David J. Marshall, Partner

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David J. Marshall has successfully represented dozens of whistleblowers in the nuclear, financial, pharmaceutical and medical-device industries, and in cases alleging fraud in government contracts. Washingtonian Magazine has named Mr. Marshall a Top Whistleblower Lawyer, and Martindale-Hubbell rated Mr. Marshall “AV Preeminent,” its highest possible peer review rating. He speaks frequently at legal conferences as an expert on whistleblower law, and he serves on the advisory board of the Government Accountability Project, a leading whistleblower-rights organization.

In addition to his work as a whistleblower lawyer, Mr. Marshall represents plaintiffs in sexual harassment, pregnancy discrimination and other discrimination cases, and also specializes in the negotiation of complex executive employment and separation contracts. He also serves as class counsel in consumer class-action lawsuits against predatory business practices.

Recent Whistleblower Cases

  • Speegle v. Stone & Webster
    In September 2009, Mr. Marshall led the KMB legal team that secured an important victory for whistleblowers in the nuclear energy industry. After KMB client James Speegle lost his job in 2004 for blowing the whistle on nuclear safety lapses at TVA’s Browns Ferry nuclear plant in Alabama, Mr. Marshall represented Mr. Speegle at trial and on appeal to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Administrative Review Board. In a September 2009 decision reinforcing the rights of nuclear workers to speak out about safety issues without fear of retaliation, the Board reversed the trial judge and ruled Mr. Speegle entitled to “the relief that the Energy Reorganization Act affords to a successful litigant.” The Act provides for reinstatement, back pay, compensatory damages and attorneys’ fees.
  • Richard Pullman v. Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum
    In 2008 and 2009, Mr. Marshall represented a Smithsonian worker in a whistleblower lawsuit alleging that management at the Air and Space Museum had retaliated against him for speaking out about dangerous levels of asbestos in the museum’s walls. After lighting specialist Richard Pullman filed his whistleblower complaint under the Clean Air Act, the Smithsonian admitted it had known about the asbestos since 1993 but had not told the workers about the problem. Mr. Marshall and KMB associate Alexis Rickher litigated Pullman’s case before the Department of Labor, and negotiated a successful settlement in July 2009. See Order Approving Settlement in Pullman v. Smithsonian.
  • Joe Walters v. Deutsche Bank
    Mr. Marshall has successfully represented many corporate employees under the whistleblower provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, a 2002 law that protects employees of publicly-traded companies from retaliation for reporting fraud or violations of federal securities laws. In March 2009, Mr. Marshall and KMB attorney Maura Dundon won a groundbreaking decision in Walters v. Deutsche Bank that greatly expanded the coverage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act’s whistleblower provisions.
  • Capitol Tunnel Workers v. Architect of the Capitol
    In 2006 and 2007, Mr. Marshall successfully represented ten U.S. Capitol tunnel workers in a whistleblower retaliation complaint against the Architect of the Capitol Tunnel Workers v. Architect of the Capitol, which is an agency of the U.S. Congress. The workers charged the Architect with harassing and threatening them after they alerted Congress in March 2006 to the life-threatening levels of asbestos and other hazards they faced while working in the utility tunnels that run beneath the U.S. Capitol. In June 2007, the workers and the Architect agreed to a substantial out-of-court settlement that was later approved by the Congressional Office of Compliance.
  • Consumer Class Actions
    In addition to representing employees, Mr. Marshall has served as class counsel in consumer class-action lawsuits. He played a leading role in class actions against the magazine sweepstakes industry in 1999-2000, resulting in a $42 million-dollar settlement. In 2001, along with Georgetown University Law Professor and KMB counsel Gary Peller, Mr. Marshall served as co-lead counsel in a nationwide class-action lawsuit against the “payday” lending industry. This initiative, in which Mr.Marshall and Mr. Peller partnered with the AARP Foundation Litigation and leading consumer advocates, led to a court-approved settlement in late 2003 that relieved low-income borrowers of over $50 million of dollars in debt. The settlement also provided cy pres awards to the National Consumer Law Center, the Community Reinvestment Association of North Carolina, and Texas Rural Legal Aid, Inc. — three organizations that are playing leading roles in the fight against predatory lending. Marshall currently serves as class counsel in Ray v. BlueHippo Funding, a class action against a company that engages in unfair and deceptive business practices in the sale of computers to low-income consumers in California. A federal court in San Francisco is currently reviewing a proposed settlement in the Ray class action.

Bio

Mr. Marshall began practicing law in 1981 as a staff attorney with the Political Rights Defense Fund (“PRDF”) in New York. As a PRDF lawyer until 1984, Mr. Marshall represented trade unionists and political activists nationwide in civil liberties, free speech, defamation, political asylum and security-clearance cases litigation. He then worked as a steelworker, garment worker, railroad freight conductor and refiner worker for 12 years, and was a rank-and-file union activist in some of the nation’s largest industries and unions. He returned to the full-time practice of law in Washington, DC, in 1997.

Mr. Marshall has appeared in numerous national and local media, both in his capacity as an attorney and as a labor union activist. He is an active member of the District of Columbia Bar, the Georgia Bar, the National Employment Lawyers Association, the Metropolitan Washington Employment Lawyers Association, and the American Bar Association. He serves on the steering committee of the Shelley Davis Memorial Fund that will endow an attorney position at Farmworker Justice, the nation’s premier legal-advocacy group fighting for the rights of farmworkers. Additionally, he serves on the Board of Directors of the Public Justice Foundation, an organization dedicated to consumers’ rights, workers’ rights, civil rights and civil liberties, environmental protection, public health and safety, and access to the courts. In 1977, he received his Bachelor of Arts degree, summa cum laude, from Emory University, and in 1980 received his J.D. degree from Harvard Law School, where he graduated cum laude.

Speaking Engagements

Publications

Mr. Marshall has authored the following articles: