Dave Walton is an experienced litigator with a detailed, hands-on understanding of technology and e-discovery issues. He is vice chair of Cozen O’Connor’s Labor & Employment Department, managing director of the firm’s Electronic Discovery Practice and Advisory Services (ePAS), and co-chair of the firm’s E-Discovery Task Force. Dave brings a unique combination of skills to his practice – in addition to substantial trial experience, he offers a demonstrated understanding of technology and its impact on litigation outcomes.
Dave represents a broad range of clients from large multinational corporations to small companies, serving employers in all types of employment law, ranging from proactive counseling to litigation, including preparation of policies and procedures, hiring and termination, employment discrimination, employment contract disputes, restrictive covenants, and trade secrets. He has assisted employers facing challenges posed by the information-age technology, and has provided representation in negotiations and arbitrations for his unionized clients. He has lectured to attorneys and human resource professionals on wide-ranging issues in employment law, providing clients with the tools necessary to effectively manage their workforce.
Dave has extensive first-chair trial experience in representing both plaintiffs and defendants in large cases involving restrictive covenants, trade secrets, unfair competition and duty of loyalty claims. In these cases, he has developed his skills in using computer forensics to catch employees who try to take confidential information and trade secrets. Dave has also successfully defended numerous clients who were wrongfully accused of taking such information or were alleged to have done something when hiring an employee from a competitor.
As an industry leader in restrictive covenant and trade secret litigation, Dave has significant experience litigating restrictive covenant cases and has obtained temporary restraining orders and preliminary injunctions for employers enforcing employment agreements. In addition, Dave has won numerous motions for summary judgment in federal and state courts in cases involving more traditional claims of employment discrimination and ERISA violations. He also has substantial experience securing injunctions against labor unions for improper picketing.
Dave is an active member of The Sedona Conference, most recently speaking at its national conference, and is a contributing member of The Sedona Conference's drafting team on proportionality. Dave is a frequent speaker at other national conferences on e-discovery and digital forensics. Dave has also published numerous articles in these areas. As part of this practice, Dave designs and implements document retention policies, customized protocols for preserving and collecting ESI. He also provides extensive training to clients on proactive measures and best practices to effectively resolve e-discovery issues and significantly reduce costs.
Dave is a member of the labor and employment law committees of the American and Pennsylvania Bar Associations, and the Montgomery County Bar Association. He was named a "Pennsylvania Super Lawyer – Rising Star" several times by Law & Politics.
Dave earned his undergraduate degree from Ithaca College in 1991, where he played varsity baseball and earned numerous all-state and all-conference honors. Dave earned his law degree, with honors, from the University of Richmond School of Law in 1995, where he was awarded the Sheppard Scholarship. At Richmond, Dave served as an editor of the University of Richmond Law Review, earned the American Jurisprudence and Corpus Juris Secundum Book Awards and served on the Honor Court.
News
January 03, 2012
Walton Discusses IP Theft with Corporate Counsel
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August 09, 2011
Dave Walton, a member of the firm's Labor & Employment Group, discusses bridging the gap between the bench and the bar's interest in broad discovery and a desperation to quell staggering e-discovery costs that threaten to overshadow the merits of litigation.
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March 08, 2011
Cozen O’Connor Blog Post Featured in Philadelphia Business Journal, AbovetheLaw.com
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May 11, 2009
In an article titled, "Suing Former Employees Over Laptop Theft," Dave Walton of the firm's Labor & Employment Group" discusses the increasing prevalence of the stealing of company data as layoffs continue in the workplace.
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August 07, 2008
In an article titled, "Work E-Emails: The New Smoking Guns," Dave Walton is quoted regarding the use of e-mails as exhibits in trials.
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June 25, 2008
In an article titled, "Castor Oil Creates Courtroom Drama," Dave Walton, a member of the firm's Labor & Employment Group, and who acted as co-counsel for Jacob Stern and Sons, Inc. when the company filed suit against two former employees and its former supplier Jayant Oils and Derivatives Ltd., Mumbai, India, alleging breach of contract, misappropriation of trade secrets, breach of duty of loyalty, interference with existing and prospective business advantage, unfair competition and civil conspiracy.
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May 28, 2008
A Montgomery County jury awarded a vegetable-based chemical importer and distributor $7 million against two former employees and two suppliers for violations of the state's Trade Secret Act.
