Monday, February 25, 2008

Harvard Law School's Palfrey joins Highland Capital

By Christopher Calnan

The executive director of Harvard Law School's Berkman Center for Internet & Society has joined Highland Capital Partners LLC.

John Palfrey, a digital media intellectual property specialist, said he's joining the Lexington investment firm as a part-time venture executive while retaining his post at Harvard.

Palfrey, 35, said he expects the move to expand his business knowledge of digital media through Highland Capital's portfolio companies.

"I find I learn wildly more sitting with founders of startups than I could as their lawyer," he said.

Highland Capital officials said Palfrey's addition in December is an indication of the firm's interest in e-commerce, social networking and the latest Internet companies.

"There is no one who is more thoughtful about how user-generated content, intellectual property ownership and digital media will play out together," Highland general partner Dan Nova said of Palfrey.

Last month, Highland was a co-investor in a $2 million Series A venture capital round in StyleFeeder Inc., a Cambridge company spun out of a holding company, Top Ten Media Inc., formed by Palfrey.

Harvard established the Berkman Center in 1997. Palfrey, who previously had been an attorney with Boston law firm Ropes & Gray, joined the center in 2002. In 2005, he co-founded RSS Investors, a private equity firm in Cambridge.

Highland Capital, founded in 1988, was the third most active New England-based VC firms last year, according to Dow Jones VentureSource. The firm completed seven digital-media investments including Metacafe Inc., a video website operator in California, and closed on a $300 million fund last year.