CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA - Michael P. Drzal has been named as chair of LeClairRyan’s Technology and Venture Capital practice, leading an accomplished team of attorneys in Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Virginia and Washington, D.C.
Drzal is a shareholder with LeClairRyan where he customarily acts as lead counsel in connection with financings, mergers and acquisitions, strategic alliances, joint ventures, management buyouts, intellectual property licensing transactions and a variety of domestic and international transactions. He currently serves as general counsel to a number of emerging technology companies and also serves as general counsel to a growing angel investor network with chapters in Charlottesville and Blacksburg, Virginia and has served on the board of directors of client companies. In February, Drzal served as a judge, along with five venture capitalists, for the Southeast Division Finals of the 2008 Venture Capital Investment Competition, an entrepreneurial education experience created by UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School.
The Technology and Venture Capital practice serves as a strategic partner to emerging companies in all phases of growth, from formation and initial capitalization through exit. Collectively, the attorneys in this practice have closed more than 750 financing transactions and 500 merger and acquisition transactions. They have assisted clients from concept to IPO, from a single entrepreneur with an idea to a company with more than 1000 employees. LeClairRyan attorneys have served as general counsel to emerging companies ranging from traditional businesses such as manufacturing, retailing, and distribution and service companies to technology-based companies such as medical software development, medical device, bio-informatics, bio-medical, diagnostics, pharmaceutical, technology development and commercialization, e-learning, financial software, engineering software, internet retailing, systems integration, software consulting, and high-tech manufacturing and assembly companies.