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May 28, 2008
A Montgomery County jury awarded a vegetable-based chemical importer and distributor $7 million against two former employees and two suppliers for violations of the state's Trade Secret Act.
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Publications
May 09, 2013
In an article titled, "FBI: Delete Passwords of Ex-Employees," The Wall Street Journal highlights the firm's Cybersecurity Conference, which was held this past Wednesday, May 8, at the W Hotel. Trevor Cloak, Joe Dever, Greg Fliszar, Brian Gillam, Steven Haas, Mike Schmidt, Stuart Shorenstein, Matthew Siegel, Ahren Tryon and Dave Walton presented during the seminar, along with Richard Aborn, President, Citizens Crime Commission of New York City and Austin P. Berglas, Assistant Special Agent in Charge for Cyber, FBI New York Field Office.
To read the WSJ article, click here.
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January 29, 2013
We have all heard and read about the ubiquitous internet "cloud." But what exactly is the cloud? And what specifically does that mean for e-discovery?
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August 17, 2012
Increase in BYOD Is Reason for Concern - The Recorder - BYOD is here to stay. In the personal electronics world, the individual consumer is king. They, not employers, are driving the development of the electronics industry. This trend will not reverse. Employers must learn to adapt, think ahead and be vigilant in protecting their information in a BYOD world.
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March 09, 2012
Technology: Predictive Coding Gets Its Day in Court - InsideCounsel - The hottest development in the electronically stored information (ESI) world is predictive coding. It is a promising tool that, in non-technical terms, can automatically tag or designate documents. The process is fairly complicated. Using an array of mathematic algorithms, a predictive-coding tool analyzes the language used in a document and “predicts” how it may be coded by a live person.
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February 17, 2012
Technology: Technology: It’s a BYOD World and Companies Better Learn How to Deal with It - InsideCounsel - The increased use of personal devices at work is sometimes called “bring your own device” to work, or BYOD. BYOD creates a whole new set of problems for employers. These services aren’t going away and will keep growing. Indeed, BYOD on the whole is a paradigm shift that is permanently changing the way we work.
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February 03, 2012
Technology: What Sun Tzu Can Teach Us About E-Discovery - InsideCounsel - Sun Tzu, an ancient Chinese philosopher, strategist and general, wrote “The Art of War” in the fifth or sixth century B.C. “The Art of War” is accepted as one of the greatest works in history on strategy. The KGB studied it during the Cold War. The CIA makes all of its officers study it. Mao used its precepts to establish communist China. Even Tony Soprano relied on it to control his “family.”
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January 20, 2012
Technology: Search Terms Are the Bane of My Existence - InsideCounsel - When confronted with an electronically stored information (ESI) issue, the first thing lawyers do—almost reflexively—is exchange a list of search terms and apply them broadly against all types of media. Many judges use the same approach even though, conservatively, search terms result in 90 percent false positives. These false hits are very expensive to cull and review. Thus, a key to controlling ESI discovery costs is to use search terms carefully.
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January 12, 2012
Technology: The Power of Transparency - InsideCounsel - Cooperation. Collaboration. Transparency. These are not the concepts we think of when discussing our legal system.
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December 23, 2011
Technology: Using ESI to Your Advantage - InsideCounsel - Electronically stored information (ESI) collection not only dominates the discovery phase of every e-discovery case, but it also is a key litigation strategy. The strategic element can be especially painful when you are on the wrong side of a case involving asymmetrical obligations.
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February 18, 2011
Winter 2011 - Labor and Employment Observer -
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April 14, 2010
Call it what you like: Corporate raiding, predatory hiring — whether it's just 'don't be a pig' or 'don't let workers linger' here are a few easy rules corporate counsel can follow to avoid piracy-related claims.
