David B. Wechsler regularly represents clients in the financial sector (banking, private equity, hedge funds and asset management) and in a variety of other industries — including founders, CEOs, other “C-Suite” professionals, board members, and senior executives — from public companies to start-ups. He also has represented many General Counsel, HR executives, and companies, who have sat across the table from him, only to seek his assistance when they themselves needed an experienced employment lawyer.
Each year Mr. Wechsler negotiates employment, partnership, carry, equity, transition, retirement and separation agreements worth an estimated more than $100 million and, when negotiations have proven unsuccessful, has secured more than 100 arbitration awards and judgments. Mr. Wechsler’s relationships with partners at some of the nation’s most prestigious law firms and many in-house counsel, HR executives, arbitrators, mediators, and regulators, often lead to practical resolutions without resorting to sustained and expensive litigation. He has also defended employees in internal company and FINRA investigations. Mr. Wechsler has been quoted in leading national publications, including The Wall Street Journal, has appeared on CNN, and has participated as a noted speaker on industry panels.
Notable Matters:
- Mr. Wechsler’s arbitration successes include awards of:
- $14.08 million plus denial of a $2 million counterclaim in favor of three Merrill Lynch financial advisors wrongfully terminated for cause and defamed on their regulatory records;
- $23.3 million for a wrongfully terminated portfolio manager of a large asset management firm;
- $3.8 million in deferred compensation to a senior equity analyst employed by a multi-billion hedge fund terminated for allegedly not disclosing to compliance that he may have possessed material non-public information;
- $6.8 million and expunged regulatory record for a financial advisor wrongfully terminated by Wells Fargo/Wachovia Securities.
More recently, Mr. Wechsler secured settlements in two separate cases where the companies each settled for more than $6 million after the full evidentiary hearing. He also recently defeated an attempt by a global technology and management consultancy to restrain a former employee from joining Ernst & Young, and negotiated contracts for nearly a dozen senior investment bankers who left Credit Suisse to join Santander.
Education:
Mr. Wechsler graduated from State University of New York at Albany in 1980, magna cum laude, and received his law degree from Boston University School of Law in 1983, magna cum laude.
Admissions:
Mr. Wechsler is admitted to the bar of New York, the U.S. Court of Appeals Second Circuit, and the U.S. District Court for the Southern and Eastern District of New York.
Updated Sep 2023
