Dave's regular clients include international newswire services, national and local newspapers, television networks and station owners, magazine and book publishers, cable news networks, and Internet content providers.

He is described by Chambers USA as an “incredibly skilled” litigation strategist and a “walking encyclopedia” of media law, and by Best Lawyers as “smart, capable, experienced, careful, creative, and wise.” The Legal 500 reports that Dave is “widely praised as a recognized expert on freedom of information and access to the courts.”

Dave began his legal career in New York at Rogers & Wells, which later merged with London-based Clifford Chance, and served as head of the media litigation group at that firm before joining LSKS in 2003.

Notable Representations

Military Commission Press Access. When four reporters were expelled from the Military Commissions at Guantanamo, Dave convinced the Pentagon that the expulsions violated the reporters' First Amendment right to attend criminal trials. He then represented a broad coalition of national news organizations to challenge the media ground rules under which the reporters had been expelled. His petition led the Defense Department to rewrite the ground rules that restricted reporters covering the Guantanamo Commissions.

United Federation of Teachers v. Board of Education of the City of New York, 919 N.Y.S.2d 786 (N.Y. Sup. Ct. 2011). On behalf of Dow Jones, The New York Times, New York Daily News, New York Post and cable news network NY1, Dave defeated a suit by the teachers' union seeking to block the Board of Education from disclosing reports on teachers' job performance. Dave convinced the court that public employees have no significant privacy interest in the performance of their public functions, and that release of the reports was crucial to local control of public schools.

Guantanamo Bay Detainee Litigation, 624 F. Supp. 2d 27 (D.D.C. 2009). Dave and Jeanette Bead represented several news organizations in a successful challenge to the U.S. government's effort to keep secret the factual record in every habeas corpus proceeding brought by a Guantanamo Bay detainee. The court held that the public has a First Amendment right to access the records.

Four Navy SEALs v. Associated Press, 413 F. Supp. 2d 1136 (S.D. Cal. 2005). Dave won dismissal of invasion of privacy and copyright infringement claims against The Associated Press arising from the publication of photographs depicting Navy SEALs detaining Iraqi prisoners.