David Yoshimura

Commercial and Financial Services Litigation

As a trial and appellate litigator, David has a history of achieving success in complex and high-value commercial and financial services litigation, including favorable jury verdicts for plaintiff clients and complete defense awards for defendant clients. He also advocates for clients’ best outcomes from day one, seeking out favorable pre-litigation resolutions, achieving below-cost-of-defense settlements, and saving clients both costs and further exposure.

International Arbitration

David brings global perspective and experience to cross-border disputes. He has arbitrated numerous disputes — including international contract and M&A disputes — to favorable settlements or to completion before numerous international arbitration tribunals in matters with parties from the Americas, Europe, Asia, Africa and the Middle East. His knowledge of international dispute resolution practices and non-U.S. protocols and procedures helps ensure his U.S.-based clients are best situated in international proceedings.

Internal Investigations

David has considerable experience in regulatory and criminal matters and deep knowledge of e-discovery, from which he has developed a sophisticated internal investigations practice to assist clients in identifying and mitigating regulatory, criminal or civil exposures before they become legal disputes.

Criminal and Regulatory Defense

David has substantial experience managing criminal and regulatory matters at all stages, including pre-enforcement negotiations, trial and appeal. He brings those experiences to clients in various industries, including the food and agriculture sector, to advocate for clients. He has achieved favorable resolutions for clients including prosecution declination decisions and favorable negotiated resolutions with various state and federal government agencies.

Prior Experience

Examples of David’s successes include:

• Engaged by the largest newspaper publisher in the United States to represent one of its journalists; achieved not-guilty verdicts on multiple counts following trial of reporter charged with failure to disperse and interference with official acts while covering local protest events. The case was reported nationally and was a bellwether for prosecutors across the country contemplating charges against journalists engaged in covering protest events in 2020.
• Won complete dismissal of all counterclaims on behalf of major multinational technology conglomerate headquartered in the U.S. in corporate tort action and won interlocutory appeal affirming dismissal.
• Conducted high-profile internal investigations and co-authored public reports for clients including the Iowa Supreme Court in an investigation into a technology security testing dispute and the Iowa Democratic Party in an investigation into the 2020 caucuses.
• Won a complete zero-dollar defense award for CFTC-regulated commodities merchant client, entirely defeating a claim for more than $10 million, in trade association arbitration following a three-day evidentiary hearing.
• Secured a complete trial win on behalf of major nationwide big-box retailer client in a bench trial against municipal agency. Immediately following the close of evidence and argument at trial, the court orally announced its ruling from the bench in client’s favor granting all relief sought.
• Facilitated favorable global resolution of highly complex multinational M&A dispute on behalf of sellers of security contractor company, involving three international arbitration proceedings before the London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA); represented the client as both a claimant and a respondent in LCIA arbitrations; and incorporated complex U.S. federal discovery procedures for international arbitral tribunals to achieve results.
• Successfully appealed a criminal sentence to the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals for an individual client by court appointment, briefing complex federal criminal law issues and presenting oral argument. The Seventh Circuit vacated the judgment and remanded to the district court for resentencing.

Prior to joining the firm, David accumulated a wealth of litigation perspective from the judges’ bench, clerking for Judge Robert Pratt in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa, including numerous sittings by designation on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, and at the Iowa Supreme Court. Before joining the legal profession, he was an English language instructor in American and Japanese schools.

Personal Interests

David enjoys trying to maintain his dexterity for playing piano and guitar, playing tabletop games with his two children, and taking advantage of Iowa’s extensive network of bike trails.