DAVID WACHTEL, PARTNER

David Wachtel has litigated on behalf of employees since 1993. He has practiced with Lynne Bernabei and Alan Kabat since July 2005 and founded Bernabei & Wachtel, PLLC with them in February 2006.

Mr. Wachtel has tried cases to juries in the U.S. District Courts for Maryland and the District of Columbia and Superior Court for District of Columbia, before Administrative Judges of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and Merit Systems Protection Board and before JAMS and AAA arbitrators. He has argued appeals to the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit and the District of Columbia Court of Appeals.

Since Bernabei & Wachtel formed in 2006, Mr. Wachtel has served as lead counsel for dozens of clients in matters as varied as the public disclosure of evidence that guards at a nuclear power plant slept on the job to discreet negotiations of dozens of executive severance and sexual harassment disputes. He’s earned very favorable decisions for his clients in cases of disability discrimination (direct threat), disability harassment, unwarranted discipline, and breach of a physician’s employment contract, among others.

Mr. Wachtel has been named among Washington’s best lawyers in the last three Washingtonian Magazine surveys (2004, 2007, and 2009). Since 2008, he has been named as one of Washington, DC's Best Lawyers^® for Civil Rights Law. He was recently named as a Super Lawyer^® for Civil Rights Law. 

Before joining with Ms. Bernabei and Mr. Kabat, Mr. Wachtel was a member of a Washington, D.C., employee-side law firm where his cases addressed age and race discrimination against classes of employees, denial of academic tenure, civil service rights, denial of promotion to federal employees on the basis of race, sex, and national origin, disability discrimination and FMLA interference and retaliation, among many other issues.

Mr. Wachtel has been a member of the California Bar since 1990, the District of Columbia Bar since 1991, and the Maryland Bar since 1997. He took inactive status in the California Bar after relocating to Washington, D.C. in 1990.

Mr. Wachtel received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Washington University in St. Louis in 1984. He earned a J.D. degree with honors at the University of Texas School of Law in 1989. He served as a Notes Editor of the Texas Law Review in 1988-89.

PUBLICATIONS AND PRESENTATIONS

Mr. Wachtel is currently a member editorial advisory board for Wolters Kluwer Law & Business, Labor & Employment and was a member of the editorial advisory board for the first edition of Representing ADA Plaintiffs (James Publishing).

His publications include:

Quoted in Corporate Wellness Programs Require Legal Compliance Check-Up, Labor Law Reports Insight (January 27, 2010)

Amended Disabilities Act  Widens Protection, Policy & Practice, The Magazine of the American Public Human Services Association (February 2009)

Interactive Process for Hiring the Disabled, Policy & Practice: The Magazine of the American Public Human Services Association (September 2007)

What Does Broad New Definition of ‘Retaliation’ Mean to You? The HR Specialist’s Employment Law (August 2006)

Audioconference: Age Discrimination--Supreme Court Spurs New Litigation (Plaintiff's Perspective) National Institute of Business Management (April 2005)

Sanctions for Deleting and Over-writing Electronic Information: Broccoli v. Echostar Communications Corp., Maryland State Bar Association, Section of Labor & Employment Law Newsletter (Winter 2005)

Perspective: Managing Your Employees' Emotional Disability Claims, You & the Law (June 1999)

Spotlighting: Shop Smart for Insurance Against Employee Bias Claims, You & the Law, January 1999)

Spotlighting: Sexual Harassment: Supreme Court Says You're Safe if You Exercise "Reasonable Care." What Does That Mean? You & the Law (November 1998)

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