J. Lee Grable, Jr.

Brief Bio

Lee’s practice focuses on commercial, business and technology matters. He serves as an outsourced General Counsel for emerging companies and handles complex contract drafting, review and negotiations, software licensing and SaaS matters, hosting and other technology agreements, financing transactions, mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance, dispute resolution, strategic alliances, office leases and other corporate and transactional matters. He also provides general guidance and helps clients find specific legal advice in a variety of other practice areas.

The Rest of the Story

Lee was born and raised in Dallas, Texas, along with a younger brother and sister. He graduated from Highland Park High School where he played football as a wide receiver and then went on to study economics at Washington & Lee University where he lettered in the high jump on the track team. He loved living in the Blue Ridge mountains while at W&L before deciding to return home for law school at SMU, from which he received a J.D. in 1993. While at SMU, Lee served as the Coordinating Notes & Comments Editor on the SMU Law Review.

After passing the bar exam, Lee practiced law for almost seven years in Dallas, mostly with Gardere (now Foley Gardere), one of the largest firms in Texas at the time. In 2000, he was offered a position with SiteStuff, Inc., an Austin-based start-up that provided an online procurement solution for maintenance, repair and operations products and services for commercial real estate owners and managers. The company received venture funding from venture capital firms Sevin Rosen and CenterPoint, as well as strategic funding from CBRE, Trammell Crow and Jones Lang LaSalle. In 2003, SiteStuff was named the fastest growing private company in Austin by the Austin Business Journal.

Lee held a variety of business and legal positions at SiteStuff, including serving as its General Counsel and corporate Secretary. He handled a wide range of legal matters for the company, including working on convertible debt and equity funding rounds, managing intellectual property, handling employment issues, licensing software, drafting, revising and negotiating commercial contracts, handling corporate governance matters, working on strategic alliances and doing general business and corporate work. As corporate Secretary, he attended Board meetings and drafted meeting minutes.

He met his wife, Christine, shortly after moving to Austin in 2000. She had recently received her MBA from the Wharton School of Business and was working at Dell. Christine and Lee had a wonderful time getting to know each other and exploring Austin and the Texas hill country. They were married in the spring of 2002 in Houston, Texas. A beagle, Annie, joined the family shortly thereafter.

In 2004, Lee decided to re-enter the private practice of law and began providing legal services as an outsourced General Counsel, as well as doing transactional and corporate work. In this role, he continued to work on a range of business and corporate legal matters, contract drafting, review and negotiation, software licensing, SaaS, hosting and other technology agreements, financing transactions, managing intellectual property, employment matters, corporate governance, dispute resolution, strategic alliances, office and equipment leases and other transactional matters. In late 2004, Christine and Lee had their first child, Will, who was joined by a little brother, Charlie, in 2008.

In the spring of 2011, the family was considering moving back to Dallas, but decided to take a detour to the mountains while the kids were young. Therefore, the Grables moved to Aspen, Colorado in June of 2011. Lee continued his Texas-based law practice from Colorado and also became licensed as a Colorado attorney. The family had a great time together in the Rocky Mountains, enjoying camping, skiing, biking and other outdoor activities. Molly, another beagle, joined the family during this time.

Given the fact that he was able to seamlessly provide legal services to Texas clients while working mostly from Colorado, Lee saw the merits of a distributed model law firm. Providing first-rate legal services in a timely manner was much more important to clients than having a firm with traditional office space. During his time in Colorado, Lee began to focus on the concepts that would become the core values of Grable Martin PLLC: quality legal services by experienced attorneys performed from a low overhead platform that leverages technology.

The Grable family subsequently relocated to Dallas, Texas, and Lee co-founded Grable Martin PLLC with Shauna Martin. Lee is excited about continuing the development of the firm and its ability to serve its clients!