Expert Witness

Our founder, David Tollen, serves as an expert witness and consultant in litigation related to software licenses and other information technology contracts. His areas of expertise include:

• Legal and business differences among (a) SaaS and other cloud services, (b) on-premise software, and (c) IT professional services
• How the categories above are often confused, including related to state and federal tax questions
• Use and misuse of “licenses” in SaaS and other cloud services agreements
• Standards of care and competence for software licensing and other IT contract work; related legal malpractice and negligence issues
• Industry custom and practice surrounding software licensing and other IT contract drafting, including terms of art and negotiation practices
• Interpretation (where admissible) of artificial intelligence contracts, cloud services contracts, on-premise software licenses, and other agreements about IT

Mr. Tollen has testified as an expert in multiple depositions and at trial, both in court and in arbitration. As one example, he was cited and relied upon as an expert witness in a December 2021 Massachusetts Appellate Tax Board decision, Akamai v. Commissioner of Revenue. David testified for Akamai, the prevailing party. More details about the decision are available here.

Mr. Tollen’s sources of credibility and expertise include:

• Adjunct faculty-member for the UC Berkeley Law School, teaching Advanced IT Contracts
• Author of the American Bar Association’s bestseller, The Tech Contracts Handbook: Software Licenses, Cloud Computing Agreements, and Other IT Contracts for Lawyers and Businesspeople (ABA Publishing 2021)
• Contracts trainer for attorneys and businesspeople
• Silicon Valley veteran
• Frequent speaker and author on IT and IP law

Please click here for a list of articles and speeches, as well as for further biographical information.

Finally, Mr. Tollen began his career litigating technology and intellectual property cases at Morrison & Foerster in San Francisco. So he has an unusual understanding of the process, including strategies surrounding deposition, trial testimony, and use of expert witnesses.