Alumni Eamon Gallagher, Ernie Holtzheimer and Brittany Esser are among 14 Philadelphia lawyers who gained recognition from Technical.ly Philly for following in the footsteps of legendary startup lawyer Stephen Goodman.

A June 22 article in Technical.ly Philly paid tribute to Goodman, crediting him with “pioneering the startup lawyer archetype in Philadelphia in the 1970s and ‘80s, before startups were sexy.”

The article cites Gallagher, ’13, Holtzheimer, ’16, and Esser, ’15, all of whom were students of Professor Karl Okamoto who completed concentrations in Business and Entrepreneurial Law.

The trio, Technical.ly Philly contends, have demonstrated a commitment to advocating on behalf of entrepreneurs in the tech sector that is evocative of Goodman, a senior counsel at Morgan Lewis and former member of the law school’s advisory board.

“In many ways, I built my law school experience and my law practice using Steve as a model for where I wanted to be and the role that I wanted to play,”  said Gallagher, to whom Technical.ly Philly referred by his Twitter handle: @PHLStartupLaw.   

Now the manager of ic@3401, an incubator space run by Drexel and the University City Science Center, Gallagher organizes the Philly New Tech Meetup and maintains a connection to the Keiretsu Forum angel investor group.

Holtzheimer, an associate at Montgomery McCracken, also writes columns for Technical.ly Philly, including one of the website’s “most-read stories of 2016,” which concerned departures from the city by influential startups.  Technical.ly Philly noted that Holtzheimer also organizes events for Young Involved Philadelphia, a nonprofit that harnesses young city dwellers’ enthusiasm in order to shape its future.  

Such was Esser’s influence working with the angel group Robin Hood Ventures and organizing the Philly New Tech Meetup that her name appears on the list, even though she took a job in Syracuse, N.Y. with Lockheed Martin, back in January.