Jacob Janzen

 Jacob Janzen, grew up in California’s Central Valley where he attended an elementary school devoted to arts education. There he participated in all manner of visual and performing arts. In college, Jacob majored in literature, certain that he would write the next great American novel.

For 6 years after college, Jacob managed the Community Thrift Store in San Francisco, helping them to donate their proceeds to not-for-profit organizations throughout the Bay Area whose missions range from serving the needs of the homeless, to the arts, to LGBTQ community building, and to animal rescue (just to name a few).

In 2015, Jacob earned a law degree from DePaul University College of Law in Chicago, where he studied Art Law, the drafting of Art Market Transaction documents, and also served as a law clerk to the Chicago History Museum President.

In 2016 Jacob earned a Master of Arts degree in Art Business from the Sotheby’s Institute of Art, Los Angeles and the Drucker School of Management at Claremont Graduate University. While there, Jacob studied all manners of Art Business and Art World dynamics, visiting art fairs, galleries, museums, and artist studios in Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Dallas, Marfa, Seoul, Hong Kong, and Mexico City. While at Claremont, Jacob also studied economic strategy, marketing, accounting, finance, and creative entrepreneurialism.

All of these studies and experiences culminated in the conception of Start Art Legal, which was presented by Jacob as a business concept in the 2016 Kravis Concept Plan Competition. In that competition, Start Art Legal won first place, beating entries from students and alumni from Claremont’s MBA program, the Keck Graduate Institute, as well as Scripps, Pomona, and Pitzer Colleges.

Jacob Janzen was admitted to the California State Bar in 2016 (Bar #313474), and joined the California Lawyers for the Arts Modest Means Incubator Program in 2017. He is proudly married to a working metal artist and welder (), and is delightedly the father of one son, Buster.