Daniel K. Khalessi

DANIEL KHALESSI focuses his practice on providing strategic business and legal advice to founders, startups, and venture capital investors. He also complements his legal practice with subject matter knowledge in U.S. defense policy and national security.

Daniel has represented the following companies:

• a16z, including Speedrun
• Canva
• Lightspeed
• NVIDIA

Daniel earned his J.D. from Stanford Law School, where he served as the president (editor-in-chief) of the Stanford Law Review. He also served as a W.A. Franke Fellow in Global Business Law and a teaching assistant in Constitutional Law.

Prior to law school, Daniel worked full time at Harvard’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, where he served as the head research associate to Graham Allison, former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Defense and the founding dean of the Harvard Kennedy School. At Belfer, Daniel managed Dr. Allison’s nine-person research staff and focused on U.S. foreign policy toward China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran.

Daniel’s previous experiences include founding a technology startup and working for Ambassador Susan Rice at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations and the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Middle East North Africa Office. He has also conducted research on national security with former U.S. Secretary of Defense William J. Perry and former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.