David Herron

Partner

David Herron is a partner in O’Melveny’s Los Angeles office. David is Chair of O’Melveny’s Electronic Discovery and Document Retention Practice and a member of the Labor and Employment Practice. For the past five years, David has dedicated his practice almost exclusively to eDiscovery litigation, advice and counsel in matters ranging from complex, multi-district litigation, to federal and state court-based class actions, and other disputes.

O’Melveny’s eDiscovery practice is well-regarded for its experience in handling of major eDiscovery litigation, and is known for providing experienced, proactive and defensible advice on cutting-edge eDiscovery issues that confront the Firm’s clients. David and his eDiscovery colleagues handle and advise on all aspects of eDiscovery preparedness and compliance, which includes advising about the design and implementation of defensible, effective and cost-contained document retention, collection and review programs; managing eDiscovery throughout the entire litigation life cycle; and litigating eDiscovery preservation, collection and production issues. David also has deep experience in litigating and defending corporations against attacks on their eDiscovery compliance, and pursuing and defending claims of evidence spoliation.

In addition, David is the partner-in-charge of the Firm’s document review centers located in O’Melveny’s Century City and Washington, DC offices, and oversees the Firm’s approximately 35 Legal Service Center staff lawyers, eDiscovery-related Practice Support personnel, and others dedicated to providing document review services. O’Melveny and its eDiscovery Practice is recognized for, and committed to, offering cost-effective, strategically-designed document reviews that utilize the latest review and search methodologies and technology, and are managed by experienced, litigation-hardened professionals.

David’s recent eDiscovery-related matters and activities include:

• Overseeing all aspects of electronic discovery for O’Melveny client Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD) in the AMD v. Intel antitrust litigation, a case which settled in November 2009 with Intel’s payment of US$1.25 billion to AMD and significant intellectual property concessions. Perhaps the largest eDiscovery case in US litigation history, AMD v. Intel involved the exchange of as many as 400 million pages of electronic data, over 300 depositions, and apparent evidence spoliation by Intel that spawned massive eDiscovery litigation and extensive motion work on cutting-edge evidence preservation, production and spoliation issues.
• Handling eDiscovery issues related to several high-profile regulatory matters and investigations commenced against O’Melveny clients by the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Federal Trade Commission, and the U.S. Department of Justice.
• Advising numerous clients in the airline, manufacturing, food, textile, pharmaceutical, and higher education industries on important eDiscovery issues in connection with both pending and anticipated litigation.

David also has over 18 years of litigation experience, with an emphasis on “big case” litigation and trials. In addition to major employment matters, David has litigated major antitrust, environmental, and education-related multi-district and class-action cases. David also remains active in representing clients in employment law matters, providing both day-to-day advice and litigation representation in matters involving employee allegations of wage and hour violations, wrongful discharge, and discrimination and harassment based on gender, race, age and disabilities, among other things. In the past several years, David has handled employment matters for clients in such industries as aerospace, finance, banking and investment services, accounting, education, energy, and transportation before a variety of federal and state courts and arbitral tribunals.

Representative litigation and employment law matters include:

• Represented a biotech company in one of the first matters to challenge key elements of the California Private Attorney Generals Act (PAGA).
• Successfully first-chaired several trials for major financial institutions, accounting firms, and higher education institutions in FINRA and other contract arbitrations.
• Handled to successful conclusion major, nation-wide wage and hour class actions commenced against several well-known international banks and investment firms.
• Assisted as part of the trial team in obtaining a unanimous jury verdict for ExxonMobil in Alaska state court in connection with Exxon Valdez-related oil spill litigation commenced by certain Alaska municipalities.

Professional Activities

Admitted to Practice, US District Court, Central and Northern Districts of California, and District of Colorado; US Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit
Law Clerk, Honorable Jim R. Carrigan, US District Court, District of Colorado
Co-Author, "Evidence Preservation Warfare: EDiscovery Lessons Learned from AMD v. Intel," ACC Docket, a publication of the American Corporate Counsel Association (September 2010)
Speaking Engagements, "Managing E-Discovery in Employment Litigation," California Employment Law Council (November 2010); "EDiscovery Fundamentals: Challenges for Institutions in the Modern eDiscovery Age," California Institute of Technology (May 2010); "Managing the Unmanageable: Effective Big-Case Management in the e-Discovery Era," Newscorp Headquarters (March 2010) and Occidental Petroleum Corp. Headquarters (July 2010)