Mark D. Bradford
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Mark D. Bradford

Attorney

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Practice Areas

Admissions

  • State Bar of California

Mark D. Bradford is a Partner at VLP. He specializes in executive compensation, equity compensation, and employee benefits for clients ranging from start-ups to emerging growth public companies. He also represents individual executives, ranging from Fortune 500 C-suite members to start-up founders, in negotiating employment, termination, and severance arrangements. In addition, he represents individuals and management teams in significant M&A transactions.

Mark has over 20 years of experience as an executive compensation and employee benefits attorney. In over 200 cross-border and domestic M&A deals, he has represented buyers and sellers, with transactions ranging in size from a $1 million acquihire to a $7 billion sale of a major client. In connection with these transactions, Mark has negotiated and drafted deal-related agreements, including employment, incentive, retention, severance and non-competition, and worked on post-closing integration matters. He has also worked with more than 35 companies on compensation matters arising out of their initial public offerings.

Mark has drafted hundreds of executive employment, equity and cash incentive, change in control, retention, severance plans, and non-competition and non-solicitation arrangements for emerging growth companies backed by both venture capital and private equity investors. He brings a wealth of experience and perspective regarding the culture and business needs of Silicon Valley companies when providing counsel to in-house legal, human resource, finance, tax, and stock administration professionals.

Prior to joining VLP, Mark was a senior associate with Gunderson Dettmer LLP’s Executive Compensation Group. Prior to Gunderson, he was an associate with Cooley LLP’s Compensation & Benefits Group. Mark began his career in the area of executive compensation and employee benefits at Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison LLP where he was an associate in the Executive Compensation, Employee Benefits and Taxation Group.

Mark received a law degree and a master’s in taxation from Boston University School of Law.  He received a bachelor’s degree in both Economics and Political Economy of Industrialized Societies from the University of California at Berkeley. 

Practice Areas

Admissions

  • State Bar of California

I enjoy cycling. In the summer of 2022, my son and I participated in RAGBRAI XLIX (The Des Moines Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa), a 7-day, 450-mile cycling event across Iowa. This picture was taken at the end of the journey, when I reached the Mississippi River on the eastern edge of Iowa. 

Education

  • LL.M., Boston University School of Law, Graduate Tax Program, 1995
  • J.D., Boston University School of Law, 1994
  • B.A., Economics and Political Economy of Industrial Societies, University of California at Berkeley, 1990
  • VLP Partner Mark Bradford Authors “Incentivizing the Executive Team Before an IPO or Sale,” for The Entrepreneur’s Roadmap, a Publication of the New York Stock Exchange (June 2017)
  • VLP Partner Mark Bradford Quoted in American Banker Article “How Wells Fargo Could Overcome a Shareholder Revolt” (April 17, 2017)
  • VLP Partner Mark Bradford Quoted in Inside Counsel Article “Will President Trump Amend Dodd-Frank?” (Jan 24, 2017)
  • VLP Partner Mark Bradford Quoted in Inside Counsel Article “How 5,000 Wells Fargo Employees Got Away With Opening Over 2M Accounts” (Oct 21, 2016)
  • VLP Partner Mark Bradford Authors Law360 Article “Where Were Wells Fargo’s Senior Management and Board of Directors?” (Oct 16, 2016)
  • VLP Partner Mark Bradford Quoted in The Washington Post Article “The Unusual Change Wells Fargo Made to its Board as it Tries to Move Beyond the Fake Accounts Scandal” (Oct 13, 2016)