David W. Shapiro

Partner
Oakland

t: 510 874 1005
f: 510 874 1460

dshapiro@bsfllp.com

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Areas of Practice

Litigation

Securities Litigation

White-Collar /
Business Crimes

Education

State University of New York at Buffalo, J.D., 1979; Managing Editor, Buffalo Law Review; Awards for Best Student Article and Outstanding Contribution to Law Review

State University of New York at Binghamton, B.A. , English Literature and Creative Writing, 1976

Admissions

California, New York, and Arizona

United States Courts of Appeals: Second and Ninth Circuits

United States District Courts: Southern and Eastern Districts of New York, the District of Arizona, the Northern and Central Districts of California

The former United States Attorney in San Francisco, David Shapiro served for 16 years as a federal prosecutor in several offices -- the Eastern District of New York, the District of Arizona, and finally, between 1995 and 2002, the Northern District of California. He has conducted numerous jury trials in federal district court and arguments in the U.S. Courts of Appeals. His main practice area is complex litigation, including securities and business crimes.

While at the firm, Mr. Shapiro has represented Tyco International, Qwest, American Express, and Siemens, among others. He has represented top executives of public companies in grand jury investigations in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles of alleged violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and accounting fraud. He has also represented The San Francisco Chronicle in response to government requests for source information and a reporter charged in connection with investigating a controversial story.

Before joining the firm, Mr. Shapiro was a driving force behind the creation of the San Francisco United States Attorney's Office's first Securities Fraud Section and was instrumental in helping create the Office's Computer Hacking and Intellectual Property Section, which served as a model for the creation of similar prosecution units around the country in 2001. These and other changes to the Office helped catapult the United States Attorney's Office to the top ranks of federal prosecution offices around the country, so much so that prosecutors in the Office were asked to head up the federal government's investigations into Enron.

Mr. Shapiro has personally handled and tried complex federal prosecutions and civil cases. Between 1996 and 1998, he indicted a series of top executives of Media Vision Technology, Inc. in one of the first financial accounting fraud cases brought by the United States Attorney's office in San Francisco. Mr. Shapiro has tried cases ranging from financial accounting fraud and federal excise tax fraud to one of the first federal death penalty cases in the country after the re-introduction of the federal death penalty in 1988. Since joining the firm, he has handled consumer class action, securities, accounting fraud, RICO, and Foreign Corrupt Practices Act cases and investigations.

Mr. Shapiro was in private practice at a firm in New York City for six years where he specialized in corporate, securities and commercial litigation before becoming a federal prosecutor.

Mr. Shapiro has been asked to speak at numerous judicial, attorney, and corporate conference on a variety of topics, including securities fraud, joint defense agreements, the death penalty, and terrorism.

Selected Professional Awards and Associations

American Bar Association
San Francisco Bar Association