David W. Shapiro

Partner
Oakland

t: 510 874 1005
f: 510 874 1460

dshapiro@bsfllp.com

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Areas of Practice

Litigation

Class Actions

Constitutional Law and First Amendment / Mass Media

Intellectual Property

Investigations / Corporate Governance

Pro Bono

Securities Litigation

White-Collar /
Business Crimes

Education

State University of New York at Buffalo, J.D., 1979; Managing Editor, Buffalo Law Review; Awards for Best Student Article and Outstanding Contribution to Law Review

State University of New York at Binghamton, B.A. , English Literature and Creative Writing, 1976

Admissions

California, New York, and Arizona

United States Courts of Appeals: Second and Ninth Circuits

United States District Courts: Southern and Eastern Districts of New York, the District of Arizona, the Northern and Central Districts of California

The former United States Attorney in San Francisco, David Shapiro served for 16 years as a federal prosecutor in several offices - the Eastern District of New York, the District of Arizona, and finally, between 1995 and 2002, the Northern District of California. He has conducted numerous jury trials in federal and state court and argued appeals in the Second and Ninth Circuit U.S. Courts of Appeals, as well as in New York and California appellate courts. His main practice area is complex litigation, including securities, class action, and business crimes. He has also conducted internal investigations involving allegations regarding the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, breaches of fiduciary duty, and computer and other potential crimes.

While at the firm, Mr. Shapiro has represented American Express, Tyco International, Qwest, Copper River Management, and Siemens, among others. He has represented top executives of public companies in grand jury investigations in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles. He has also represented The San Francisco Chronicle in response to government subpoenas to journalists for source information and a reporter charged with a crime while investigating a controversial story.

In addition to his 16 years as a federal prosecutor (during which he successfully tried 20 cases to verdict, including accounting fraud, RICO, narcotics, and Mafia death penalty cases), Mr. Shapiro has tried four cases since joining BS&F in late 2002 - three civil and one criminal accounting fraud case: (1) a preliminary injunction hearing in the United States District Court for the District of Colorado on behalf of Qwest in December 2002 (In Re Qwest Communications International, Inc. Securities - District of Colorado, 06-CV-17880-REB-PAC (MDL Docket No. 1788 ) (the court denied the injunction that plaintiffs sought against Qwest); (2) a three and a half week jury trial in a breach of contract and fraud dispute in Superior Court, Napa County (Koenig v. Blanco, Case No. 26-23804, California Superior Court, Napa County) (jury verdict for our client, one of the two defendants, and an award of 100% of our client's attorney fees); (3) an eight week criminal accounting fraud jury trial against a CEO of a public company in federal court in Brooklyn, New York (United States v. Stinn (07-CR-113) (jury verdict convicting our client; the case is currently on appeal to the Second Circuit); and (4) a 14-week bench trial for American Express in a 17200 and breach of contract class action in Superior Court, Alameda County (Hoffman v. American Express, Case No. 2001-022881, California Superior Court, Alameda County) (judgment in favor of our client on all claims and an award of costs of over $340,000 as the prevailing party).

Before joining the firm, Mr. Shapiro was a driving force behind the creation of the San Francisco United States Attorney's Office's first Securities Fraud Section and was instrumental in helping create the Office's Computer Hacking and Intellectual Property Section, which served as a model for the creation of similar prosecution units around the country in 2001. These and other changes helped catapult the United States Attorney's Office to the top ranks of federal prosecution offices around the country, so much so that prosecutors in the Office were asked to head up the federal government's investigations into Enron.

Mr. Shapiro's trials as a prosecutor include the following: Between 1996 and 1998, he indicted a series of top executives of Media Vision Technology, Inc. in one of the first financial accounting fraud cases brought by the United States Attorney's office in San Francisco. Mr. Shapiro has tried cases ranging from financial accounting fraud and federal excise tax fraud to one of the first federal death penalty cases in the country after the re-introduction of the federal death penalty in 1988.

Mr. Shapiro was in private practice at a firm in New York City for six years where he specialized in corporate, securities and commercial litigation before becoming a federal prosecutor.

Mr. Shapiro has been asked to speak at numerous judicial, attorney, and corporate conference on a variety of topics, including securities fraud, joint defense agreements, the death penalty, and terrorism.

Selected Professional Awards and Associations

American Bar Association
San Francisco Bar Association