David R. Burtt

dburtt@obllaw.com 

Direct 415.433.3902
Fax 415.433.3950

Download vCard for David Burtt

Professional Experience

Dave Burtt has more than 12 years of general litigation experience focusing on employee mobility cases (including trade secrets, non-competes, and breach of confidentiality agreements), general commercial litigation, employment litigation, and consumer class actions.

Colleagues and clients regard him as one of the premier trade secret and restrictive covenant litigators in California. Dave has successfully represented corporations and individuals at every stage of trade secret and employee mobility litigation. He’s won the race to the courthouse when necessary, but has the experience and foresight to formulate reasonable and meaningful early settlement agreements where possible, saving our clients significant fees and the distraction often caused by expedited litigation.

Over the past decade Dave has handled more than fifty lawsuits involving the theft of trade secrets, solicitation of customers and employees, enforcement (and avoidance) of restrictive covenants, usurpation of corporation opportunities and duty of loyalty claims, interference with business relationships, and unfair competition. Individuals who are considering starting their own company often consult with Dave on how to do so without running afoul of their obligations to their current employer and California law. On the flip side, Dave has also represented numerous companies who have had to resort to litigation to protect their intellectual property and contractual rights and to reclaim inventions which should have been assigned by their own employees.

Dave also counsels our clients on trade secret protection programs – including the use of non-disclosure, inventions assignment, and restrictive covenant agreements – to help them protect their proprietary information and preserve fair competition to the fullest extent permitted by laws which vary significantly across the jurisdictions where they do business.

Dave also oversees complex commercial litigation on behalf of individuals and companies, big and small.

Prior to founding Ongaro Burtt & Louderback LLP, Dave was a partner in Perkins Coie’s commercial litigation and employment groups after spending several years in Silicon Valley with WSGR.

Education

J.D., Vanderbilt University Law School (1998)
B.S., Cornell University – School of Industrial and Labor Relations (1995)

Admissions and Courts

California
U.S. District Court for the Northern, Eastern, Central, and Southern Districts of California
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit

Notable Decisions

Huff v. Liberty League Intern., LLC, 2009 WL 1033788 (C.D. Cal. 2009)
O’Connor v. Starbucks Corp., 2008 WL 2761586 (N.D. Cal. 2008)
Advanta Corp. v. Dialogic Corp., 2006 WL 1156385 (N.D. Cal. 2006)
Advanced Bionics Corp. v. Medtronic, Inc., 29 Cal.4th 697 (2002) (California Supreme Court amicus brief)
Globespan, Inc. v. O’Neill, 151 F.Supp.2d 1229 (C.D. Cal. 2001).