David Nelson focuses on complex civil litigation, principally in the insurance and financial industries. Mr. Nelson has represented clients in high-stakes litigation and arbitration matters, including complex insurance and reinsurance disputes, class actions alleging securities fraud and insurance sales practices violations, and actions involving entities and individuals accused of fraud or other tortious conduct in business and financial transactions. Mr. Nelson’s role as business adviser and legal counsel is enhanced by his training and experience as a Certified Public Accountant, and his combination of skills is ideally suited to achieve favorable bottom line results from both a legal and a business perspective.
Mr. Nelson’s representative engagements include—
- domestic pharmaceutical companies in a federal products liability class action involving the drug E-Ferol
- a foreign reinsurer in an arbitration concerning finite retrocessional casualty aggregate stop loss coverage
- a foreign reinsurer in an arbitration concerning disputes over “follow-the-fortunes,” number of occurrences, allocation of asbestos, silica and pollution claims, and claims handling
- a domestic life insurer in a series of cases alleging fraud and breach of contract arising out of corporate-owned life insurance (COLI) policies
- a domestic life insurer in a series of cases alleging insurable interest and invasion of privacy violations arising out of COLI policies
- a national energy and industrial services company in a case alleging negligence in connection with a refinery explosion
- a domestic life insurer in a sales practices class action involving variable annuity products in Lander v. Hartford Life, the leading case on SLUSA preemption of state law claims involving variable annuities
- the CEO of an insolvent investment services firm in a series of cases alleging civil liability to investors
- individuals, on a pro bono basis, who are pursuing civil claims for torture, wrongful imprisonment, war crimes, and crimes against humanity under federal statutory law.
Mr. Nelson’s recent publications include an in-house CLE program entitled “Major Recurring Issues in Reinsurance” presented in August 2010, and “The Follow-the-Settlements Doctrine,” ARIAS-U.S. Quarterly, Second Quarter 2010.
Prior to joining Akin Gump, Mr. Nelson was an associate in the Dallas office of another international law firm. He also practiced as a certified public accountant in Texas prior to attending law school and remains licensed as a CPA in Texas.
Mr. Nelson received his B.B.A. in accounting in 1989 from Texas State University and passed the CPA exam in May 1989 with the highest score in Texas. He received his J.D. with high honors in 1995 from the University of Texas School of Law, where he was member of the Chancellors honor society, Order of the Coif, and the Legal Research Board. He is a member of the State Bar of Texas, the American Bar Association, the AIDA Reinsurance and the Insurance Arbitration Society (ARIAS). He is admitted to practice before all U.S. District Courts of Texas and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit.