Author, Speaker, Lawyer, and Teacher
David Tollen is a best-selling, award-winning author. He writes both novels and books on technology law. He is also an attorney, expert witness, professional trainer, and instructor at U.C. Berkeley Law School. David has succeeded in multiple roles by turning complex ideas into simple, clear, fun stories, how-to guides, and presentations.
David’s two award-winning novels use fantasy to teach history to young people. He’s now working on a third novel, this time for the general fantasy market. In this new work and nearly all his fiction, David draws on the past to build colorful worlds. (See below for David’s fiction.)
David is an amateur historian, and he writes the blog Pints of History. He’s also a member of the Board of Advisors for World History Encyclopedia, which publishes the world’s most read history encyclopedia.
In his business and legal work, David teaches technology contracts, both through his training company and at UC Berkeley. He also practices law, drafting and negotiating tech contracts, and he serves as an expert witness. David is the author of the American Bar Association’s bestselling manual on IT contracts. (See below for David’s legal writing and work.)
David earned a B.A. in history from U.C. Berkeley and has law degrees from Harvard Law School and Cambridge University. He lives in Northern California with his wife and two sons.
FICTION
The Jericho River uses a fantasy adventure story to teach world history to young adults. It earned first place wins at the Next Generation Indie Book Awards and the London Book Festival, along with a bronze medal in the Readers’ Favorite Book Reviews and Awards Contest, among other honors. David’s second novel, Secrets of Hominea, teaches middle-grade readers history and natural history, and it’s another award-winner.
David recently completed a draft of his third novel, A Lawyer for Dukes and Drifters – this time for the general (adult) fantasy market, though still shaped by history. Please watch this space for news about the new book.
Technology Law
Books & more
For more than a decade, The Tech Contracts Handbook has ranked first among American Bar Association’s bestsellers on Amazon – and it’s one of ABA’s top three bestsellers overall. The Handbook has readers all over the world, including in East Asia, where it’s been published in Mandarin.
Related to the book, David teaches lawyers and businesspeople to draft and negotiate AI contracts, cloud computing agreements, and software licenses. He provides that training through Tech Contracts Academy, LLC which he founded. And he teaches the same subject to law students at UC Berkeley. David also drafts and negotiates IT contracts and provides expert witness services through his law firm, Sycamore Legal, P.C.
books
The Tech Contracts Handbook
is a reference manual and training guide on agreements about artificial intelligence, cloud computing, licensed software, and other forms of IT. Written in a clear, plain-English style, this bestseller provides a complete resource for lawyers, contract managers, procurement officers, and other businesspeople: for anyone who gets IT deals done.
One of the top three bestsellers from ABA Publishing for more than ten years.
The Jericho River
is a trek through a magical world shaped by myth & history. Young Jason Gallo sails the river on a dangerous quest to rescue his estranged father. The water flows like a timeline, carrying Jason through historic lands – Sumer, Babylonia, ancient Greece, Medieval Europe, the colonial empires, and many others – in chronological order, tracing the history of Western Civilization, from its Middle Eastern roots to modern times.
Multiple award-winner, including at the Readers’ Favorite Book Reviews & Awards and the Next Generation Indie Book Awards.
Secrets of Hominea
educates and entertains middle school readers and 4th and 5th -graders. Alison Pulido gets more than she bargained for when she cuts middle school. She follows a strange little man into another world and finds herself caught up in the battle between truth and ignorance.
Distinguished Favorite: Independent Press Award.
Speaking
David speaks regularly about AI, SaaS and other cloud computing contracts, software licenses, and other IT topics. Those talks include appearances at conferences and law schools. And of course, David provides professional training.
David also speaks about history, including its magic and its power to guide us today.
Interested in booking David to speak at your next event?
