Dan W. Burke
Founding Attorney
Location / Bay Area
Phone / (650) 472-3929
Email /
Admissions /
State Bar of California
Dan Burke is a Founding Partner of VLP and a corporate and commercial lawyer based in Silicon Valley. Dan has over 14 years of experience representing public and private technology companies and their investors on a variety of matters, including financings, acquisitions, commercial transactions, employment and equity compensation matters, and general corporate and securities matters.
Prior to joining VLP, Dan was Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary of IPWireless, an international wireless technology company, where he managed all legal matters facing the company and, as a member of the senior management team, was a strategic advisor to the management team and the Board.
As General Counsel, Dan was in charge of drafting and negotiating all of the company's major transactions, including numerous license, distribution, supply and trial agreements with telecomm OEMs and wireless operators worldwide, including Sprint-Nextel, T-Mobile, Softbank, Alcatel, Nortel, Motorola, UTStarcom and Samsung. He also spearheaded the negotiation and completion of several complex financing and acquisition transactions for the company, including the company's $235 million acquisition by Nextwave Wireless in May 2007. Dan was also a key advisor to the Board and management in the company's efforts to fend off third parties claiming to own patents that were allegedly infringed by IPWireless products and technologies. Dan was also in charge of day-to-day legal matters, including employment matters, patent prosecution management, maintenance of equity and incentive compensation plans, maintenance of minute books, updating legal forms, and drafting and negotiating a wide variety of day-to-day agreements, such as in-bound licenses and supply agreements, manufacturing agreements, development and partnership agreements and non-disclosure agreements.
Prior to joining IPWireless in 2003, Dan spent nine years in private practice, first at the international law firm of Latham & Watkins, and then at Venture Law Group, one of the premier Silicon Valley law firms representing emerging growth companies and their investors. In private practice, Dan represented dozens of public and private companies, investment banks and venture funds in over sixty financing transactions, including seven IPOs, and over thirty acquisition transactions. Dan also provided representation on general corporate, securities, commercial and employment matters, including company formation, stock administration, equity compensation, legal representation at board meetings, and licensing and partnering transactions.
Prior to private practice, Dan spent a year clerking for a federal judge in Los Angeles.
Dan graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from UCLA in 1990 with a degree in Economics-Business, and from Stanford Law School in 1993, where he was a member of the Stanford Law Review. Dan is a member of the State Bar of California.