David Sylvester

David Sylvester  is a partner at 3rd Gen Law Group LLP.

David’s practice focuses on complex corporate transactions and general counsel services. During his legal career he has served a wide variety of clients across multiple industries, with a specialty in technology and emerging growth companies. Drawing on years of experience representing high-profile venture capital-backed technology companies and the national and regional venture capital and investment banking firms assisting such companies, David now specializes in advising clients in connection with the formation and financing of emerging technology companies, with respect to mergers and acquisitions, and on general corporate matters.

Prior to joining 3rd Gen Law Group LLP, David was a partner at Venture Philanthropy Partners (VPP) for over four years. VPP is a private philanthropic investment organization that concentrates growth capital and strategic assistance to improve the lives of children and youth of low-income families. Prior to joining VPP in 2007, David had a 24 year legal career first as an associate with Fenwick & West LLP in Silicon Valley and finally as a partner with WilmerHale, LLP. In 2000, he became the Partner-In-Charge of the newly opened WilmerHale Reston, Virginia, office, where he was instrumental in connecting early stage companies in the region with venture capital and assisting later stage companies with access to the public capital markets. David’s keen understanding of technology companies stems from his early days working for companies such as Apple and Electronic Arts in Silicon Valley and his work throughout his career with emerging companies and the national and regional venture capital and investment banking firms that invest in and work with such companies.

David received his law degree from the University of Virginia School of Law and he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Stanford University. He is a member of the State Bars of California and Virginia and the District of Columbia Bar.

David was included in The Best Lawyers in America 2006 and 2007 for his work in the area of leverage buyouts and private equity and securities law. He was also included in Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business from 2003 to 2006 for proving his extraordinary legal standing in the general corporate law and mergers and acquisitions areas. In 2000, Regardie’s Power magazine named David one of the greater Washington, DC area’s Power Internet 100

Throughout his career, David has been active in the community. A New Orleans native and former New Orleans public housing resident, he spent close to two years working on both informal and formal rebuilding efforts in Post-Katrina New Orleans, spending a week a month in that city. He serves on the Board of Governors of the Isidore Newman School, the independent, coeducational college preparatory day school in New Orleans he attended, on the Board of Directors of New Schools for New Orleans, a private, nonprofit organization with a mission to achieve excellent public schools for every child in New Orleans, and on the Chairman’s Advisory Committee of The Idea Village Inc., a nonprofit business accelerator in New Orleans that has been instrumental in building an ecosystem for entrepreneurs in that city.

David is also a past President and former Member of the Board of Directors of Heads Up, a then leading provider of after school and summer programs in Washington, DC., a past President and former Member of the Board of Directors of AHC, Inc., a private nonprofit organization that provides low- and moderate-income housing to more than 6,000 residents in the Mid-Atlantic Region.

In addition, David was pro bono General Counsel to the Midnight Basketball League, Inc. and to the National Association of Midnight Basketball Leagues, Inc.; a Member of the Board of Directors and General Counsel to the Mid-Atlantic Venture Association; a Member of the Board of Directors of the Department of Medical Assistance Services of the Commonwealth of Virginia (appointed by Governor Mark R. Warner and re-appointed by Governor Timothy M. Kaine); and a Member of the Board of Directors of The Idea Village Inc.

The representative matters, below, describe David’s projects spanning the areas of corporate transactions and general counsel services.

Corporate Transactional and General Counsel

The representative matters, below, describe a few representative samples of David’s recent projects spanning the areas of outsourcing, commercial contracting, business formation, and technology services, sales and licensing, and intellectual property matters.

• Represented start-up companies in connection with their formation, private financings, and mergers and acquisition activity.
• Represented venture capital-backed companies in their initial and subsequent public offerings of securities.
• Represented emerging growth companies in licensing and joint venture and strategic partnership transactions.
• Represented national and regional venture capital firms in connection with their investments in technology and other companies.
• Represented national and regional investment banking firms in connection with their underwriting of public offering of securities by venture backed companies.