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Davis M. Walsh Partner

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Richmond T +1 804 775 7791 F fax +1 804 698 4673
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Davis Walsh is a litigator who focuses on high-risk cases that are critical to clients. As a trial lawyer, Davis brings creative solutions and strategies to present cases to juries.  Davis’s experience goes beyond the courtroom as he brings his work in governmental operations to bear on behalf of clients facing investigations. He is the lead editor of Infectious Disease Litigation: Science, Law and Procedure.

Davis is a trial lawyer, who is often called on to represent clients in high-risk matters. Among his trial work, Davis served as trial counsel in a high profile, eight-week, medical device trial in Washington state, a multi-week product liability trial, and a defamation trial.

Davis has helped clients avoid trial all together with success on summary judgment and expert witness motions. This includes success in winning summary judgment in a forty-plus plaintiff case claiming Family Medical Leave Act interference and retaliation, along with a recent success in earning summary judgment against a plaintiff utilizing the emerging “malfunction theory.” Davis also recently represented a client in defeating a temporary-restraining order and preliminary injunction that could have crippled a critical project critical for the company’s future plans.

Davis’s work on highly-technical cases involving infectious disease, engineering, medical, and scientific issues has made him a go-to lawyer for dealing with expert witnesses. Along with developing top-tier witnesses for clients, Davis also dives into these highly-technical areas to successfully challenge the opposing parties’ experts.

Clients also call on Davis to handle discovery in high-risk cases. Davis is often charged with interviewing key witnesses to build a client’s case and identify the key documents.  He has managed voluminous, cross-border e-discovery strategies for domestic and international clients. Davis views discovery as not just requirement of responding to the opposition but as a critical opportunity to build a client’s case.

Davis is a thought-leader in the life-science space. Along with being the lead editor and an author of Infectious Disease Litigation: Science, Law and Procedure, he has presented numerous times on life-science issues at conferences, is a sought after commentator in the press and on podcasts, and has authored numerous articles on life-science issues, expert admissibility, and damages issues. Davis was selected to serve on the American Bar Association’s Book Publishing Board and helps develop a range of thought-leadership in the legal space.

In addition to his private practice, Davis is active in his community through pro bono service. He served co-lead for educational advocacy matters in the Medical-Legal Partnership – Richmond program, a partnership between the Children’s Hospital of Richmond at Virginia Commonwealth University. Through the program, McGuireWoods and Dominion Energy offer free legal advice and representation for eligible patients and families. He also has partnered with the JustChildren program to provide pro bono representation to juvenile offenders seeking release. As pro bono counsel, he represented a client in a federal court defamation case as well as tenants in housing disputes.

Prior to joining McGuireWoods, Davis clerked for the Honorable Tommy E. Miller, Magistrate Judge for the Eastern District of Virginia. Davis previously served in the Office of Commonwealth Preparedness under then-Governor Timothy M. Kaine, and also served as the Legislative Assistant to State Senator R. Creigh Deeds.

Experience

  • Representation as national product liability counsel to an international medical device company.
  • Representation as coordinating counsel for punitive damages for an American Class I railroad.
  • Representation of a medical device company in a high-profile eight-week trial in Seattle, Washington. The jury rejected claims that a widely used medical scope that provides images of the stomach and small intestine was unsafe after a deadly superbug outbreak. The trial was the first in the United States involving allegations that gastrointestinal probes caused outbreaks of infections by drug-resistant bacteria and was watched closely by plaintiffs’ lawyers across the country with similar suits.
  • Representation of a generic pharmaceutical manufacturer in a product liability case. Plaintiff dismissed the manufacturer after the McGuireWoods team filed a motion to dismiss on preemption grounds.
  • Representation of a major employer facing over forty claims of Family Medical Leave Act interference and retaliation. Along with earning a complete summary judgment at the District Court level, McGuireWoods successfully argued the case before the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals.
  • Representation of a Class I railroad in a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction effort to halt work critical to the continued transportation of good across the Eastern seaboard.  The District Court denied both a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction.
  • Representation of a major transportation company in a defamation trial. Plaintiff’s verdict was reversed on appeal.
  • Representation of a leading lifestyle company against claims that its product caused tonsillar cancer. Along with prevailing in multiple motions to exclude Plaintiff’s experts, McGuireWoods won a complete summary judgment.
  • Representation of a leading automaker in a “malfunction theory” claim. Plaintiff attempted to use the malfunction theory to claim that her injury was claimed by a defect in a device despite adducing no evidence of a specific defect.  McGuireWoods successfully argued that the malfunction theory did not apply and won summary judgment.
  • Representation of a multinational automaker at a two-week product liability trial.
  • Representation of an industry leading energy company in a two-week premises liability trial.
  • Representation of a leading supplier of rail-based freight transportation in a lawsuit filed against a waste management company and its driver related to the failing of exercising due caution at train tracks which resulted in a massive explosion.
  • Representation of multinational automaker in litigation. Plaintiff claimed his decedent developed mesothelioma as a result of exposure to asbestos from the automaker’s brakes while performing inspections of Virginia state inspection sites as a member of the Virginia State Police. Plaintiff’s verdict over-turned on appeal. Defense verdict upon re-trial.
  • Defense of New Mexico-based dairy farmers in a nuisance action against dairy farms. Succeeded in obtaining summary judgment entered against the plaintiffs’ punitive damages claim and in excluding the plaintiffs’ expert testimony on public health and odor models.

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