Margaret Sterling
Co-Founder & Managing Partner
Fifteen years of M&A, financings, and fractional general counsel work for Texas SMBs and venture-backed founders. Former Big Law (Vinson & Elkins).
View profile →Senior business lawyers who pick up the phone.
Every Sterling & Hayes engagement is led by a partner. No rotating associates, no handoffs after the pitch meeting. Three senior attorneys, each with deep specialization, each accountable to your business from intake to closing.
Our Team
The lawyers your business will actually work with.
Below are the three partners of Sterling & Hayes Legal. When you hire the firm, you hire them — directly. Same phone, same email, same accountability for the duration of the engagement.
David Hayes
Co-Founder & Partner
Former in-house counsel at an Austin SaaS company, with trial experience in Travis County. Anchors the firm's commercial contracts and employment practice.
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Priya Raman
Partner, IP & Technology
Former software engineer turned attorney. USPTO registered patent attorney with a deep tech client base across SaaS, AI, and consumer hardware.
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What Unites Our Team
Three lawyers. One operating system.
Our partners come from different practice backgrounds — Big Law corporate, in-house tech, and the patent bar — but they share an identical operating philosophy. Every client gets the same standard of responsiveness, the same plain-English drafting, and the same fixed-fee predictability.
Same-day email reply, every business day
You will never wait 72 hours wondering whether your contract is being read. We commit to first response within the same business day.
Partner-level on every engagement
The partner you meet at consultation is the partner who drafts, negotiates, and signs the deliverable. No bait-and-switch.
Cross-coverage when you need it
Our partners staff matters jointly when scope demands it. You get the perspective of three senior lawyers without paying for three.
Texas-rooted, nationally fluent
Headquartered in Austin, admitted in Texas and New York, registered before the USPTO — equipped for clients shipping into all 50 states.
Downtown Austin · 401 Congress
Find the right partner for your matter.
Tell us briefly what you are working on and we will route the conversation to the partner with the deepest experience for your situation.