Michele Berdinis - Founder Beeline Legal

7 Aug 2026 · 28 min

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27:39

In this Founder Wisdom podcast episode, host Charles Cormier interviews Michele Berdinis, founder of Beeline Legal, a New York‑based firm that helps businesses protect their trademarks. The conversation begins with a brief overview of Michele’s professional credentials—senior attorney experience, a law degree from the University of San Francisco School of Law, and an undergraduate degree from Brown University—followed by the founding of Beeline Legal in 2015. The bulk of the interview delves into Michele’s early life working in her family’s candy factory and retail store from age 11, describing the seasonal nature of the business, its focus on Easter chocolate products, and the work ethic and lessons she derived from that experience. She reflects on how the repetitive, hard‑working environment motivated her to pursue higher education and a legal career, ultimately leading to the creation of a company dedicated to trademark protection. The episode mixes personal anecdotes with professional background, illustrating the link between her early entrepreneurial exposure and her current mission to safeguard brands.

Chapters

Welcome to another Founder Wisdom podcast. We have Michelle Berdini with us today. She's helping you protect the trademark you love at Beeline Legal. A decade at that company, started that company 2015 in New York, previously senior attorney, studied at Brown and University of San Francisco School of Law. What am I missing here, Michelle? Welcome to pod.
Thanks. Let's see, I grew up working in my family's candy business starting at age 11. That was a major important part of my career.
Yeah, well, that's good. My granddad was a candy seller, and I called— sometimes call my dad the Candyman because he's an entrepreneur and always has this box of candy right outside his office. And when every time I would pass by his office, I would grab a candy when I was younger.
Yeah, no, my, my family was in the candy business. We had a factory and retail store and everybody worked there.
And candy sold like drugs because sugar is a drug, isn't it? Was it an easy sell or was it, uh, did you have to hustle to sell these?
No, it was big. It, you know, it was a very seasonal business. So we were, you know, as they say, down the shore. And so it was big in the summer. And then the biggest part was Easter. Easter was our biggest season.
So chocolate.
Yeah. So chocolate Easter eggs, chocolate bunnies, all of that. Yeah.
And the kids, the kids like you because you always knew you had candy on you.
I didn't always have candy on me, but we would go there on school trips and it was definitely, you know, if you said my dad's an astronaut, I would say, well, yeah, my dad makes candy. I mean, that's definitely— you get to win. You just get to win that argument. Yeah.
So is it like Charlie's Chocolate Factory or—
No, it was. It was hard work. A lot of it was very boring, like a lot of repetitive stuff. It taught me a lot of things. It taught me how to work hard, and it taught me that if you don't, if you don't pick something else, you're going to get stuck here. So it was, it was definitely a driver to do well in school and go to college and just do something else.
Yeah. And what was the scale of the factory? You guys had mold?