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March 01, 2010
Winter 2010 - Labor Observer -
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February 25, 2010
The Invisible Noncompete: The Inevitable Disclosure Doctrine in Pa. - The Legal Intelligencer - The doctrine of inevitable disclosure is alive and well. Pennsylvania and its neighbors all recognize the concept that, in certain situations, can act as a sort of de-facto noncompete agreement to prevent employees with access to confidential information from going to work for a competitor. This controversial doctrine states that certain employees possess intangible confidential information that cannot
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February 02, 2010
Revisiting Zubulake: Discovery Sanctions in the e-Discovery Context - Commercial Litigation Alert! - On January 11, 2010, Judge Scheindlin, who authored the groundbreaking Zubulake opinions, issued a new opinion regarding sanctions in eDiscovery.1 Pension Comm. of the Univ. of Montreal Pension Plan v. Banc of Am. Scs., 2010 U.S. Dist. Lexis 1839 (S.D.N.Y. Jan. 11, 2010), involved an action against defendants who were connected to a hedge fund that lost money. These defendants sought sanctions against the plaintiffs for their alleged failure to
properly preserve and produce documents,
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January 27, 2010
E-Discovery: Revisiting Zubulake: Discovery Sanctions in the e-Discovery Context - Insurance Coverage Alert! - On January 11, 2010, Judge Scheindlin, who authored the groundbreaking Zubulake opinions, issued a new opinion regarding sanctions in eDiscovery.1 Pension Comm. of the Univ. of Montreal Pension Plan v. Banc of Am. Scs., 2010 U.S. Dist. Lexis 1839 (S.D.N.Y. Jan. 11, 2010), involved an action against defendants who were connected to a hedge fund that lost money. These defendants sought sanctions against the plaintiffs for their alleged failure to properly preserve and produce documents,
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January 09, 2009
Avoiding Danger to Business Secrets in a Bad Economy - Law.com - Bad economic times create opportunities for strong companies to poach good employees from a weakened competitor -- a signal for employers to aggressively protect trade secrets.
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January 01, 2009
To Spy or not to Spy - HR Advisor - To spy or not to spy on your own employees? That is the question facing many employers today. And, increasing numbers of companies—facing concerns ranging from data security to trade secrets—are saying “yes” to employee surveillance. Here’s a look at the current surveillance landscape, the case for watching your employees, and how you can protect yourself from claims of improper monitoring. the stats
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November 01, 2008
A recent American College of Trial Lawyers/Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System survey revealed 83% of lawyers believe the resolution of a case was typically determined by costs -- especially discovery-related -- not merits. And 68% believe many cases do not get filed because of prohibitive litigation costs. Armed with increasing technical proficiency, attorneys have learned different ways to use e-discovery and its associated costs to blackmail opposing counsel into settlement. Here are some tips for minimizing e-discovery challenges: 1. Adopt and follow an effective document retention policy. 2. Preserve early. 3. Take it one step at a time. 4. When asking for electronically stored information (ESI) from your adversary, be precise. 5. Limit the number of potential ESI sources for your employees. 6. Train your employees.
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August 25, 2008
Navigating the Wild West of E-Discovery in PA State Court - The Legal Intelligencer/PA Law Weekly: e-Discovery Supplement - Much has been written and said about what attorneys must do to comply with their obligations to preserve and produce electronically stored information (ESI) in federal court. Significantly less attention has been given to the same obligations in state court, despite the fact that ESI is as relevant in state court as in federal court.
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February 26, 2008
Insurance Coverage Observer - Winter 2008 - Fifth Circuit Upholds Flood Exclusion in Katrina
Decision….,… While Louisiana’s Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals Finds the Flood Exclusion Ambiguous, Application of Faulty Workmanship Exclusion Does not Require Showing of Proximate Cause, Louisiana's Value Policy Law Does not Apply When Total Loss Does not Result From a Covered Peril,Payment Under Law or Ordinance Coverage Required Showing of Actual Loss Incurred,Ensuing Loss Clause Do not Provide
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April 19, 2007
With Updated E-Discovery Regulations, Employers Must Face New Battle - Workforce Management - Recent amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedures relating to electronically stored information raise the bar for what will be expected of e discovery in terms of employer's monitoring and policies. Employers will ultimately feel the brunt of these sweeping changes, with dramatic changes to the way discovery will be conducted in federal court, where most discrimination suits are filed.
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March 01, 2007
Clicking With New E-Discovery Rules - The Metropolitan Corporate Counsel -
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January 25, 2007
2007 E-Discovery Seminar - Philadelphia (Rittenhouse Hotel) - E-Discovery Amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure - Are You Prepared to Comply with the New Rules - Accompanying seminar program book from the E-Discovery Seminar of 1/25/2007 at the Rittenhouse Hotel in Philadelphia presented to The Insurance Society of Philadelphia CLE Seminar.
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November 14, 2006
2006 E-Discovery Seminar - New York (Marriott Financial Center) - E-Discovery Amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure - Are You Prepared? - Accompanying seminar program book from the E-Discovery Seminar of 1/25/2007 at the New York Marriott Financial Center, Manhattan.
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