My name is Jacob Vela
I’m a transactional lawyer who specializes in helping game developers, content creators, website owners, app developers, and other creative people with their legal needs so they can get back to what they love to do – creating.
I’ve been making games for as long as I can remember. Whether it was drawings on paper when I was younger, to paper and card games with my friends as I got older, to teaching myself to program and design my own video games as I entered high school, I’ve always loved playing and creating things.
As I neared the end of law school and began to consider what legal work I wanted to do, I saw a need for legal experts specializing in game development. Video games are a huge business, but it’s a business with relatively few lawyers when compared to something like the film industry. I took an interest in my intellectual property classes as well as contracts, and realized that these were skills and knowledge that every game developer needs as soon as they start to scale up their creations. This was also around the time I was reaching the end of the development of one of my own games, and I was running into legal and business questions as I started to bring in other creators.
Beyond just game developers, there are people creating and publishing all over the world in a way that’s never been possible before in human history. With the advent of the internet, YouTube and other platforms have made publication available to anyone with some tools and an idea. While these opportunities are incredible, so are the new legal challenges. Whether you’re looking to protect your intellectual property, are ready to take your creation to the next level by starting a company, or need some contracts to help you work with other people, I’m here to help.
My goal is to help you solve and prevent problems so you can focus on creating. I’m not someone who just wants to take advantage of game developers for easy clients – I’m here because I want to help the wider communities of game developers and creators. I’m a game developer and a lawyer. I’m here because I’m a creator like you, and I want all of us to succeed.
Learn more Jacob Vela on LinkedIn and about the name of Argo Law here.