Anthony Girand Attorney Profile: Federal Practice, Tax, Immigration and Startup Law

6 min read

A Legal Practice Built on Thirty Years of Operating in the Real World

Most attorneys understand the law. Fewer understand what it actually costs a business when legal strategy is disconnected from operational reality. That gap — between technical legal competence and genuine business judgment — is where I've spent the better part of my career trying to close the distance.

I was admitted to the Maryland Bar in 1995, but my legal practice has never existed in isolation. It runs alongside — and is constantly informed by — three decades of building companies, closing enterprise deals, advising investors, managing structured financial products, and navigating the regulatory complexity that comes with operating across Wall Street, Silicon Valley, and the startup ecosystem. The result is a practice that looks different from a traditional law firm model, because it was never designed to be one.

Federal Practice and Litigation

Federal matters require a different kind of discipline than state court work. The procedural demands are more exacting, the stakes are typically higher, and the opposition — whether a federal agency, a well-resourced adversary, or a complex regulatory body — rarely makes mistakes. My federal practice includes matters involving regulatory agencies, civil litigation, and compliance disputes that have federal jurisdictional dimensions.

What I bring to federal matters is not just familiarity with the rules and doctrine, but an understanding of how institutions — government agencies included — actually make decisions. Having spent years on both sides of negotiating tables with banks, regulators, and government counterparties, I know that federal disputes are rarely won on legal arguments alone. They are won through preparation, credibility, and a strategic understanding of what the other side is actually trying to accomplish.

Tax Controversy and IRS Matters

Tax controversy is one of the most consequential practice areas for individuals and businesses alike, and one of the most misunderstood. When the IRS comes knocking — whether through an audit, a notice of deficiency, a collections action, or a criminal referral — the instinct for many clients is to panic. My job is to replace that panic with strategy.

My background in finance and wealth management gives me a material advantage in tax controversy work. I can read a financial statement, understand how a transaction was structured, and evaluate what the IRS examiner is actually looking at — not just what the return says, but why it says it, and how to defend the underlying economic substance. I have represented clients through:

IRS audit examinations at the individual, partnership, and corporate level
Tax court proceedings and administrative appeals
Offer in compromise and installment agreement negotiations
Penalty abatement requests and innocent spouse claims
International tax compliance and FBAR-related matters

Tax controversy is not a place for generalists. It rewards attorneys who understand both the law and the economics. I consider it one of the areas where my cross-disciplinary background pays the most direct dividends for clients.

Immigration Law: Business, Family, and Complex Cases

Immigration law is simultaneously one of the most human and one of the most technically demanding areas of legal practice. A missed deadline, a procedural misstep, or a failure to understand how USCIS is adjudicating a particular category in a particular moment can have consequences that are devastating and sometimes irreversible.

My immigration practice covers both business and family-based matters, with particular depth in cases involving professionals, executives, entrepreneurs, and investors — individuals who are often navigating complex personal circumstances alongside demanding careers. I handle:

Employment-based visa petitions (EB-1, EB-2, NIW, H-1B, L-1, O-1)
Family-based petitions and adjustment of status
Naturalization and citizenship applications
Removal defense and appeals
Investor visa pathways including EB-5

Having built companies and hired talent across borders, I understand the immigration system not just as a legal construct but as a practical barrier — or gateway — to business execution. That operational context matters when I'm advising a founder who needs to keep a key engineer in the country, or a family navigating an unexpected immigration crisis.

Startup Law and Founder Counsel

I have been a founder. I have been a CEO. I have been the person sitting across the table from investors, trying to close a round while simultaneously managing a team, a product roadmap, a burn rate, and a regulatory environment I was still learning in real time. That experience makes me a fundamentally different kind of startup lawyer than someone who went directly from law school to a firm.

Founders don't need attorneys who generate risk memos. They need attorneys who can help them move fast without creating landmines — and who know the difference between a legal risk worth taking and one that will destroy the company in year three. My startup law practice covers:

Entity formation, cap table structuring, and founder agreements
Seed, Series A, and growth-stage financing (SAFEs, convertible notes, priced rounds)
Term sheet review and venture capital negotiation
Commercial contracts, SaaS agreements, and IP assignment
Employment and contractor structuring for early-stage teams
Regulatory risk assessment for emerging technology companies

The best startup legal counsel isn't the attorney who tells you everything you can't do. It's the one who helps you understand exactly what you're signing up for — and gives you the tools to make the decision yourself.

As CEO of HedgeNova, an AI-driven hedge fund intelligence platform, I am actively building in the AI and fintech space today. That is not background context — it is current operating experience, and it directly shapes the counsel I provide to founders navigating similar terrain.

MoCRA Regulatory Compliance for Cosmetics Companies

The Modernization of Cosmetics Regulation Act — MoCRA — represents the most significant overhaul of federal cosmetics law since 1938. It imposes mandatory facility registration, product listing requirements, serious adverse event reporting, substantiation of safety claims, and new FDA inspection authority. For many cosmetics and personal care brands, the compliance burden arrived faster than expected and with far more complexity than their internal teams were prepared to handle.

My MoCRA practice is built around helping cosmetics companies — from indie brands to mid-market manufacturers — understand what the law actually requires, build defensible compliance programs, and avoid the kind of regulatory exposure that can trigger FDA enforcement, retailer delistings, or civil liability. This is a practice area where legal knowledge alone is not enough; you need to understand how consumer product businesses actually operate, how supply chains function, and what "reasonable implementation" looks like in a resource-constrained environment.

The Cross-Disciplinary Difference

My clients are founders, executives, families, businesses, and investors. What they have in common is that their legal problems rarely exist in isolation from their business problems — and they don't want an attorney who treats them as if they do. They want counsel who can sit in a board meeting, read a financial model, understand a regulatory environment, and give them advice that is legally sound and operationally executable.

That is what thirty years across Wall Street, law, enterprise SaaS, AI, fintech, and healthcare has built. Not a traditional law practice — but a practice designed for the way the world actually works.

If you are navigating a federal matter, tax dispute, immigration challenge, startup legal need, or MoCRA compliance question, I am available for consultation.