David D. Cardone  |  Associate

Areas of Practice

Mr. Cardone is an associate with Butz Dunn & DeSantis. His areas of practice include business and corporate representation, business and commercial litigation, and professional liability defense. From 2006-2008, David served as one of six judicial law clerks to Justice Cynthia A. Baldwin of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. In that role, David worked on dozens of majority and collateral opinions, reviewed and recommended the disposition of scores of petitions for allocatur, which is the Pennsylvania Supreme Court's discretionary review mechanism, and attended over 100 oral arguments. Prior to his clerkship, David worked in the Los Angeles office of Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi where he was primarily involved in large-scale commercial coverage litigation.

Representative Matters

• Assisted in the defense of a prominent international insurance syndicate facing coverage claims raised by a California-based petroleum company, for damage caused by South American terrorists, under a policy with a war-risk exclusion.
• Prepared an analysis of free speech rights for the largest North American retailer of a brand of imported cigars in preparation for an advertising campaign.
• Assisted in the resolution of a complex coverage dispute and month-long trial in Santa Barbara County, which involved claims for hundreds of millions of dollars in actual and punitive damages to a coastal resort, where the primary issue was application of California's manifestation-of-damage law.
• Obtained an arbitration decision in favor of the drummer of a successful musical band against other band members for the value of his share of their general partnership.
• Won a motion for judgment on the pleadings in an insurance coverage matter in which the critical issue of law was a matter of first impression for the Pennsylvania courts, the decision of which was not appealed.
• Assisted in the successful representation of a Pennsylvania-based petroleum company in a complex coverage and professional negligence action against its insurer and commercial lines broker involving placement of coverage for a risk foreseeable in the petroleum industry.

Email

dcardone@butzdunn.com

Education

Mr. Cardone graduated from The Pennsylvania State University in 1999, with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science. He attended Duquesne University School of Law where he worked as a research assistant to nationally-acclaimed constitutional law scholar and author Ken Gormley. Mr. Cardone earned his Juris Doctorate in 2003.

Admissions

• Admitted to practice, all courts of the State of California
• Admitted to practice, all courts of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
• Admitted to practice, the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania
• Admitted to practice, United States District Court for the Southern, Central, Eastern and Northern Districts of California
• Admitted to practice, the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit
• Admitted to practice, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit

Memberships

• State Bar of California
• State Bar of Pennsylvania
• San Diego County Bar Association
• Delegate, State Bar of California Conference of Delegates
• The Association of Business and Trial Lawyers
• Associate, American Inns of Court, The Honorable William B. Enright Chapter
• San Diego Defense Lawyers

Publications & Speaking Engagements

Mr. Cardone has authored legal articles on topics such as the First Amendment rights of third-party political candidates and an assessment of appellate practice as a distinct legal practice area. Mr. Cardone is also an adjunct faculty member at Thomas Jefferson School of Law where he teaches advanced legal writing. He has previously assisted in teaching trial tactics and litigation courses and has been involved in judging numerous collegiate and law school mock trial and moot court competitions since 2003. Mr. Cardone was recently recognized as a Practitioner Contributor to the Abridged 9th Edition of Black's Law Dictionary (2010). Mr. Cardone also volunteers for the San Diego Volunteer Lawyer Program and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals' Pro Bono Program.