Profile

Adam Berkland's practice covers a broad range of general corporate and transactional matters. He regularly advises emerging growth companies through each stage of the company's life cycle – including initial company formation and early-stage commercial agreements, equity and convertible debt financings, and mergers and acquisitions – and frequently serves in an outside general counsel role for such companies.

Adam is a key contributor in the firm's intellectual property and technology practice, advising clients of all sizes (from one employee to thousands) on software licensing; SaaS subscriptions; reseller, OEM and channel partner agreements; e-commerce; and other intellectual property and technology-related matters. He also has extensive experience counseling clients on privacy law and cybersecurity matters, including assisting clients with their efforts to comply with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA/CPRA) among other rules and regulations.

Honors & Awards

The Best Lawyers in America, One to Watch, corporate, venture capital, 2022-25; intellectual property, technology, 2023-25
North Carolina Super Lawyers, Rising Star, business/corporate, 2024

Experience

Startups & Venture Capital
Led document drafting, negotiations and legal due diligence efforts for a CO2 conversion technology company in a $70 million Series B Preferred Stock financing involving a syndicate of strategic and financial investors.
Led document drafting, negotiations and legal due diligence efforts for an agricultural robotics company in a $30 million Series B Preferred Stock financing.
Led document drafting, negotiations and legal due diligence efforts for a sports entertainment SaaS provider in a $2.7 million Series A Preferred Stock financing.
Represented a tech-enabled, on-demand mobile car servicing business in a $4 million venture debt/credit facility transaction.
Represented a tech-enabled ESG data and indexing business in a $2 million SAFE offering.
Intellectual Property & Technology
Drafted standard forms for, and serves as the principal negotiator for all comments and redlines on, the entire suite of customer (SaaS subscription and IT service) agreements for a provider of HR-focused management software and for a provider of blockchain infrastructure technology.
Drafted and negotiated university “spinout” IP assignment and exclusive licensing agreements for a provider of health data analytics software and for an artificial intelligence-powered EdTech solution.
Routinely serves as an intellectual property and information technology subject-matter expert in mergers and acquisitions transactions, leading due diligence reviews and analyzing, drafting and negotiating IP- and IT-related clauses in transaction agreements.
Cybersecurity & Privacy
Drafted or overhauled privacy policies and related internal privacy compliance programs for dozens of clients of all sizes and across industries (including highly regulated industries such as financial services, insurance and EdTech).
Regularly drafts, reviews and negotiates data processing addenda attached to services agreements and software license agreements, including as needed for compliance with GDPR and comprehensive U.S. state-based data privacy and security laws.
Routinely serves as a data privacy and cybersecurity subject-matter expert in mergers and acquisitions transactions, leading due diligence reviews and analyzing, drafting and negotiating data privacy- and cybersecurity-related clauses in transaction agreements.
Mergers & Acquisitions
Represented an EdTech SaaS business in a $20 million majority recapitalization transaction with a private equity firm.
Represented a machine learning-powered document-processing technology company in a $7 million merger transaction with a strategic acquirer.
Represented a property management mobile maintenance and servicing software business in a $7.5 million stock sale transaction with a strategic acquirer.