David Needham is an associate at Quinn Emanuel. His practice focuses on complex commercial litigation, white collar defense, and internal investigations.
Mr. Needham represents prominent companies as plaintiffs and defendants in contract, fraud, and securities litigation in federal and state trial and appellate courts. He also represents international organizations, financial institutions, and senior executives in U.S. Department of Justice investigations into corruption, tax evasion, money laundering, and market manipulation.
Mr. Needham’s recent matters include representing an international consortium of plaintiffs from over a dozen countries in billion dollar fraud and misrepresentation lawsuits against a major U.S. financial institution and a big 4 accounting firm for their participation in the collapse of a Mexican oil services company. He is also representing SEACOR, a global provider of equipment and services supporting the offshore oil and gas industries, in claims arising out of the April 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and the Deepwater Horizon multi-district litigation.
In addition, Mr. Needham has represented FIFA, international soccer’s governing body, in investigations by the U.S. Department of Justice and the Swiss Office of the Attorney General into allegations of bribery and corruption by former high-level soccer officials. He has also represented Julius Baer, a Swiss publicly-traded bank and the world’s largest pure private bank, in a U.S. Department of Justice criminal investigation into whether the bank helped U.S. citizens avoid paying taxes.
Before joining Quinn, Mr. Needham was a law clerk for two federal judges and an extern in the Criminal Division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the District Attorney’s Office.
- New York University Law School
(LL.M., Taxation)- Advocacy Award (Marden moot court competition semifinalist)
- Advocacy Award (Marden moot court competition semifinalist)
- University of Southern California Law School
(J.D., cum laude)- Saks Scholar
- Southern California Review of Law & Social Justice:
- Senior Editor
- Senior Editor
- University of Pennsylvania Business School (Wharton)
(M.B.A., Finance, Director’s List) - Santa Clara University
(B.S., Finance, cum laude)
- The State Bar of New York
- The District of Columbia Bar
- The State Bar of California
- United States Supreme Court
- United States Circuit Courts:
- Second Circuit
- Fifth Circuit
- Ninth Circuit
- D.C. Circuit
- United States District Courts:
- Southern District of New York
- Eastern District of New York
- District of Columbia
- Central District of California
- Northern District of California
- Law Clerk to the Honorable Diana Saldaña, District Judge:
- United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas
- Law Clerk to the Honorable Patrick J. Walsh, Magistrate Judge:
- United States District Court for the Central District of California
- United States District Court for the Central District of California
- Extern to the Honorable Arthur L. Alarcón, Circuit Judge:
- United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
- Selected as a Super Lawyers Rising Star