Partner

Donald D. Archer is a partner of the firm.  Don has a broadly based and sophisticated transactional practice covering a wide range of commercial real estate matters.  He also has considerable experience in handling corporate, intellectual property and commercial transactional matters.  Don is grounded in the business objectives of his clients and enjoys working closely with them to solve problems in a sensible and timely way, and offer general advice on the client’s overall strategic goals.  Prior to joining Drinker in 2009, Don was a partner at DLA Piper and its predecessor firms.

Real Estate
Don has more than 25 years experience in the acquisition and disposition, development, leasing and financing of the full range of commercial projects, including office buildings, multifamily residential developments, all types of retail developments, and industrial properties, throughout California and the Western United States.  His purchase and sale experience spans office, retail, residential, industrial and mixed use properties, with clients ranging from public REITs to regional and local owners and developers.  Don has broad and deep experience with the full range of commercial leasing and property management matters, including retail shopping centers, urban street retail, downtown high-rise and suburban office and mixed use developments, and warehouse and industrial properties.  He also has significant experience in representing both lenders and borrowers in real estate secured finance transactions, including loans secured by multi-state portfolios and construction loans for commercial developments.
View representative real estate experience.

Corporate, Technology and Commercial
Don has experience with a wide range of corporate and commercial matters.  He has considerable experience in mergers, acquisitions and sales of small and medium sized businesses, including acting as regular counsel for companies executing roll-up strategies.  Don has extensive experience with technology, world wide web and publishing matters, including software licensing, product development agreements, and distribution arrangements, and he also has experience in the representation of book, magazine and web publishers and e-tailers.  Don has regularly handled the negotiation of commercial agreements and arrangements, with expertise in employee confidentiality and non-solicitation/non-competition matters.
View detailed description of corporate, technology and commercial practice.

Education 
Don received his J.D. from Yale Law School in 1981, and an A.B. from the University of Chicago in 1977, graduating Phi Beta Kappa and with general and special honors.  Don was a guest Lecturer in Law from 1986 to 1991 at the Boalt Hall School of Law, University of California at Berkeley, leading seminars on contract analysis and writing.  

Civic and Charitable; Personal 
Don has been a member of the Board of Directors of Maybeck High School, in Berkeley, California, where he has taken a leading role in a successful relocation of the school campus in 2009.  Don has offered support and counsel to The Crowden Music Center in Berkeley, including on real estate matters.  He has also served on the Board of Directors of Earth Share of California, an environmental workplace giving organization.  For ten years, Don was a member of the Institutional Review Board of the Northern California Cancer Center, a cancer research and prevention organization.  Don resides with his wife Noreen Axelson in Berkeley California, and they have three daughters, Lucy, Jenna and Amelia.