David J. Ball Jr.
Lecturer-in-Law
David J. Ball, Jr. is of counsel in the Litigation/Regulatory department of the New York office of Weil, Gotshal & Manges. Mr. Ball has represented clients in pursuing and defending against patent infringement, trade secret misappropriation, and related tort and contract claims. Mr. Ball was a senior member of the Weil Gotshal team representing Cisco Systems, Inc. in Storage Technology Corp. v. Cisco Systems, Inc., No. C 00-1176 SI (N.D. Cal.), in which the plaintiff made a $3 billion damages claim alleging infringement of digital networking technologies, and Weil Gotshal obtained for Cisco a jury verdict that Cisco did not infringe and that all of the asserted patent claims were invalid. Mr. Ball was also a senior member of the Weil Gotshal team representing Lexar Media, Inc. in Lexar Media, Inc. v. Toshiba Corp. and Toshiba America Electronic Components, Inc., No. 1-20-CV 812458 (Cal. Superior Ct., Santa Clara County), in which a jury found that Toshiba had committed trade secret misappropriation and breach of its fiduciary duty to Lexar, leading to Toshiba's agreement to pay $288 million to settle all litigation with Lexar. Mr. Ball also has represented Yahoo! Inc. regarding digital rights management technology; Cutera, Inc., regarding medical laser technology; and STATS ChipPAC Ltd., Advanced Semiconductor Engineering, Inc., and Amkor Technology, Inc. regarding semiconductor packaging technology.
Mr. Ball is also active in pro bono litigation. Mr. Ball leads the Weil Gotshal team which, along with the Urban Justice Center and the civil rights firm of Koob & Magoolaghan, are plaintiff's counsel in Elmaghraby v. Ashcroft, No. 1:04-CV-01809-JG-SMG (E.D.N.Y.), brought by Muslim men who were victims of brutal abuse and mistreatment in Federal detention in the aftermath of the September 11th attacks. In February 2006, the Federal government settled with one of the plaintiffs, representing the first time that the United States has paid compensation to a victim of post-September 11th detention actions. In recognition of this accomplishment, plaintiff's counsel were named Finalists for the 2006 Trial Lawyer of the Year award given by the Trial Lawyers for Public Justice Foundation. Mr. Ball also leads the Weil Gotshal team representing Westchester Residential Opportunities, Inc. (WRO) in administrative litigation before the New York State Division of Human Rights regarding discriminatory treatment of WRO testers by real estate agencies in Westchester County, New York.
Mr. Ball joined Weil Gotshal in 2003 after four years as an Assistant United States Attorney for the District of Columbia, where he was lead government counsel in a wide range of civil matters including trials before the US District Court for the District of Columbia and appeals before the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. As an AUSA, Mr. Ball successfully defended the District of Columbia's sexual-offender ("Megan's Law") registry from Constitutional attack. Mr. Ball also represented the United States and its agencies in patent litigation and other litigation involving Constitutional issues, employment discrimination, the Administrative Procedures Act, and a variety of other statutes.
Mr. Ball served from 1996 until 1998 as an Associate Solicitor of the US Patent and Trademark Office, where he briefed and argued appeals to the Federal Circuit as lead government counsel and represented the USPTO in a variety of District Court proceedings.
Mr. Ball clerked for the Honorable Randall R. Rader, US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, from 1994 until 1995. He received a J.D. with Honors from the University of Texas in 1992 (Order of the Coif); an M.S.E. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Texas in 1988 (University Fellow, GTE Fellow); and a B.S.E. with Honors in Electrical Engineering from the University of Alabama in Huntsville in 1985 (Tau Beta Pi).
