David D. Burnett is Senior Counsel at Schneider Wallace Cottrell Kim LLP in Washington, D.C.  He brings 18 years of experience representing plaintiffs— large corporations, local and state governments, pension funds, and individuals—in complex commercial litigation, securities litigation, product liability mass torts, employment litigation, and environmental cases.  

At Schneider Wallace, David represents Aetna in antitrust pharma litigation against two dozen generic drug manufacturers.  He recently wrote Aetna’s opposition to defendants’ motions to dismiss and argued the motion for two hours before Connecticut Superior Court Judge John B. Farley.  He represents the chapter 7 trustee in In re Meta Materials, a bankruptcy pending in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, District of Nevada, where he is leading negotiations and briefing involving subpoenas.  He leads work for a putative class of Los Angeles residents affected by the Eaton wildfire, where the firm has been appointed as co-Interim Class Counsel.  He also works with leadership in the Social Media JCCP pending in California state court, a mass tort alleging negligence by social media companies, where he recently opposed defendants’ motion to exclude a key expert. 

David began his career at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, LLP in New York, where he spent a decade representing insurance companies and hedge funds in claims against Wall Street banks arising from losses on mortgage-backed securities following the 2007 financial crisis.  David also worked at Burford Capital, a leading litigation funder, evaluating dozens of investments tied to lawsuits and advising the Investment Committee.  He most recently worked at Motley Rice LLC and DiCello Levitt LLP, both national plaintiffs firms, the latter as a partner.  He represented local governments in litigation against social media companies, alleging that their products are addictive and create a public nuisance; represented investors in securities class actions against Amazon, NYSE, and others; and represented a New Jersey state agency in Superfund litigation.   

David was recognized among the 2024 Lawdragon 500 Leading Plaintiff Financial Lawyers. His work frequently involves securities claims, financial analysis, and data-intensive issues.  For example, he published a Law360 article entitled “The Importance of Data and Data Analysis in Litigation,” which he also presented as a D.C. Bar continuing legal education course.

Over his career, David has taken and defended 50 fact and expert depositions, most as first chair, and he second-chaired four experts at a bellwether mass torts trial.  He has written dozens of winning briefs in federal and state courts.  For example, he helped defeat dozens of motions to dismiss filed by Wall Street banks in securities fraud cases; defeated motions to dismiss in litigation against social media companies arising from the Buffalo mass shooting; and obtained final settlement approval in a class action. He also represented victims of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and represented a refugee in obtaining asylum and work authorization.   

While in law school at the University of Virginia, David worked as a teaching assistant in Legal Research and Writing, authored journal articles on legal history and public policy, edited professors’ articles for the Journal of Law and Politics, and summered at Milbank LLP and a plaintiffs firm in Washington, D.C.  He also worked as a teaching assistant in writing during graduate school at the University of Texas at Austin.   

David serves as the President of the Abenaki Tower and Trail Association, a century-old conservation organization in New Hampshire.  He has served for a decade on the Board of Advisors of the Appalachian Mountain Club, the nation’s oldest conservation non-profit.  Prior to attending law school, David worked with at-risk youth for Outward Bound, worked in an off-the-grid hut on the Appalachian Trail, interned at the National Museum of American History and the Wilderness Society, and bicycled across the country for charity.  He lives in Old Town Alexandria, Virginia with his wife Taylor and Birdie the dog.