survived by another co-founder of Virtual Law Partners, RoseAnn Rotandaro, described as “his wife of only a few months” in the Business Journal article.
Prior coverage:
ABA Journal: “Virtually Practicing”
ABAJournal.com: “At Virtual Law Firm, Lawyers Will Work at Home, Earn 85% of Billings”
