An accomplished first chair trial attorney, David has an outstanding record of success defending both complex tort and commercial matters in some of the most difficult venues in the nation. Focusing his practice in the areas of product liability, transportation, professional liability, and insurance defense. David has experience defending companies in a variety of actions including: product defect claims, chemical exposure, contractual disputes, professional liability, director and officer liability, and transactional liability. In addition to his primary defense work, David also represents and advises insurance companies serving as an expert witness in an international arbitration, providing testimony on the interpretation of U.S. law as it relates to insurance coverage, reinsurance, and bad faith claims.

David advises clients on risk management solutions, claims analysis and prevention, and conducts pre-litigation assessments and claim due diligence. He has served as coordinating counsel and routinely serves as monitoring counsel for on-going litigation. In these roles, David has formulated and implemented the pre-trial, discovery, trial and/or end-game strategy with his clients along with ensuring the trial record and appellate records are protected. David’s ability to offer case specific insight to in-house counsel, while maintaining an overall general litigation strategy, affords his clients the benefit of both short and long-term perspectives on mitigating risk, finding creative solutions, and trial preparation.

Routinely appearing in the state and federal courts of West Virginia, Kentucky, and Ohio, David has successfully represented companies facing personal injury, wrongful death, and property damage claims arising out of claimed product defects, fires, explosions, train derailments, environmental clean-up (CERCLA), trucking and aviation accidents, and other crises. He also represents medical professionals, brokers, agents, corporate officers and boards of directors, architects, and other professionals as to claims of malpractice, negligence, breach of contract, and other professional liability claims.

He participates in a variety of civic and community groups and currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Ashland Child Development Center located in Ashland, Kentucky, coaches middle school girls' basketball, and is a member of Kentucky’s Board of Zoning Adjustment, in the city of Ashland.

Bar Admissions

West Virginia

Kentucky

U.S. Supreme Court

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit

U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia

U.S. District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia

U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky

U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky

Education

• University of Kentucky College of Law (J.D., 2001)
• University of Kentucky (B.A., 1998)
  • History and Political Science

• Chambers USA^®: America's Leading Lawyers for Business, Litigation
• Best Lawyers^® 
  • "Lawyer of the Year" in Charleston for Railroad Law (2022) 
  • Railroad Law (2021-2024)
• West Virginia Super Lawyers^® 
• West Virginia Rising Stars^®

• West Virginia Bar Association
• Kentucky Bar Association
• Cabell County Bar Association
• Defense Trial Counsel of West Virginia
• Defense Research Institute
  • Insurance Practice Group
  • Product Liability Group
• National Association of Railroad Trial Counsel
• Kentucky Defense Counsel