Overview

Dave represents a diverse and wide-ranging group of clients in both civil and criminal matters. He has appeared as counsel in both state and federal trials, including a four-week federal jury trial. He earned his J.D. from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, where he served as Executive Editor of the law review, President of the Pitt Law chapter of the American Constitution Society, and Managing Editor of JURIST, the world’s only law school-based, real-time, comprehensive online legal news service. During law school, he argued in the championship round of the BMI Entertainment and Communications Law Moot Court Competition, a national contest held annually at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University. Prior to becoming an attorney, Dave formed and managed his own film company and worked as an instructional assistant and in-home therapist with children with special needs.

Representative Experience

  • William Penn School District v. Pennsylvania Department of Education, et al., Co-trial counsel for the Speaker of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives in a four-month trial defending a constitutional challenge to the Commonwealth’s system for funding public education.
  • Co-representation of Hassan Nemazee, one of the first prisoners released to home confinement pursuant to the Elderly Offender Early Release Program under the First Step Act of 2018.
  • Co-representation of Chi Fai Wong, one of the first terminally ill prisoners released under the compassionate release provisions of the First Step Act of 2018.
  • Co-counsel for a private college that successfully defended a preliminary injunction that sought to compel the college to enroll an unvaccinated student who objected to receiving the COVID-19 vaccine on religious grounds.
  • Won a verdict for the full amount alleged on behalf of a credit union in a one-day bench trial in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas.
  • Second-chair trial counsel in a four-week federal criminal trial involving allegations of a $27M biodiesel fraud scheme.
  • Represented numerous individual government employees in a state-wide grand jury investigation.
  • Co-counsel for a medical practice in numerous cases involving removing a former partner from the practice and preventing the former partner from utilizing the practice’s trade secrets in soliciting patients to his new practice.
  • Served as part of a team that obtained a well-below guidelines sentence in a million-dollar bankruptcy fraud prosecution where the client was released after just 3 months imprisonment.
  • Conducted an internal investigation for a university regarding brutality allegations against a campuspolice 
  • Co-counsel for a FinTech company in an alleged multi-million dollar licensing dispute.

Professional & Community Activities

  • Board of Directors, PLEA School, September 2016 – August 2018.

Speeches & Presentations

Professional Recognition

  • Selected to The Best Lawyers in America: Ones to Watch, 2020-Present
  • Pennsylvania Super Lawyers Rising Star, 2024
  • Pittsburgh Intellectual Property Association: 2018 Student Leadership Award.
  • Sutin Prize for Outstanding Service to JURIST.

Further information on methodologies is available via these links.

Representative Experience

  • William Penn School District v. Pennsylvania Department of Education, et al., Co-trial counsel for the Speaker of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives in a four-month trial defending a constitutional challenge to the Commonwealth’s system for funding public education.
  • Co-representation of Hassan Nemazee, one of the first prisoners released to home confinement pursuant to the Elderly Offender Early Release Program under the First Step Act of 2018.
  • Co-representation of Chi Fai Wong, one of the first terminally ill prisoners released under the compassionate release provisions of the First Step Act of 2018.
  • Co-counsel for a private college that successfully defended a preliminary injunction that sought to compel the college to enroll an unvaccinated student who objected to receiving the COVID-19 vaccine on religious grounds.
  • Won a verdict for the full amount alleged on behalf of a credit union in a one-day bench trial in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas.
  • Second-chair trial counsel in a four-week federal criminal trial involving allegations of a $27M biodiesel fraud scheme.
  • Represented numerous individual government employees in a state-wide grand jury investigation.
  • Co-counsel for a medical practice in numerous cases involving removing a former partner from the practice and preventing the former partner from utilizing the practice’s trade secrets in soliciting patients to his new practice.
  • Served as part of a team that obtained a well-below guidelines sentence in a million-dollar bankruptcy fraud prosecution where the client was released after just 3 months imprisonment.
  • Conducted an internal investigation for a university regarding brutality allegations against a campuspolice 
  • Co-counsel for a FinTech company in an alleged multi-million dollar licensing dispute.

Insights