DAVID WACHTEL, PARTNER

Since Bernabei & Wachtel formed in 2006, Mr. Wachtel has served as lead counsel for more than a hundred individual clients, including high profile whistleblowers in nuclear power and aviation, women subject to sexual assault and stalking, executives and professionals needing discreet severance negotiations, and legal and financial institutions requiring objective, neutral investigations.

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 of the 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)