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

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COMMUNITY AND PROFESSIONAL INVOLVEMENT
 

HONORS AND AWARDS
 

EDUCATION
 

ARTICLES, PUBLICATIONS, AND PRESENTATIONS

 

• 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.

 

• 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.
 

• 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.