About Ken McConkey
I built my practice around a simple idea: the businesses navigating the fastest-moving legal questions today, data privacy, SaaS agreements, entity structuring, deserve counsel who has actually sat on the other side of the table. As outside counsel I have represented companies across many sectors, from traditional product and services entities to technology-focused. Since 2015 I have focused more on technology companies. Over the past decade I have represented technology companies as in-house counsel; I ran legal their legal departments, reporting directly to the C-suite and negotiating the same types of agreements I now draft and review for my clients. That perspective shapes how I practice: advice tied to how a deal or policy actually gets executed, not just what the four corners of a contract say,
A Legal Career Built on a Technology Foundation
My path into corporate and technology law started before law school. I earned a bachelors degree majoring in Management Information Systems, with a minor in Accounting., and went on to become a Certified Information Systems Auditor (“CISA”). That technical grounding is unusual among transactional attorneys, and it’s a large part of why clients trust me with their SaaS and software related agreements and data privacy issues,
Nearly Two Decades Advising Business, In-House and Out
I began my legal career as a law clerk for the U.S. District Court, then spent close to a decade in private practice in Oklahoma City at boutique corporate law/tax law firms, handling business entity formation, ownership agreements, asset and stock sale negotiations, state and federal tax disputes, and civil litigation for local, national and global technology and other business clients.
Since 2018, I’ve held in-house counsel roles for growing technology and SaaS companies: Deputy General Counsel at Emarsys North America, Inc., coordinating commercial contracts and compliance across a global legal team situated across the U.S., U.K., and Austria; General Counsel at Quick Custom Intelligence, advising the executive team and board directly on governance and risk; and General Counsel at Terminus by Demand Science, where I directed company-wide legal strategy and supervised both an internal legal team and outside counsel. Most recently I have served as Corporate Counsel for the Americas for SAP Emarsys, handling all legal issues across the Americas, commercial transactions, cloud services agreements and data privacy compliance matters for a large global SaaS platform.
This in-house experience provides me a vantage point most solo and small-firm attorneys do not have: I’ve personally negotiated the master service agreements, subscription agreement, data processing agreements, reseller agreements and service level agreements from both sides of the table.
Of Counsel to Derryberry & Naifeh, LLP
Since 2017, I have served as Of Counsel to Derryberry & Naifeh, LLP, an established longstanding and well-respected Oklahoma City law firm. It has been my honor to represent clients under their banner, and I look forward to continuing our close, ongoing professional relationship.
How I Work With Clients
My clients, from SaaS founders and technology executives to owners forming a new business, value the same things: direct access to the attorney actually handling their matter, responsiveness, and legal advice translated into a business decision rather than buried in legalese. I take the time to understand how a business actually operates before I recommend altering its processes, and I aim to be the kind of counsel that grows with a company from formation through scale, not a rotating case of associates.
My practice today centers on commercial contracts and SaaS/technology transactions (master subscription agreements, licensing agreements, statements of work, service level agreements, data processing agreements and non-disclosure/confidentiality agreements), business entity selection and formation, corporate governance, and data privacy compliance, all drawing on real experience serving companies across the nation and the world.
Let’s Talk
If your business is navigating a commercial contract, an entity governance decision, or a data privacy question, I would be happy to discuss it with you. Contact me HERE to start the conversation.