David L. Yohai

David litigates complex commercial, privacy, antitrust, copyright, trademark, and other intellectual property disputes, including class actions and mass arbitrations, for industry-leading global companies. His notable representative clients have included Warner Bros. Discovery, Paramount Global, Panasonic Corporation, The Vanguard Group, The Carlyle Group, Farmers Insurance, A&E Television Networks, Gannett Co., CNN, ESPN, Showtime, TelevisaUnivision, ExxonMobil, ICBC Standard Bank, and The Walt Disney Company.

David has deep expertise in the media and entertainment sector, and has been recognized as an “MVP” in the field by Law360. He has collaborated with clients and litigated repeatedly on their behalf to solve a broad range of business and legal issues, including distribution and carriage disputes, copyright and trademark matters, class actions involving VPPA and CIPA violations, and myriad antitrust claims arising from new and old business arrangements including joint ventures and government enforcement proceedings.

Over the course of his career, he has served as lead counsel in the most high-profile and high-impact media and entertainment disputes, including of late in connection with the telecasting rights to NBA games; the planned launch of a new sports streaming service by Disney, Fox and WBD; the rights to what was one of the most popular shows on Cable TV, LIVE PD; and the rights to a new Harry Potter television series.

David is widely regarded as a top litigator and trial lawyer nationally. In 2025, Lawdragon 500 selected David to its 2025 “Leading Litigators in America” and “Leading Entertainment, Sports & Media Lawyers” lists. Since 2019, Benchmark Litigation has recognized David each year as a Litigation Star in New York and nationally for Antitrust, General Commercial, and IP litigation. In 2016 and 2023, BTI Consulting Group named David a “Client Service All-Star” across all practice areas nationwide in its annual survey of corporate counsel. Since 2015, Legal 500 has recognized David as among the top lawyers nationally for General Commercial Disputes, with commentators calling him “a seasoned trial lawyer with a great record.” Law360 has named him a legal “top gun” and “MVP” in media and entertainment law, and clients in Chambers USA have recognized David for his “thoughtful, unpretentious and direct approach” to major litigation.

Some of his other notable representations include:

• Serving as lead counsel to Gannett Co. in winning dismissal of a nationwide class action in New Jersey federal court regarding its subscription renewal practices.
• Successfully defending several major media companies, including Warner Bros. Discovery, Gannett, Paramount Global, Philo, Inc., TBS, Bleacher Report, and CNN in dozens of separate privacy class actions in courts around the country, as well as mass arbitrations, alleging violations of the VPPA, CIPA, and other privacy statutes in connection with the companies’ use of website pixels on their customer-facing websites and other communications. In many of these cases, David has secured dismissals with zero payment and other pre-trial victories.
• Representing Univision (n/k/a TelevisaUnivision) against Charter Communications and Time Warner Cable (TWC) relating to the $70 billion Charter/TWC merger in 2016, as well as serving as lead counsel in a separate lawsuit filed by DISH Network in the S.D.N.Y. involving Univision’s Spanish-language sports telecasting rights.
• Serving as lead counsel for Discovery Communications in winning a Fourth Circuit appeal relating to distribution rights, as well as in obtaining a complete trial victory in another dispute commenced by a former distributor.
• Serving as co-lead counsel for ESPN in obtaining a complete jury verdict in New York federal court in a $150M+ lawsuit brought by DISH Network alleging breaches of certain terms of a licensing agreement.
• Winning a major jury trial, including a total victory on a $65 million-plus counterclaim, for ESPN, ABC Cable Networks Group, and other Disney entities in a contract case involving over $100 million in alleged damages.
• Defeating a national class, and then an Illinois class, in a multi-billion dollar antitrust class action brought against ExxonMobil and other energy companies alleging a conspiracy to fix gasoline prices.

As Head of Weil’s nationwide Insurance Litigation practice, David has extensive experience representing both carriers and insureds. Most recently, he represented The Carlyle Group and ICBC Standard Bank in major insurance recovery actions. Over the course of his career, he has obtained favorable dismissals, denials of class certification, settlements, favorable appellate rulings, and other victories for Farmers Insurance Exchange, United Healthcare, Penn Treaty American Corporation, Conseco Senior Health Insurance Company, Travelers Insurance Companies, and many others.

Some of his insurance litigation representations include:

• Serving as lead counsel for ICBC Standard Bank in successfully recovering over $230 million in business interruption insurance proceeds in a heavily contested litigation arising out of a fire at the Philadelphia Energy oil refinery.
• Securing the affirmation of the dismissal with prejudice of federal antitrust claims – after an exceedingly rare grant of an en banc petition in the Eleventh Circuit – alleging that Farmers Insurance and others engaged in anticompetitive behavior and other unlawful conduct in Florida in order to control and reduce the price for automobile damage repair, labor, and material costs.
• Delivering the winning argument before the Second Circuit that affirmed the dismissal with prejudice of an industry-wide Medicare False Claims Act complaint alleging Farmers and other defendants failed to reimburse the government for payments made to Medicare beneficiaries, as well as winning another Second Circuit affirmation of a dismissal in a parallel action.
• Securing several major victories for Farmers Insurance in putative class actions regarding medical payment claims under certain auto insurance policies, including the dismissal of one putative subclass and the denial of class certification in a second matter. David also achieved a Tenth Circuit victory for Farmers following his oral argument on issues related to time limitations in insurance policies.
• Over the course of his career, he has also served as lead counsel in several large reinsurance arbitrations in which he achieved favorable outcomes.

David also has a long history representing Panasonic Corporation, Warner Bros. Discovery, Farmers Insurance and numerous other companies in major antitrust litigations and investigations. For almost a decade, he successfully defended Panasonic Corporation in two major antitrust cases alleging international cartel price-fixing. He also has conducted numerous domestic and international arbitrations, including on behalf of clients from Japan, Germany, and the U.S. before ICC arbitration panels, JAMS panels, and AAA panels.

David has been the lead lawyer on a number of successful appeals before the United States Courts of Appeals for the Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, Seventh, and Tenth Circuits, the New York Court of Appeals, and the Supreme Courts of Illinois, Oregon, and Louisiana. He is a thought leader who lectures and writes extensively on media law, insurance law, federal civil procedure, arbitration, MDL proceedings, e-discovery, and the attorney-client privilege. He is a member of the litigation sections of the American and New York State Bar Associations.

David graduated Phi Beta Kappa and magna cum laude from Princeton University with a B.A. in Public and International Affairs. He received his J.D. from New York University School of Law, where he graduated as a member of the Order of the Coif and was a note and comment editor of the New York University Law Review. After law school, David clerked for the Honorable Robert E. Cowen on the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, where he worked on hundreds of civil and criminal appeals.