About David
Dave is a federal government contracting, research and development, and innovation attorney advising technology companies, government contractors, and entrepreneurs on a variety of transactional and litigation matters. These include federal contracting and research and development, startups, early-stage funding and investment, M&A, intellectual property, cybersecurity, and corporate organization. He has negotiated, documented, and closed hundreds of millions of dollars in various types of transactions.
Dave routinely advises companies and individuals on a broad range of federal contracting, commercial, corporate, intellectual property, tax, and estate transactional and litigation matters. Representative activities include: advising companies on federal contracting, set-aside and research and development award matters; drafting teaming agreements, subcontracts, STTR allocation of rights agreements, and mentor-protégé agreements and joint ventures; prosecution and defense of pre- and post-award bid protests and CDA claims at contracting officer, agency, CBCA, and COFC levels; negotiation and documentation of equity and debt funding events (angel, venture capital, private equity, and bank); negotiation and documentation of business acquisitions, mergers, and sales; completion of intellectual property, federal contract, and other asset due diligence; representation in intellectual property infringement, commercial, business, and estate disputes (litigation, arbitration, and mediation); representation before various federal and state agencies, including offers in compromise, amnesty programs, and tax controversies before the Internal Revenue Service and Virginia Department of Taxation; negotiation of patent, software, and technology licenses and subscriptions (OEM, VAR, SaaS/PaaS, development, consulting, acquisition, and joint marketing agreements); counseling on copyright, patent, trademark, and trade secret acquisition and protection issues; creation and perfection of security interests in intellectual property assets; registration of copyrights and trademarks; drafting stockholder agreements, corporate resolutions and minutes, bonus plans, and stock option plans; organizing LLCs and drafting operating agreements; estate and tax planning; and commercial and retail lease negotiation and drafting.
Prior to joining SouthBank Legal in 2016, Dave served as general counsel of a $100 million federal contractor with over 500 employees and operations in the United States, Middle East, and various countries across the African continent, and as General Counsel & Senior Vice President of a $45 million federal contractor serving the Food and Drug Agency, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Food and Drug Administration, Internal Revenue Service, and Department of Defense. He also practiced with two Am Law 100 firms.
In addition to his legal practice, Dave manages Third Coast Federal, Inc., a consulting firm that helps companies and regions leverage federal research and development and contracting awards to drive innovation and economic development. He is an SBIR|STTR program expert, regularly serving as moderator or panelist on SBIR|STTR related events. He has written numerous successful proposals for clients and created an SBIR|STTR Accelerator that shepherds companies through the entire SIBR|STTR process, from innovation development through proposal submission. He also assists companies with SBIR|STTR award performance and consults on a variety of pricing, accounting, and compliance matters.
Experience
In previous matters, Dave has:
- Negotiated the sale of a $100 million government contractor to a publicly traded corporation, structuring the transaction in a manner that saved his clients over one million dollars in taxes.
- Served as lead counsel in cases resulting in settlements in excess of $30 million and jury awards as high as $1.1 million.
- Filed formal contract disputes under FAR with a federal agency resulting in the agency’s renewal of a $13 million annual contract, removal of penalties, and payment of a $3.5 million settlement.
- Secured reversal of the federal government’s termination of a contractor for cause, obtaining a positive CPARS rating and withdrawal of the government’s demand for a $400,000 refund.
- Secured reversal of a Small Business Administration prohibition of direct awards of an 8(a) contract to a client.
- Successfully defended a company in a Department of State Inspector General investigation of an employee’s activities on a government contract.
- Negotiated $12 million in immediate commercial payments from the Department of State when the Department’s failure to pay its vendors for over a year nearly caused the client to shutter its operations.
- Secured reversal of non-award decisions by the Department of Air Force on two STTR awards.
Education
- Washington & Lee University School of Law, J.D., magna cum laude
- Order of the Coif
- Staff Writer, Washington & Lee Law Review
- University of Notre Dame, B.B.A.
Admissions
- Indiana
- Virginia
- U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia
- U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia
- U.S. Court of Federal Claims
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
- U.S. Tax Court