David Lowe
David joined the Firm in 1996 and brings extensive trial and negotiation experience to every client engagement. Thoughtful reflection and integrity guide his client advocacy: whether helping a sexual harassment survivor share her story in a highly publicized court case or guiding a start-up founder through a confidential private equity buyout.
David represents C-level executives, founders, and partners in a wide range of tech economy and other fields, including life sciences, a.i., finance, and entertainment. He has developed valuable experience negotiating with—and, when necessary, going to trial against—the world’s largest and best- known public and private companies, as well as prominent private equity and venture capital firms. He also passionately represents employees, including low wage workers, who have been discriminated or retaliated against, harassed, wrongfully terminated, or denied fair pay for their work. In addition to representing clients, David serves as a neutral mediator, with a highly successful record
of assisting parties to resolve their disputes.
David has been honored as California Lawyer “Attorney of the Year” for his
“extraordinary achievement” in employment law and has been voted by his peers as one of the “Top 100” lawyers in Northern California every year since 2013, as a Northern California “SuperLawyer” since 2007, and as the San Francisco “Lawyer of the Year” for Employment Law or Employment Litigation for three years in a row.
David is also dedicated to working in the public interest and has served on the boards of numerous non-profit and legal organizations, including as Chair of the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights in the Bay Area.
CASES AND REPRESENTATIVE CLIENTS
COMMUNITY AND PROFESSIONAL INVOLVEMENT
HONORS AND AWARDS
EDUCATION
ARTICLES, PUBLICATIONS, AND PRESENTATIONS
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Clients and Companies: High profile senior executives, partners, founders,
scientists, engineers, and principals at numerous tech, finance,
entertainment, and other firms focused on social media, a.i., surgical
robotics, fintech, autonomous vehicles, energy, healthcare, chip
fabrication, private equity, etc.
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Litigation: Lead trial counsel in numerous jury trials, court trials, and
arbitrations, recovering millions of dollars in verdicts and awards in
wrongful termination, discrimination, retaliation, and defamation cases, as
well as significant compensation disputes involving unpaid bonuses,
commissions, and equity. Examples include $4 million recovered after jury
trial in a whistleblower retaliation and defamation case; $3.5 million
recovered after jury trial in a disability discrimination case; $105 million
awarded by court after two-month trial in a wage and hour class action
(reversed on appeal); over $1 million recovered after arbitration of
commission dispute.
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Negotiation: Negotiated $11 million separation payment for female tech
executive in gender discrimination case; $5 million bonus payment to
founder of life sciences company in breach of contract case; $2 million
settlement for whistleblower at medical device company; multi-million
dollar cash and equity settlement in sexual harassment case against
social media start-up; equity vesting for founder of biotech firm; etc.
Counseling: Advised high profile executives caught in the middle of highly
publicized trade secret litigation between two tech companies; co-
founders negotiating an exit following acquisition; public company CEO
separation; top-ranked equity analyst transitioning between investment
firms; VC partner exiting firm; etc.