Some notable cases

• State of Connecticut v. Bobby Seale. Defense of Black Panther Party Chairman in murder trial.

• Sable v. SNETCO. First Connecticut personal injury verdict in excess of ten million dollars.

• Association Against Discrimination v. City of Bridgeport 647 F.2d 256 (2d Cir. 1981). Class action racially integrating municipal fire department.

• Brass Keys v. State of Connecticut. Class action racially integrating employment in the Connecticut Department of Corrections.

• Peddle v. Sawyer. Class action opposing sex harassment and discrimination in the Connecticut Department of Corrections.

• Concerned Citizens of Belle Haven v. The Belle Haven Club (2005). Suit by members of property owners’ association forcing the association’s club to admit Jewish residents.

• Novak v. Global Tourism Alliance. Case against American agency for failure to prevent injury to volunteer worker in the Republic of Mali.

• Nolan Hoeksema v. Maquet cardiopulmonary, A.G. Wrongful death case against German manufacturer of medical device.

• Roe v. Norton 422 U.S. 391 (1975). Briefed and argued in United States Supreme Court as court-appointed counsel on behalf of children of mothers on welfare.

• Ansonia Board of Education v. Philbrook, 479 U.S. 60 (1986). Briefed and argued in United States Supreme Court on behalf of schoolteacher’s free exercise of religion.

• Rumsfeld v. Padilla, 542 U. S. 426 (2004), amicus curiae brief on behalf of comparative law scholars in case challenging President’s detention of alleged enemy combatant.

• Noble v. Northland. Class action against landlord concerning conditions in Section 8 housing project resulting in largest class with unanimous class participation in settlement.

Public Service

David served for many years on the Boards of the New Haven Legal Assistance Association and the Joseph Slifka Center for Jewish Life at Yale. He was an original Incorporator of the Natural Resources Defense Council, and the founding Board President of the Connecticut Veterans Legal Center and Equally American, advocating for the rights of citizens in the U.S. Territories.

Before entering private practice David was a staff attorney and Reginald Heber Smith Fellow at the New Haven Legal Assistance Association.

Mentoring students and new lawyers

For more than forty years, David has worked closely with students, typically from Yale Law School, and new lawyers, who have worked as Thomas Emerson Fellows, a fellowship our office established for new lawyers interested in learning about and doing law in the public interest. These young lawyers and lawyers-to-be have gone on to be lawyers, judges, and law teachers of distinction, several as professors at leading law schools; judges of trial and appellate courts; MacArthur award winners; public defenders; and other lawyers championing the rights of underdogs. David and the Thomas Emerson Fellowship program were the recipient of the Pro Bono Award conferred annually by the judges of the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut.