Mina Saifi
Senior Counsel
Mina Saifi is Senior Counsel at Vela Wood. She focuses her practice in the areas of M&A, commercial agreements, and technology contracts. Mina draws on her litigation experience regularly in negotiating key contractual provisions and handling periodic disputes. She advises her business clients on various transactions, both large and small, ranging from asset and stock purchase agreements to counseling and providing guidance on data privacy and security, e-commerce, licensing, and commercial lease agreements. Mina is fluent in Farsi and proficient in Spanish, and is able to provide bilingual representation on request.
“Fight for the things that you care about, but do it in a way that will lead others to join you.” – Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Mina has experience in highly demanding legal environments, first as a litigation associate with a highly reputable litigation boutique, then with a 400-attorney law firm, and finally for the Atlanta and Dallas offices of an international law firm with more than 2500 attorneys in 43 offices worldwide.
After nearly six years of private practice, Mina transitioned to serve as in-house counsel. Mina’s first in-house role was serving as Legal Counsel in the Office of the General Counsel for Hewlett Packard Co. then Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE). Her work there was heavily focused on providing expertise in negotiating complex global technology transactions in support of Sales for the US & Canada, specifically, for the Health & Life Sciences and Financial Services industry of the company’s Enterprise Services arm.
Mina then went on to serve as Vice President and Associate General Counsel at private equity backed AccentCare, Inc., an Advent International portfolio company, where she handled all stages of corporate M&A transactions, including 23 + acquisitions and joint ventures–from due diligence to closing to post-acquisition transition and total integration. She was also in charge of advising operational teams and diagnosing potential for risk to make cost-benefit determinations.
Mina is active in the legal as well as other professional communities. She frequently volunteers her time, sharing advice and supporting minority business founders and entrepreneurs as well as speaking at networking events, academic seminars and conferences. She has served as co-chair for several galas and fundraisers. For 4 years, she served as an officer of the Science & Technology Section of the Dallas Bar Association and was named “Outstanding Section Chair” during her tenure. Recently, she has worked to combat the constitutional issue of eminent domain abuse. Mina is presently a volunteer mentor to students enrolled in Year Up, an intensive one-year career training program for young adults.
Prior to launching her legal career, she worked at the state capitol for the TX State Representative for House District 93 (Tarrant County). In law school, she invested time clerking for judges in the Court of Appeals, the United States Department of Justice, Executive Office for Immigration Review, and the Attorney General for the State of Texas.
Mina enjoys building her meditation and yoga practice as well as partaking in pretty much any outdoor activity (e.g. hiking, cycling, swimming). She is an avid traveler to places near and far, curious explorer, and appreciator of fine arts in all forms.