Dean Fealk

Dean Fealk advises leading multinational companies on legal, strategic and public policy issues related to expanding and doing business internationally.  He serves civic organizations in leadership capacities and has advised governments and politicians around the world on public policy issues.

Dean frequently serves as managing international legal counsel for multi-jurisdictional and multi-disciplined projects and matters implicating corporate, securities, regulatory, tax, labor, foreign exchange and data privacy. Dean has considerable experience in cross-border equity-based compensation programs and international employment matters in Asia, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East and Africa.

Dean regularly counsels on international and cross-border aspects of international data privacy, immigration, intellectual property protection, choice of entity, tax and corporate structure. He also advises on a broad array of international employment matters including codes of conduct, employee handbooks, work rules, personnel policies, independent contractor agreements, offer letters, employment agreements, proprietary information and assignment of invention agreements, secondment agreements, lay-offs and redundancies, discipline and terminations, settlements and release and waivers.

On the transactional side, Dean has provided counsel on more than US$35 billion in cross-border deals, among them mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, restructurings and integrations. He has led over a hundred international expansion and structuring projects for companies across a wide spectrum of industries and jurisdictions from emerging enterprises to Fortune 500 multinationals. Representative industries include high tech, financial services, pharmaceuticals, consumer products, life sciences, energy, media, manufacturing and distribution.

Active in civic affairs and public policy, Dean is a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He has advised three presidential campaigns on foreign policy and has represented the State of California in trade and investment missions around the world. He serves on the California Workforce Development Board (appointed by the California Governor), and has chaired the Northern California District Export Council (appointed by the US Secretary of Commerce) and served on the Industry Trade Advisory Committee (appointed by the US Trade Representative). He has been designated an Honorary Senator of the German Economy, an Eisenhower Fellow to China, a Presidential Leadership  Scholar, a Marshall Memorial Fellow to the EU, a Fulbright Scholar to Korea, a Truman National Security Fellow and a Carnegie New Leader. He is a co-founder of the Halifax International Security Forum and serves on the board of directors of the Bay Area Council and the California Business Roundtable. He has served on the advisory group to GlobalSF, the California Economic Strategy Panel, the Finance Council of the California Democratic Party, the Executive Committee for International Law of the State Bar of California and the Council for International Trade of the California Chamber of Commerce. Dean is a graduate of Leadership San Francisco and Harvard Business School’s Executive Leadership Program.

Dean is a member of DLA Piper’s North American Pro Bono Committee.