David Pierce

About David

David Pierce is a corporate attorney with an unyielding passion for client success. He specializes in helping high-growth SaaS companies navigate business lifecycle challenges from building out foundational governance, facilitating commercial transactions, raising capital, and consummating exits.

David approaches technology transactions with insights that are unique in the legal world. Before joining Founders Legal, David worked in the communication technology arena for nearly a decade as a sales consultant. It is in this capacity where David first gained industry experience in IT Security and Data Privacy, and where David first encountered the bureaucratic pitfalls that can cause deals to fall out. A problem-solver by nature, and a skilled negotiator, David leverages his years of technology contract experience to enable clients to achieve their sales objectives. In this vein, David helps growing companies refine their sales documentation to reduce friction and speed up sales cycles, and to build out partner programs to leverage referrals, sponsorships, resales, and technology relationships.

In addition to the various intellectual property licensing strategies David implements for his software clients, he assists a wide range of product-based businesses to build trademark portfolios. David obtained experience in managing and monetizing intellectual property at AT&T and Aptean. As a former president of Georgia State University Intellectual Property Law Society, and former executive board member of the Georgia Intellectual Property Alliance, David has been long entrenched in the knowledge economy and continues to serve the Atlanta IP community through client enablement.

David’s interest in property extends beyond intellectual property and into real property, and David works with real estate investment groups to form real estate funds and manage properties.

While David’s practice extends all borders, much of it is rooted in the thriving Atlanta startup scene. To participate in, and give back to this community, David regularly lectures at various startup incubators and accelerators, including two of Atlanta’s most prominent diversity and inclusion accelerators: Atlanta Tech Village’s It Takes a Village and Georgia Statue University’s Main Street Entrepreneurs Seed Fund.

David’s pro bono work includes work for University for Parents, a division of Atlanta Cares, domestic violence outreach, and autism education.

In his free time, David enjoys time in the great outdoors with his wife, Emily, and his sons, Brody and Ryder.


Specialized Areas:

  • Corporate, Advanced Technology
  • Intellectual Property Law
  • Software & Intellectual Property (IP) Licensing
  • General Corporate Counsel
  • Securities & Capital Raising
  • Mergers & Acquisitions
  • Trademarks

Education

  • Georgia State University  – College of Law – Juris Doctorate
  • Georgia State University – College of Business- MBA, International Business
  • University of Georgia – College of Business – BBA, Management

Bar Admission

  • State of Georgia

Contact David

Recent & Notable Projects:

International Mergers & Acquisitions:

Led and successfully closed a $20M strategic acquisition for a client in the Software as a Service (SaaS) industry, in which the US-based client acquired a target with subsidiaries in multiple foreign jurisdictions.

Master It Services Agreement:

Successfully negotiated an $8M, 3-party agreement for the provision of complex data migration services to a city government.

Commercial Software License Agreement:

Drafted a commercial software license agreement for a highly-specialized, on-premise software product relied upon by many Fortune 500 companies for internal reporting and analysis.

Software-As-A-Service Agreement:

Drafted a suite of enterprise-level master agreements and policies for a fast-growing client in the Software as a Service (SaaS) industry, for use with the client’s highest-value corporate customers.

Corporate Counsel:

Assist clients in reviewing, negotiating, and advising on agreements and transactions with multinational corporate customers on an ongoing basis.