David Cross Named a Finalist in the Attorney of the Year category at The American Lawyer Industry Awards 2023

David Cross, chair of the Antitrust Litigation practice in the firm’s Global Antitrust Law Group, has been named a finalist in the Attorney of the Year category at The American Lawyer’s annual Industry Awards. David is one of only four finalists in the category that honors lawyers across the United States who have changed an area of law, reshaped the legal industry, accomplished something of great public service, or otherwise made a lasting impact within the last 12 months.

David is a leading trial lawyer with extensive experience in antitrust and complex business litigation, including intellectual property and general commercial matters. In addition to his client-focused work, David maintains a robust pro bono practice focused on protecting the rule of law. He is currently leading a team that obtained a statewide injunction on behalf of Georgia voters in 2019 to prevent the continued use of an antiquated election system that had been breached multiple times and that had no paper record of votes cast. That injunction helped enable the critical hand-count of ballots cast in the November 2020 Presidential election in Georgia. That case is ongoing due to Georgia’s adoption of a new unconstitutional election system that has enabled partisan actors to undermine voter confidence with misinformation campaigns. The team uncovered last year an unprecedented breach of Georgia’s current election system by individuals spreading misinformation about the system and the 2020 election results, which led to the replacement of certain voting equipment and multiple federal and state criminal investigations. David and his team, along with co-plaintiffs in the matter, discovered that numerous partisan actors, including self-professed computer science experts, spent several days copying proprietary voting software and accessing virtually every component of Georgia’s current voting system in its operational environment through a county elections office. Their activities included altering critical aspects of the election management server, on which the voting system and its many components depend for their operation, including ballot tabulation. The software and data taken from Georgia’s voting system has been broadly shared via the internet and other means.

In addition to David’s pro bono work, the American Lawyer highlights his “efforts to increase conversations about disabilities as part of the larger work to improve diversity in the profession.” David has opened up about living and practicing with a disability and has spoken publicly to bring much-needed attention to the struggles and social stigma associated with individuals with disabilities in the high-pressure world of Big Law. He also created MoFo’s Disability Affinity Network and has worked extensively to make it easier for people at the firm to identify as disabled and to foster a deeper sense of inclusion.

Winners will be announced at The American Lawyer Industry Awards gala in New York City on November 15, 2023. View the full list of finalists.