Friday, March 20, 2015

Space Startups Spur New Legal Specialty: Space Lawyer

Are you one of the many Southern California companies now embarking on your new space startup? Apparently, the popularity of space startups has spurred a new legal specialty: space lawyer. According to the WSJ, those include Sagi Kfir, a San Diego area attorney who is the Chief Counsel of a Silicon Valley startup, Deep Space Industries. Space law is apparently seeing growth, as companies look to tackle legal questions, particularly in the area of jurisdiction, as they apply to space. Companies like SpaceX (Chief Counsel: Timothy Hughes) and Virgin Galactic (General Counsel: Marc Holzapfel) all face new issues, such as what happens if one spacecraft damages another, or who owns the precious metals if your space mining startup successfully captures an asteroid. Image courtesy Kenny Louie, via CC@Flickr.