David is an attorney with the Product Litigation (PLI) Practice Group of the General Motors Corporation Legal Staff. Previously, David was an attorney with the Corporate Law & Transactions Practice Group at GM where he served for three years as the Business Unit Counsel to GM’s Worldwide Facilities Group (a subsidiary corporate entity with approximately 14,000 employees and an annual budget of more than $4 Billion dollars) and he was General Counsel of GM’s Motor Enterprises, Inc. lending subsidiary (a corporate entity that makes loans to GM’s minority supplier base). In both assignments, David worked closely with senior executives on implementing strategy and policy, and David also provided timely legal advice. Prior to his transition to the PLI Practice Group in November 2004, David completed a three-month assignment in Germany with the Legal Staff of GM’s German unit, Opel, and assisted them with an ongoing corporate restructuring and labor reduction initiative. David joined GM in 1998 after practicing bankruptcy law at a major law firm in Detroit for several years.
Currently, he is responsible for all litigation nationally involving GM-owned vehicles and all property damage claims against GM. In this regard, David coordinates with outside counsel and with various GM business units to timely resolve personal injury and property litigation involving the Corporation. David is also responsible for “geographic” cases for product litigation matters that are located within approximately sixteen states but do not fit into a particular component specialty or claim. Additionally, David serves as a member of the GM seat component team that coordinate litigation involving specific product allegations regarding GM seats and related components.
Since he was a very young, David has wanted to become a lawyer and continue his family’s long tradition of legal service. David is a 1993 graduate of the University of Pennsylvania with a BA in Economics and Political Science. In 1996, he became the fourth generation of his family to receive a JD from the University of Michigan Law School. While at Michigan, he was a member of the Law Review, vice-president of the Black Law Students Association and also assistant coached a local junior football team.
He is a member of Michigan Bar Association, the Wolverine Bar Association, and a life member of the National Bar Association. Previously the Secretary and President-elect for Detroit’s National Bar Association (NBA) affiliate, the Wolverine Bar Association, David serves as President and is also Co-Chair of the Finance Committee and the Scholarship Committee. Additionally, David is the Vice Chair of the NBA’s Commercial Law Section, Director of Region VI for the NBA, and serves as a chair of the NBA’s Audit Committee. Earlier, David finished a year of service as Chief of Staff to the NBA’s 63rd President Reginald M. Turner, Jr. for the 2005-06 Bar Year, where he was responsible for helping coordinate the NBA’s public polices and programs, draft congressional testimony (including the written testimony for President Turner’s two televised appearances before the United States Senate Judiciary Committee regarding the two most recent Supreme Court nominations), speeches and position papers, and serve as a liaison between the various NBA committees and sections and the NBA leadership. David also is a former member of the Detroit Metropolitan Bar Association’s Barristers (Young Lawyers) Board of Directors, having served on that Board for more than six years.
David is formerly a member of the Board of Directors for the University of Pennsylvania Alumni Chapter of SE Michigan, for which he continues to provide legal advice and guidance. He is a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. He has won several awards during his legal career, including the NBA Commercial Law Section’s Corporate Award (2002), the Detroit Metropolitan Bar Association’s Distinguished Service Award (2003), the Wolverine Bar Association’s Margrette A. Taylor Distinguished Young Lawyer Award (2004), the Detroit Metropolitan Bar Association’s Barrister of the Year Award (2004), and an NBA Presidential Award (2006). Most recently, David received (as an integral member of a global team) one of GM’s highest honors, the Chairman’s Honors Award, in 2006 for the final financial realization of his efforts on a workforce and supplier reorganization project in Europe.
When he has “free” time, David enjoys gourmet cooking for family and friends, a good cigar, a nice merlot or cabernet, and figuring out how to retire early to an island by investing in the stock market.
