David
A.
Schooler
Shareholder; Labor and Employment
Dave is a shareholder in the firm of Briggs and Morgan, Professional Association. He has significant trial experience, including over 40 first chair jury verdicts in federal, state and administrative courts. As a result of his extensive trial experience, a national trial defense group has requested his participation as a trial instructor. He is AV rated by Martindale Hubbell, the highest rating for legal skills and ethics.
Dave has represented clients in a variety of industries, including insurance, transportation, manufacturing, information technology, grocery, software, hotel, commercial construction, mortgage banking, financial services, medical and nursing home care. He often serves as local counsel in partnership with a number of AmLaw 100 law firms in complex litigation matters.
Dave is a member of the Labor and Employment Law Section and practices principally in the areas of:
Employment Litigation
Dave has significant experience representing employers in traditional employment litigation defending employers in discrimination, harassment, reasonable accomodation, retaliation and wrongful termination cases. He also regularly handles complex employment-related suits involving non-compete and restraining order cases involving executive-level employees and allegations of misappropriation of trade secrets and breach of fiduciary obligations. Dave has defended employers in class actions, representative actions and significant multiple plaintiff and single plaintiff employment lawsuits.
Business Litigation
Dave has extensive experience representing Fortune 500 corporations and various manufacturers in complex litigation. He is skilled in assisting businesses with matters regarding multi-million dollar breach of contract, breach of warranty, construction, tax and other business-related claims.
In his insurance litigation practice, he defends policyholders facing disputes regarding professional liability, catastrophic personal injury, specialty lines, property defense, and medical, dental and engineering professionals in professional negligence claims.
Representative experience includes:
- Lead counsel in the successful resolution of a $23 million multiparty breach of employment and stock option fraud case for a subsidiary of a Fortune 500 business that implements IT solutions for the airline industry;
- Lead counsel in the successful resolution of a multiparty WARN Act lawsuit for a Michigan automobile parts manufacturer;
- Lead attorney in the trial of a $6 million lawsuit involving transportation logistics for a national candy manufacturer over allegations of breach of contract and fraud in federal district court;
- Lead counsel in challenging a Georgia employment tax determination regarding the non-exempt status of owner operator drivers for a national carrier;
- Lead counsel in successfully defending a breakoff group of key executives from an insurance company opposing an injunction;
- Lead counsel in representing a Fortune 500 company in successfully resolving a wage and hour dispute involving overtime pay;
- Lead counsel for a leading New York financial lending institution in a mortgage lending dispute;
- Co-counsel in the successful jury trial and defense verdict of a Title VII lawsuit;
- Co-counsel in the first trial of a reverse engineering copyright infringement case in Minnesota federal district court; and
- Co-counsel in successfully obtaining injunctive relief for a Fortune 500 health care organization seeking to enforce executive non-competes from a direct competitor.
Dave is admitted to practice in Minnesota state and federal courts, and the U.S. District Court for the Central District of Illinois. He is a member of the Federation of Defense and Corporate Counsel and DRI, as well as the Hennepin County, Minnesota State and American bar associations. He is also a member of the Minnesota Defense Lawyers Association.
Dave received his B.A. from St. Olaf College and his J.D.
cum laude from William Mitchell College of Law. He served as a law clerk for Magistrate Bernard Becker of the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota. Dave practiced for several years with another local law firm before joining Briggs in 2007.