David L. Wallace

Partner

Practice Description

Representative Matters

• City of St. Louis v. The American Tobacco Co., No. CV982-09652 (St. Louis, Missouri). In April 2011, he won a defense verdict for British American Tobacco (Investments) Ltd. after a four-month jury trial of a multi-billion dollar healthcare cost recoupment action.
• United States v. Philip Morris USA, Inc., No. 99-2496 (Washington, D.C.). In March 2011, after more than a decade of litigation involving a nine-month-long bench trial and multiple appeals, he delivered a major victory for BATCo in this landmark $280 billion civil fraud action brought by the U.S. government under the federal RICO statute. On remand, after losses at the trial and appellate levels, he secured a favorable result for his client on a motion for reconsideration, arguing that an intervening decision by the U.S. Supreme Court on extraterritoriality (see Morrison), had invalidated the sole legal basis for BATCo's liability.
• Rosen v. B&W Holdings, Inc., No. 018589/97 (Mineola, New York). In June 2005, he argued and won directed verdict on plaintiffs' failure to warn and design defect claims leading to the collapse of plaintiffs' case. His "searing cross-examination" of plaintiffs' treating psychiatrist made headlines. See R. Topping, "Psychiatrist Testifies in Habitual Smoker's Case," Newsday (June 16, 2005).
• DuJack v. Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp., No. 07-99-728255 (Rockville, Connecticut). In November 2001, in the first trial of its kind in a Connecticut state court, he won directed verdict on plaintiffs' design defect claims, producing a defense verdict later profiled in The National Law Journal (Jan. 7, 2002).
• Dean v. Gallaher Ltd. (Belfast, Northern Ireland). In October 1996, in the Queen's Bench Division of the High Court of Justice in Northern Ireland, he teamed with Belfast solicitors and Queen's Counsel (now Mr. Justice) John Gillen to win the first tobacco case ever heard in the United Kingdom. With trial limited to the preliminary issue of whether Mr. Dean had a rare disease known as thromboangiitis obliterans (Buerger's disease), plaintiff dramatically abandoned his claims during the cross-examination of his vascular surgeon.
• Allgood v. R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. (Houston, Texas). This case, which was filed in the Southern District of Texas, is an example of the many products liability claims he has defeated on motions for summary judgment in both federal and state courts. See 80 F.3d 168 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 117 S.Ct. 599 (1996); see also Johnson v. Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp., 345 F.Supp.2d 16 (D. Mass. 2004); Chustz v. The American Tobacco Co., 961 F. Supp. 143 (D. La. 1996), aff'd 72 Fed. Appx. (5th Cir. 2003). 
• Civil-Law System Experience. In the late 1990s, he coordinated the successful defense of several hundred products liability cases, both individual and representative actions, against the holdings of an English company in courts across Central and South America.

Honors

Mr. Wallace's courtroom experience has earned him recognition as a "high caliber" lawyer with "a likeability factor that is invaluable in front of a jury" (The Legal 500 US, 2007-2012), and a "litigation star" (Benchmark Litigation, 2009-2011). He is included in the International Bar Association's Who's Who Legal (2011), and the ranks of New York Super Lawyers (2006-2011).

In April 2009, Nanotechnology Law & Business named Mr. Wallace to its "Top Ten" list of experts on "environmental, health and safety issues related to engineered nanomaterials" who are expected "to play leading roles in nanotechnology law and business." See 6 Nanotechnology Law & Business 133 (Spring 2009).

The Australian Financial Review reported that Mr. Wallace’s pre-trial cross-examination of the key witness against his client in a civil RICO case—an affiliate’s former general counsel turned whistleblower—caused the witness’s Australian barrister “extreme[ ] disappoint[ment]” and the witness to “storm out of the examination.” Some of the novel, multi-jurisdictional discovery disputes he litigated in the course of this RICO case were covered by The National Law Journal.

Activities and Affiliations

• Member, International Association of Defense Counsel (IADC)
• Member, Defense Research Institute (DRI) 
• Board of Editors, Product Liability Law & Strategy (ALM Publication)
• Advisory Board, The Nanoethics Group (Cal. Polytechnic State Univ.)
• Advisory Board, Nanotechnology Law & Business
• Past Member, Product Liability Committee, International Institute for Conflict Prevention and Resolution

Publications

Mr. Wallace writes frequently on various products liability and other legal topics. He is also the editor of In re Products Liability, a Chadbourne newsletter dealing with noteworthy trends and developments in the products liability field.