Dave Young

Dave is a founder of Cooley’s Santa Monica office, which has grown from four lawyers initially to become the market leader in the representation of growth companies and expanded to include a second location in downtown Los Angeles. Dave heads Cooley’s corporate group across its Los Angeles offices and represents venture-backed and growth companies at all stages, as well as the venture capital firms, strategic investors and investment banks that finance these companies. In addition to providing strategic counseling, his practice encompasses venture capital financings, mergers and acquisitions, public offerings, equity compensation matters, strategic counseling, complex corporate partnering transactions and corporate governance. He represents both public and private companies, primarily in the digital media, software, technology, sports, retail and consumer products and life sciences sectors.

Dave served as the technical legal advisor for all seasons and episodes of HBO’s “Silicon Valley,” helping to ensure the technical accuracy and believability of legal and finance-related matters. He is listed as an advisor in the credits of every episode, and appears in a cameo in episode seven of season one, at the fictional TechCrunch Disrupt conference, along with Rick Smith and Brian Garrett of Crosscut Ventures.

Dave's experience includes representation of companies and investors in over 3,000 venture capital financings over the course of his career, having worked with or across from virtually all significant venture capital funds and similar investors, and over 325 M&A transactions. Many of Dave’s clients have grown into unicorns or achieved successful exit transactions, and representative clients (by category) include:

• AdTech: GumGum, tvScientific
• Alcohol: Brother’s Bond Bourbon, Happy Dad
• Baby: Coterie, Happiest Baby
• Beauty and skincare: Summer Fridays, Kylie Cosmetics
• Digital health: Reveleer, RxVantage
• Digital media and entertainment: UnitedMasters, Invisible Narratives
• EdTech: GoGuardian, Transact
• Ecommerce infrastructure: Route, Happy Returns
• Energy: Carbon Capture, Arbor Energy
• Exploration: Atlas Space, KoBold Metals
• Fintech: Hamsa, Lower
• Food: Sunbasket, Caroo
• Gaming: Cloud Imperium Games, PlayQ
• Home: Parachute, Homecourt
• Hospitality: Dorsia, Open
• Insurtech: Matic, Sensible
• IoT/Wireless: Hologram, Andrena
• LegalTech: Steno, For The Record
• Life sciences: Truvian, Neuvogen
• Manufacturing: 3DEO, First Resonance
• Marketplaces: Repairsmith, Bambino
• Messaging: Community.com, FYI.AI
• Non-alcoholic beverage: Bero, Almave
• Personal care: Burst, Dollar Shave Club
• PropTech: Leonardo247, Tailorbird
• Robotics: Elementary, GrayMatter Robotics
• Skincare: Necessarie, True Botanicals
• Sports: Project B, Fan Controlled Football
• Telehealth: Talkiatry, Blueberry Pediatrics
• Ticketing: TIXR, Atom Tickets
• Virtual reality: Supernatural, AppliedVR
• Visual intelligence: Truepic, Xailient
• Wellness: Orion Longevity, Yondr

Dave's mergers and acquisitions experience includes the representation of numerous companies in sell-side transactions, constituting successful liquidity events for his clients. In addition to prior representation of QUALCOMM (QCOM) in numerous acquisition transactions, Dave has represented acquirors in buy-side M&A transactions, including companies such as CreatorIQ, Dorsia, GumGum, Infillion Lower, Reveleer Route, RxVantage, Steno and Transact Campus. Notable recent sell-side M&A transactions include the representation of:

• Coterie in its acquisition by Mammoth Brands for over $1 billion
• Dollar Shave Club in its acquisition by Unilever for a reported $1 billion
• For The Record in its acquisition by Tyler Technologies
• Happy Returns in its acquisition by PayPal
• INFPlans in its acquisition by ISC
• Inktank in its $190 million acquisition by Red Hat
• Kylie Cosmetics in strategic transaction with Coty
• Repairsmith in its acquisition by AutoNation
• StyleHaul in its acquisition by RTL Group, valuing StyleHaul at $151 million
• Summer Fridays in acquisition by TSG Consumer
• Sunbasket in its business combination with Pruvit
• Supernatural in its acquisition by Meta
• Transact Campus in its acquisition by Roper Technologies
• tvScientific in its acquisition by Pinterest

He also regularly represents companies owned or funded by private equity firms and has represented issuers and underwriters in numerous IPOs and other public offerings.

Dave is co-chair of Cooley’s Sports+ practice group, which represents companies and investors in three primary areas: traditional sports transactions, emerging sports leagues and franchises and sports-related technologies and platforms.

Dave was ranked number one on Attorney Intel’s list of The Top 50 Los Angeles Attorneys, and has received various other accolades as top lawyer and deal-maker, including being named an Entertainment Visionary and Fashion and Beauty Visionary multiple times by the Los Angeles Times. Dave is consistently listed as a top-ranked practitioner by Chambers and Partners in Startups and Emerging Companies and Venture Capital. The Chambers guide notes that “Dave is thoughtful and practical” and “is a tremendous lawyer and has a phenomenal practice in Los Angeles.”

Dave has also appeared on numerous podcasts, including:

• The Kurty D Show: “LA Law with David Young”
• Diversity Riders: “Conversations For A More Equitable Future”
• The Puck: “Venture Capital & Beyond”
• The Five Oceans Podcast: “Selling Your Business? Here’s What You Need To Know”

Before joining Cooley, Dave had practiced in Silicon Valley, San Diego, Seattle, and in Los Angeles as a founder of Venture Law Group’s LA office, giving him a broad and unique perspective on technology and growth company ecosystems.