Education
- Georgetown University School of Law, LLM. (Federal Income Taxation), 1999
- Southern Methodist University School of Law, J.D., cum laude, 1998
- Editor in Chief, NAFTA: LAW AND BUSINESS REVIEW OF THE AMERICAS
- Staff Editor, International Law Review Association
- The University of Texas at Austin, B.A. in Plan II (Honors Liberal Arts), 1994
Practice Areas
Prior BigLaw and In-House Experience
- Baker & McKenzie, Dallas
- Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, Palo Alto, California
- Winstead Sechrest & Minick, Austin
- Teacher Retirement System of Texas, Austin
- Austin Capital Management, Ltd.
Licenses
- State Bar of Texas
- Federal Court, Western District of Texas
Biography
Roland provides legal advice to businesses with respect to their formation, growth, and operations. In his practice, Roland has represented multi-billion dollar pension funds, both start-up and seasoned hedge fund and investment managers, consumer product good companies, restaurants, and real estate investment funds.
He also has developed knowledge in the area of crowdfunding, which includes the offer and sale of securities through the internet using general solicitation and advertising. In all of these representations, the recurring theme of Roland’s practice is helping clients raise capital to fund their business operations and investment strategies. His practice centers around the sale and issuance of securities in an efficient manner that ensures full and adequate disclosure to investors to minimize the potential future liability for fraud claims.
Roland began his career at the international law firm of Baker & McKenzie in Dallas, representing large corporate taxpayers before the Internal Revenue Service. Following his time in Dallas, he moved home to Austin to join the Palo Alto, California-based law firm, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, representing early stage technology companies and investment funds in connection with private equity and debt financings.
He later served as an associate attorney in the Austin office of Winstead Sechrest & Minick in its corporate and securities section. Representations included private equity and debt financings, mergers and acquisitions, and public company Securities Exchange Act compliance. Additionally, his representations included federal and state income tax planning in connection with the foregoing transactions.
Roland later served as general counsel and chief compliance officer to a fund-of-hedge funds manager in Austin, Texas with $1 billion (2006) under management, and assistant general counsel to a public pension fund in Austin, Texas with over $100 billion under management (2011).
In addition to his work as a securities attorney, Roland is a passionate advocate for legal access to sacred, healing plants. In 2010, he helped to found and served as Board member and Chief Compliance Officer of AFC Wellness Center, Inc., a California Mutual Benefit Corporation organized as a medical cannabis patients’ collective under the California Compassionate Use Act of 1996.
Roland also gives of his time, talent, and treasury to the Multidisciplinary Association For Psychedelic Studies (“MAPS”), and volunteered legal services in connection with MAPS’s sponsorship of the first-ever DEA-approved study of medical cannabis to treat veterans with PTSD, for which MAPS obtained a $2 million grant from the State of Colorado in 2014.
Roland has four children: Cormac, Ava, Ella, and Coen. In his free time, he loves to write poetry, swim, practice yoga, and freedive.
