David Felicissimo
GENERAL COUNSEL VALNET INC.
MONTREAL, QUEBEC, CANADA
6:00 am
Wake up as I hear my wife getting ready. She is a substitute teacher and has to be up early. Reach for my phone to check emails before getting out of bed. I spend the next 30 minutes preparing for the day, which includes a cold shower (30 seconds under very cold water is the best way to kick start a morning).
7:00 am
Help my seven-year-old twins (boy/girl) get ready for school. I make breakfast and chat over my first espresso. Mornings are the most intimate time I spend with them and I make the most of it.
8:00 am
Drop my kids at school for an early morning Italian lesson. Having them understand Italian is important to me, as both my parents were born in Italy. They will thank me later in life; however, today they complain... endlessly.
8:30 am
Meet my father in Montreal’s Little Italy for a quick espresso and chat. Today’s topics include Italian, soccer, and Canadian politics. This is a weekly habit we maintain.
9:00 am
Get to the office, grab a third espresso, and follow up with emails I couldn’t fully respond to on my phone. Meet with my paralegal to go over the weekly mandates process. A few colleagues pop in to ask about my availability for the day. I also browse our site, TheRichest.com, to make sure IT has updated the terms and privacy policy.
10:00 am
Meet with our video/YouTube team to discuss copyright matters and some “copycat” channels. Given our size (over four billion views), copyright infringement is rampant with third parties plagiarizing our work. As I dash for another espresso, a few people stop me for what they refer to as a “quick” legal question.
11:00 am
Sit with the managing editors of our movie site, ScreenRant.com, to discuss various copyright matters, licensing deals, and a partnership with a US-based national cinema chain.
12:00 pm
Attend a scheduled meeting with our human resources manager to go over contractual issues. The IT lead joins us to talk about employment matters. This is followed up by a quick chat with our talent acquisition coordinator and our paralegal to address contract wording for freelance writers.
1:00 pm
Lift weights and do some quick cardio at the gym across the street. Our company launched a three-month fitness competition late last year (which I did not win but got me in great shape!). Since then, I have been maintaining a five-day a week gym habit with a moderately strict diet.
2:00 pm
Breakout meeting with the M&A team of our software division (Valsoft) to discuss potential acquisitions and negotiation status. We discuss some upcoming business trips for Q1.
3:00 pm
Call with our subsidiary office in Tampa, Florida regarding various cross-border matters. A follow-up call with our Tampa-based external counsel quickly ensues.
4:00 pm
Various departments come to my office either to get contracts approved or to ask specific legal questions. Today, it’s our director of ad operations who needs advice on a new advertising partner.
5:00 pm
Being a tech company, we have the mandatory foosball table. I “school” one of my colleagues from the M&A team leaving him “shook” from a 10-2 defeat. Touch base with a new hire before one last espresso and legal review at my desk.
6:00 pm
I sit down with our CEO to discuss the progress on a potential acquisition and outline business-related matters for some new sites in development.
7:00 pm
Drive home: I have a 20-minute commute and listen to a podcast. I highly recommend Revisionist History with Malcolm Gladwell.
7:30 pm
Quick bedtime story with my kids. We negotiate how many books to read. I start with one, they start with 100 — we settle on two.
8:00 pm
Have a late dinner in the kitchen and flip through more emails while my wife reads. We chat about the day’s events.
9:00 pm
Sit down to watch TV, which typically involves a Netflix series that we binge while discussing our kids’ activities, our upcoming vacation, and our “to do list.”
10:00 pm
Read Tim Ferriss’s Tools of Titans and answer a few emails before bed.
11:00 pm
Hit the bed and, as usual, fall asleep almost instantly.
