David L. Yohai is co-head of Weil’s Complex Commercial Litigation practice, an approximately 130-attorney group spanning Weil’s US and international offices, and also is co-head of the firm’s insurance litigation practice. He has almost two decades of experience trying and litigating commercial cases, including the successful defense of numerous jury trials with hundreds of millions of dollars at stake.
Mr. Yohai focuses on high-profile commercial, intellectual property and antitrust matters, including class actions, for clients in the entertainment, consumer electronics, insurance, reinsurance, nuclear power equipment supply, and transportation industries. In 2013, Law360 named him a legal “top gun” and “MVP” in media and entertainment law. He also has been the lead lawyer on a number of successful appeals, including cases before the United States Courts of Appeals for the Second, Third, Fifth, Seventh and Tenth Circuits, the New York Court of Appeals, and the Supreme Courts of Illinois, Oregon and Louisiana. Chambers USA and his clients have also recognized Mr. Yohai for his “thoughtful, unpretentious and direct approach” to major litigation.
Over the past several years, Mr. Yohai has represented and counseled The Walt Disney Company, ESPN, Direct TV, A&E Networks, Scripps Networks, ExxonMobil, Farmers Insurance, and United Healthcare in significant, high-dollar value litigations and arbitrations. In 2011, Mr. Yohai won a major jury trial on behalf of ESPN, ABC Cable Networks Group, and other Disney-related entities in a contract case involving over $100 million in alleged damages, and he secured a total victory on a counterclaim worth over $65 million. In 2013, Mr. Yohai repeated that success in securing a jury trial win for ESPN in federal court in New York in a more than $150 million lawsuit brought by Dish Network alleging breaches of certain terms of a licensing agreement. In 2009, Mr. Yohai completely defeated a national class, and then an Illinois class, in a multi-billion dollar antitrust class action brought against ExxonMobil, BP, Shell, Citgo, and Marathon alleging a conspiracy to fix gasoline prices.
Mr. Yohai also has long represented Panasonic and certain of its subsidiaries in all manner of disputes, and is currently defending the company in a major antitrust case involving international cartel price-fixing allegations. He successfully defended Panasonic in antitrust litigation involving the DVD 6C patent pool, obtaining summary judgment for the company on all of the antitrust claims asserted. He also helped secure a total victory for Panasonic after a three-month jury trial in Louisiana state court of fraud and 15 other claims regarding pager technology; plaintiffs demanded over $750 million in damages, and following the jury’s verdict of zero liability for Panasonic, plaintiffs were awarded nothing.
As co-head of Weil’s nationwide insurance litigation practice group, Mr. Yohai has extensive experience representing some of the largest insurance and re-insurance companies in high-profile individual, class, and multi-district litigation. He has obtained favorable dismissals, denials of class certification, and settlements in cases for Farmers Insurance Exchange, United Healthcare, Penn Treaty American Corporation, Conseco Senior Health Insurance Company, The Travelers Insurance Company, and many others. In 2012 and 2013, Mr. Yohai secured several major victories for Farmers Insurance in putative class actions regarding medical payment claims under certain auto insurance policies, including the dismissal of one putative subclass and the denial of class certification in a second matter. Mr. Yohai also achieved a Tenth Circuit victory for Farmers in 2013 following his oral argument on issues related to time limitations in insurance policies. In 2009, Mr. Yohai successfully argued another significant appeal to the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit for Farmers Insurance Exchange upholding dismissal of a nationwide class action. Over the course of his career, he has also served as lead counsel in several large reinsurance arbitrations in which he achieved favorable decisions.
Among his other notable matters, Mr. Yohai has successfully defended the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority in a challenge brought by Madison Square Garden over the rights to build the New York Sports and Convention Center on Manhattan’s West Side; represented Westinghouse Electric Corporation in litigation regarding the supply of nuclear power steam generators to utilities around the nation; and counseled Paco Rabanne Parfums, Warner/Chappell Music, Sony Music, Arista Records, and others in trademark and copyright infringement matters.
Mr. Yohai has been recognized as a leading commercial lawyer by Chambers USA, and as a New York “Super Lawyer” on multiple occasions. He lectures on topics including federal civil procedure, MDL proceedings, e-discovery, and the attorney-client privilege, including for PLI, and he is a member of the litigation sections of the American and New York State Bar Associations.
Mr. Yohai graduated Phi Beta Kappa and magna cum laude from Princeton University with a B.A., where he majored in the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. He received his J.D. from New York University School of Law, where he graduated as a member of the Order of the Coif and was a note and comment editor of the New York University Law Review. After graduating from law school, he clerked for the Honorable Robert E. Cowen on the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, where he worked on a variety of civil and criminal appeals.
