Svetlana Kamyshanskaya

Kamyshanskaya runs a solo boutique firm with strong ties to her native Russia to leverage a global business perspective for privately held start-ups seeking to establish U.S. operations. She aims to guide owners, entrepreneurs and executives through corporate activities, including organization and development, regulatory compliance, funding, growth and exit strategies.

As an immigrant attorney, Kamyshanskaya arrived with law degrees from two schools in southern Russia near her home in Sochi, the resort city on the Black Sea. She then obtained an LL.M. from UC Berkeley School of Law and got her California bar card in 2016. She’s on the board of directors of The Club, a Silicon Valley women’s leadership organization.

“Sochi is the California of Russia, so I’m at home here,” she said. “I’d been practicing law in Russia, starting in1999 to represent U.S. companies. My Russian clients started to invest in the U.S. in 2008, during the downturn, a wonderful time to invest here. I was traveling back and forth a lot, but there were cultural differences. So I took negotiation and mediation classes at Hastings [College of the Law] to better understand working with entrepreneurs from both countries.”

Relations were good between the U.S. and Russia during the Obama administration, aiding a positive business environment. “Then Crimea happened,” Kamyshanskaya said, referring to Moscow’s 2014 annexation of part of Ukraine, an event that chilled international ties and undermined commerce. “Everything became very politicized. It was harder to get deals done. Travel was harder. At one point my laptop was seized. I decided that was too much, so I’d open my practice here.”

Kamyshanskaya served as the first outside general counsel for Momentus Inc., a spacecraft servicing startup founded by Russian entrepreneurs in Santa Clara. She helped the founders form the company, structure their relationship, embark on several financing rounds and work with regulators. She also negotiated initial agreements with key players in the space industry, including Elon Musk’s SpaceX.

Momentus recently announced it would go public this year in a reverse merger IPO with the Special Purpose Acquisition Company Stable Road Acquisition Corp. in a deal that values Momentus at $1.2 billion.

“My role is to work with brilliant people, which is why I like Silicon Valley so much,” Kamyshanskaya said.

— John Roemer