About

Michael Zuckert joined Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) in 2014 as general counsel after stints at Citibank, Morgan Stanley, The Street, and in private practice at Willkie Farr & Gallagher. Highlights of Zuckert’s impressive career include becoming general counsel of The Street and participating with the senior management team to take the company public in 1999, which he identifies as being the foundation of his interest in the tech economy. Another highlight was becoming general counsel of SVB in 2014 giving him the chance to work with a very experienced management team and talented inside lawyers. He has also been able to join the boards of the Silicon Valley Law Foundation and Global Entrepreneur-in-Residence Program and the advisory board of Tech:NYC. Zuckert highlights that during his time as general counsel at SVB he has been ‘working to build a best-in-class legal department by attracting and retaining strong lawyers. This has led to lawyers increasingly becoming trusted partners of our business leaders. In particular, I have recently focused on becoming a high performance team’. Following the financial crisis, the Dodd Frank Act restricted banks from investing in venture capital (VC) funds. Prior to Dodd Frank, SVB invested in a large number of VC funds as part of its business model. When Zuckert arrived in 2014, he explains that one of his key tasks was to seek relief from the Federal Reserve to allow SVB to continue to hold its legacy fund investments for a wind-down period. The Federal Reserve recently granted SVB this five-year extension period which allowed it to avoid very disruptive fund sales.