---
alias:
- Allen Patricof and Associates
- Patricof & Co.
- APA
category: Private Organization
created: 2026-09-22
location: New York City
summary: New York venture capital firm, formally Allen Patricof and Associates, that
  managed the 53rd Street Ventures fund and through it made a 100,000-dollar investment
  in INSLAW about 1982; the firm where Patricia Cloherty worked before and after her
  government service.
tags:
- Organization
- Patricof
- PROMIS
- INSLAW
- VentureCapital
updated: 2026-09-22
---

Patricof and Company, formally Allen Patricof and Associates and known in the special counsel's report as APA, was a New York venture capital firm founded in 1969 as Patricof & Co. Ventures by [Alan Patricof](/people/alan-patricof/), later renamed Apax Partners.[^2] It managed several funds, among them [53rd Street Ventures](/organizations/53rd-street-ventures/), formed about 1976. [Jonathan Ben Cnaan](/people/jonathan-ben-cnaan/), a native of [Israel](/places/israel/) employed at the firm from 1981 to 1987, managed the funds and about 1982 made the firm's first investment in [INSLAW](/organizations/inslaw/), 100,000 dollars through 53rd Street Ventures, describing himself to the investigators of [Nicholas J. Bua](/people/nicholas-j-bua/) as a "follower" investor with no active role in the negotiations. [Patricia Cloherty](/people/patricia-cloherty/) worked at the firm from about 1970 to 1977, left for the Small Business Administration under [Jimmy Carter](/people/jimmy-carter/), ran Tessler and Cloherty with her husband [Daniel Tessler](/people/daniel-tessler/) through the 1980s, during which that firm took over the 53rd Street fund in 1984, and returned to Patricof and Company in February 1988. Neither the [House Judiciary Committee](/organizations/house-committee-on-the-judiciary/) nor Bua found any wrongdoing by the firm, which entered the [INSLAW affair](/events/promis-software-scandal/) only through its stake in the company and the handoff of the fund to the Tesslers, whose dealings with [Bill Hamilton](/people/bill-hamilton/) in December 1984 became the subject of his affidavit.[^1]

[^1]: U.S. Department of Justice. *Report of Special Counsel Nicholas J. Bua to the Attorney General of the United States Regarding the Allegations of Inslaw, Inc.,* March 1993, interviews of Jonathan Ben Cnaan, Daniel Tessler and Patricia Cloherty. https://archive.org/details/InslawPROMISBuaReport
[^2]: Boston Properties, Inc. Definitive proxy statement (Schedule 14A), filed March 29, 2002, director biography of Alan J. Patricof. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1037540/000092701602001770/ddef14a.txt