David Rivé-Power

David is a member of the Government Affairs Team and the Litigation Department.  He joined O’Neill & Borges LLC in 1993. David provides legal advice and assists clients engaged in the complex route of managing government and regulatory affairs as well as public policy proposals and decisions that affect each client’s respective industry or business.  These clients include Puerto Rico and individuals and US-based corporations (i.e., many of them multinational companies) from a diversity of industries such as retail, pharmaceutical, health, sports, energy, transportation, banking, aviation, tourism and construction among others. His practice encompasses a diverse number of areas including legislative regulatory, permitting, administrative proceedings and government affairs in general.  In addition to his vast experience in the government and regulatory affairs area, David has assisted clients in multiple litigation matters, including construction, insurance and commercial-related cases in both local and federal (U.S. District) courts.  David’s legal background is complemented by his ample background experience in the public sector, the political strategy consulting arena as well as in the world of college and universities governing boards.

In the public sector arena, David left O’Neill & Borges in 1998 to become Executive Assistant to the then Mayor of San Juan, Sila M. Calderón.  At the Municipality of San Juan, he assisted the mayor in the supervision multiple areas such as its hospital and health clinics system, the public works department, municipal sports-related and recreational properties, and waste-disposal facilities, among other critical infrastructure areas pertaining to Puerto Rico’s largest city.

As a political consultant and strategist, in early 2000, David was appointed Campaign Director for Sila M. Calderón successful bid to become Governor of Puerto Rico in the General Elections. As Ms. Calderón’s Campaign Director, David handled, supervised and directed multiple key administrative and political areas of the Governor’s political campaign organization, including participating in key strategy decisions, communication efforts, and grassroots coordination activities with dozens of political candidates and leaders (including mayors and legislators) throughout the Island.

In addition to his duties as a member of O’Neill & Borges LLC, David has become immersed in the world of higher education, having served as a Trustee for Ana G. Méndez University (UAGM), Puerto Rico’s third largest higher education system, where he actively participated in various board committees, including the audit and finance committees until 2010. Subsequently, in 2014, David joined the Board of Trustees of the Universidad Central Del Caribe (UCC) in Bayamón, one of Puerto Rico’s premier health sciences universities, where he currently heads the Board of Trustees as Chairman, overseeing UCC’s multiple programs including its chiropractic and medical schools.

David’s experience in the nonprofit sector and his interest in helping underprivilege sectors of the community with opportunities in recreation and education goes beyond the higher education field. He is currently a member of the Board of Directors of the YMCA of San Juan where he serves in the Economic Development Committee and a board member of the Fundación Rafael Hernández Colón, located in Ponce, Puerto Rico.

More recently, and as part of his background experience with colleges and universities and his interest in assisting the younger generations of Puerto Ricans and Latino athletes, David has expanded his legal practice and provides legal and compliance-related advice to student athletes in the “right to publicity” or “Name, Image and Likeness” (NIL) field, an evolving practice area stemming from the 2021 groundbreaking U.S. Supreme Court decision of O’Bannon v. NCAA, granting student athletes the right to be compensated from their personal brands and endorsements while participating in college sports.  David is also one of judges of the Sports Arbitration and Appeals Court (“Tribunal Apelativo y de Arbitraje Deportivo”) ascribed to the Puerto Rico Olympic Committee.