By Grace Stanley
Three alumni from Cornell Tech’s Master of Laws (LL.M.) in Law, Technology, and Entrepreneurship program have joined forces at ALVK Law, a law firm that provides on-demand legal services for tech entrepreneurs and enterprises without U.S.-based in-house counsel.
Victoria Kammerath, LL.M. ‘21, founded ALVK Law in March 2023, and was shortly thereafter joined by more recent graduates Agustín Iraola, LL.M. ‘23, and Valeria Monturiol, LL.M. ‘23, who Kammerath met during their studies at Cornell Tech.
The trio’s shared experiences at Cornell Tech laid the foundation for ALVK. An additional Cornell Tech alumnus, Benjamin Smalberger, LL.M. ‘23, also joined ALVK as an “Of Counsel” affiliated lawyer. The team put the “tech” they learned at Cornell Tech to use from day one, incorporating AI and building their practice around agile methodologies — a project management approach pioneered in software development.
“We wanted to disrupt the delivery of legal services while also preserving the high-quality standards typically associated with large law firms,” Kammerath said.
Kammerath, originally from Argentina, moved to the U.S. in 2020 to pursue the Cornell Tech LL.M. program. In Argentina, she had previously worked as an in-house counsel and government attorney, specifically working as Chief of Legal Staff for the Attorney General of Buenos Aires State. After completing her LL.M., Kammerath worked in New York as a Project Manager on a legal tech development initiative at Eisenberg & Baum, and subsequently as an International Associate in the Asset Finance team at Clifford Chance, before launching ALVK.
“I was interested in the intersection of law, business, and technology,” Kammerath said. “After researching multiple programs across the country, I realized that Cornell Tech was really different, and that’s why I decided to move here in the middle of the pandemic.”
ALVK’s Attorney and Business Development Manager, Valeria Monturiol, from Costa Rica, had experience in corporate and mergers and acquisitions law at EY, and a growing interest in technology when she joined the program in 2022.
“Cornell Tech sparked the desire to be as creative as possible. It’s very different from being just an employee in a company. We’re really trying to build something new and dynamic,” Monturiol added. “We also wanted to work together and be a bridge between Latin America and the United States. Some of our clients are also in that space.”
Open to practicing attorneys and recent law graduates from the U.S. and around the world, Cornell Tech’s LL.M. program provides students with a Cornell Law School education in technology law, practice, and policy. The program also allows students to participate in Cornell Tech’s flagship Product Studio course, where they learn to build products, act as founders, and experience firsthand the kinds of challenges their future startup clients will face while growing their businesses.
In addition to its two-semester offering at the Cornell Tech campus in New York City, the Tech LL.M. program also offers a three-semester option for international students. These students can spend an additional term at Cornell Law School’s main campus in Ithaca, New York, to take courses that qualify them for the New York State bar exam.
“The Cornell Tech LL.M. really hit the spot. It was very innovative,” Monturiol said. “I did the three-semester program, same as Victoria, so we got to see the experience between Cornell Tech and Cornell Ithaca. It was really the best year of my life so far.”
ALVK’s Foreign Legal Advisor and Head of Growth, Agustín Iraola, is also from Argentina and came to Cornell Tech from a background in government and regulatory analysis. He also had growing experience in the venture capital ecosystem after being part of the founding team of an asset tokenization startup, drawing him to the LL.M. program at Cornell Tech.
“Cornell Tech was a perfect match for completing my pivot into the tech and entrepreneurial space,” Iraola noted. “I reached out to Victoria, who spoke very highly of the program, and the rest is history.”
The program’s curriculum helped the team grow their experience in topics like high-growth corporate transactions, tech transactions, cybersecurity, privacy, artificial intelligence, and tech regulation. Monturiol also highlighted the importance of the Product Studio at Cornell Tech, where LL.M. students join teams with students across campus to create new products that address business challenges presented by leading startups, companies, and organizations in New York City.
“Having the ability to work with MBAs, with computer scientists, and with engineers really helped us understand the pain points of working in a startup and building a product,” Monturiol said. “Lawyers are trained to be risk-averse, but working in a startup environment pulls you in a different direction.”
Iraola added that ALVK is “living proof” of Cornell Tech’s startup focus and methodology. “Building startups is one of Cornell Tech’s main goals, and ALVK is proof that it works even in spaces where that’s not normal,” Iraola said. “We think of ourselves as a startup in a lot of ways. We know that’s not common in the legal space.”
New York City, with its vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystem, proved to be an ideal location for ALVK. “New York is everything. It’s like being everywhere in the world at the same time,” Kammerath said. “Most entrepreneurs in the world want to be here, and believe that here is the place where you need to be to grow, to meet people, to find partners.”
As Kammerath, Iraola, and Monturiol continue to grow their firm, they remain committed to using technology and entrepreneurship to shape the future of law.
“AI enables our growth by optimizing legal deliverables, enhancing content creation, and increasing our profitability,” Kammerath emphasized. “We are committed to finding attorneys who are interested in being part of a startup environment and exploring business development at an early stage.”
“I think the three of us believe that law firms won’t look the same way in 10 years, and we really try to be tomorrow’s lawyers,” Monturiol added. “Right now, we are really identifying the pain points that law firms have, and trying to kill all that dead weight so we can be as dynamic as possible.”
Grace Stanley is a staff writer-editor for Cornell Tech.
