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As a former federal prosecutor and business litigator and now a full time mediator, arbitrator, and special master, Mr. Lichter has substantial experience in a wide range of business litigation, including (in addition to those areas listed below) class actions, breach of contract, non-compete agreements, trade secrets, legal professional liability, tortious interference, franchises, distributorships, dealer termination, antitrust, civil rights, FLSA, False Claims Act, RICO, ADA, RESPA, TILA, TCPA, FDCPA, FCRA, FDUTPA, Title VII, fraudulent transfers, preference and/or claw back actions, LLC and partnership disputes, computer related disputes, injunctions, temporary restraining orders, and a variety of common law business torts.
The parties appearing before Mr. Lichter at arbitration or in mediation have included a wide variety of individuals, class representatives and institutions, including, but not limited to, developers, banks, mortgage lenders, realtors, contractors, broker dealers, financial planners, software companies, recording artists, record labels, professional athletes, insurance companies, automobile manufacturers and dealerships, major oil companies, engineering firms, law firms, CPA firms, medical practices, international exporters and importers, pharmaceutical companies, aviation concerns, hospitals, physicians, teacher’s unions, produce companies, tobacco companies, hotels, religious institutions, international retailers, appraisers, an Indian tribe and the SEC, FTC, CFTC, U.S. Department of Justice, U.S. Department of Agriculture, U.S. Dept. of Labor, the Federal Bureau of Prisons, the State of Florida and many cities and counties.
The amounts of money in dispute in these cases have ranged from very small to $2 billion. What follows is a more detailed description of Mr. Lichter’s work in certain substantive areas.
Employment Related Matters – For nearly 30 years, Mr. Lichter represented employers and employees in cases involving violations of employment agreements, termination, non-compete clauses, confidential and proprietary information and trade secret issues, including emergency injunctive relief. His experience includes representing employers and tipped and hourly employees in federal court in both individual and collective actions and in numerous individual actions before the AAA in FLSA cases. He is familiar with issues relating to overtime, misclassification, the DOL’s Field Operations Handbook. Mr. Lichter has mediated and served as an arbitrator in many employment disputes including those involving the foregoing issues as well as Title VII, ADA, FMLA and the Florida Civil Rights Act.
Intellectual Property – During his career, Mr. Lichter represented both plaintiffs and defendants in trademark and copyright infringement and counterfeiting cases involving federal and state law claims. He has obtained ex parte injunctive relief on behalf of trademark and/or copyright owners in the clothing, jewelry and software publishing business, and for 20 years represented a major software publishing trade association and handled its anti-piracy work in the southeast. His practice also included the successful defense of people and businesses accused of copyright or trademark infringement. David has also successfully resolved many intellectual property disputes as a mediator and addressed compliance, licensing, royalties, and piracy issues.
Real Estate – Mr. Lichter’s practice included a large range of real estate related matters. He has arbitrated matters involving public and private financing of senior living facilities and residential construction disputes and he has mediated complicated zoning disputes between municipalities, between cities and businesses and/or not profits, complex multiparty commercial/residential foreclosures, issues involving disputes over collateral and guarantees, RESPA and TILA issues. He has litigated cases involving commission disputes and matters involving the return of condominium deposits.
Securities – For much of his career, Mr. Lichter was activity involved in securities matters in state and federal court and before FINRA. He previously represented broker-dealers and individual brokers in court, before FINRA and the SEC. He is a FINRA mediator who has mediated over 600 securities-related matters and previously served as a FINRA arbitrator. Mr. Lichter has also arbitrated securities matters for the AAA. The matters in which he has been involved include a wide variety of broker dealers, registered representatives, RIAs, individuals and private companies. The issues he has litigated, arbitrated or mediated include with issues involving suitability, churning, commissions, fees, selling away, portfolio management, raiding, private placement memoranda, insider trading, foreign exchange, commodities, pump-and-dump schemes, defamation, tax fraud, boiler rooms and The Protocol. The products at issue have included stocks, bonds, REITS, mutual funds, structured products, life insurance, annuities, options, promissory notes and forgivable loans.
Healthcare – Mr. Lichter has arbitrated and mediated cases involving hospitals, insurance companies, physician practices and third party providers involving third party billing, reimbursements, capitation agreements, claims payment and processing, coding medical necessity, application of notice provisions, the the statute of limitations, DRG and MCG guidelines, acquisitions, termination, staff privileges, non-competes, practice break-ups, HMOs and the interpretation of Florida’s Medicaid/Medicare and related statutes. Mr. Lichter has issued a number of orders addressing sampling design in the context selecting a sampling protocol for arbitrations involving hundreds or thousands of individual claims which could not be practically tried without employing a sampling protocol.
Insurance – Mr. Lichter has arbitrated and mediated a broad range of coverage and benefit disputes, including life, disability, professional liability, director and officer, errors and omissions and bad faith actions falling within and outside of ERISA. He has litigated issues relating to insurance coverage and tried one case to verdict in federal court regarding insurance coverage.
Technology – Mediated and arbitrated cases involving cases involving the failed implementation and support of high-end software packages in the banking and financial sector, as well as matters alleging unauthorized reverse engineering and theft of trade secrets in the beta-testing and deployment of health care related software. As a litigator, successfully represented a start-up medical company in a dispute with a front-end and back-end web developer which bungled the development and rollout of the start-up’s website. Hired a forensic computer expert and liaised with a sophisticated computer consultant to extract a substantial settlement which included the cost of remediation, damages for the delayed launch and attorney’s fees.
Finance – Mr. Lichter has arbitrated cases involving investment banking, tax-exempt and non-tax-exempt corporate bond financing, obligations under consulting and partnership agreements for raising capital and entitlement to equity interests thereunder.
ADR Training – Arbitrator Roundtable – Current Trends in Arbitration (2019); CI Arb Accelerated International Arbitration Training (2019); Arbitrator Performance and Demeanor – Meeting Participant Expectations (2018); AAA Webinar: Meeting Participant Expectations (2018); AAA Conducting Research & Investigations: The Arbitrator’s Authority, (2017); AAA Clarity in Award Writing (2016); AAA/ICDR/Mediation.org Panel Conference (2016); AAA Crossing the Line: New Developments in the Law of Arbitral Jurisdiction (2015); AAA Arbitrating in a Digital World; Fair & Expeditious Management of Electronic Discovery (2015); AAA, Get a Grip! Wrangling the Mediation Process to Improve Your Chances of Success in Multi- Party Disputes (2015); AAA Webinar, Innovative Testimony Techniques for the Arbitration Hearing (2014); ABA Section of Dispute Resolution, 14th Annual Spring Conference (2012); AAA Advanced Mediator Training: Managing the Dynamics of a Multi-Party Case (2011); AAA Maximizing Efficiency & Economy in Arbitration: Challenges at the Preliminary Hearing (2011); AAA Chairing an Arbitration Panel: Managing Procedures, Process & Dynamics (2010); AAA Advanced Mediator Training (2010); AAA Arbitration Awards: Safeguarding, Deciding & Writing Awards (2009); AAA Arbitration Fundamentals and Best Practices for New Arbitrators (2009); Mediation Training Center, Exploring Problem Solving Frontiers (2007); NASD, Revised Code of Arbitration Procedure Training (2007); ABA Section of Dispute Resolution, ADR on My Mind (2006); Mediation Services, Inc., Supreme Court Certified – Family Mediation Training (2005); NASD, Panel Member Training (2005); Mediation Institute of America, Inc., Florida Supreme Court Approved, Circuit Civil Mediation Training (1997).
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