Ontra Zach Griffin credits Ontra for helping him make the transition from working in a traditional corporate law setting to pursuing his passion project: developing a private, sustainable real estate investment firm that provides high-quality apartments at affordable prices.
Griffin started his career as an associate in Jones Day’s private equity group, advising clients on M&A and equity financing transactions. He then spent three years working in-house on complex corporate and commercial transactions at Magic Leap, Inc., a technology company that makes augmented reality headsets for enterprise solutions.
In his spare time, while still working in corporate law, Griffin learned everything he could about investing in real estate. In January 2020, he began to focus full time on his real estate investment business.
The flexibility that the Ontra model provides has been invaluable to Griffin, not only on a professional level but on a personal level as well, since he is the father of two young boys (ages 2-and-a-half and two months). “It is awesome being able to spend quality time with my family and on my other pursuits, and fit work around that,” he said.
Griffin finds the Ontra team, many of them former attorneys themselves, to be supportive and “very focused on helping attorneys have a successful experience working on their platform,” he said. “The Ontra team is great about helping me dial in the amount of work I desire. The workload is about as close to perfect as I could ask for.”
Griffin also enjoys working with Ontra’s other attorney partners, who he says are professional, interesting, and supportive. “They are a huge reason why my experience on the Ontra platform has been so enjoyable and successful,” Griffin added.
Coming from a private equity and in-house background, Griffin is a firm believer in the services Ontra provides and how they help professionals focus on their most important work. In fact, had he known about Ontra earlier in his career, he would have used them as part of his team. “The Ontra model is a fantastic solution to an issue that almost every in-house legal team deals with on a day-to-day basis,” he said.
Griffin could not be happier with his move to entrepreneurship and the support Ontra provided and continues to provide. To any colleague considering a similar transition or a non-traditional legal path, he would say, “Check out Ontra. (And no, I was not paid to say that).”
