On a recent Friday, James Cleary was up by dawn for a 7 a.m. appointment with his clients at Hydroflex Surfboards.

He wasn’t headed to the company headquarters in Oceanside, California, or to the San Diego offices of Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, where Cleary is an intellectual property lawyer. Cleary’s morning meeting was at the beach, as it is about once a week, when he goes surfing with action sports industry clients.