David Tracey is the Firm Managing Partner at Sanford Heisler Sharp McKnight and Co-Chair of the firm's Public Interest Litigation Practice Group. His practice has focused on discrimination and retaliation, wage and hour, civil rights, and employee benefits cases.
David's representations have included serving as class counsel to a class of over 100,000 current and former participants of the Walgreens Retirement Savings Plan, resulting in a $13.75 million settlement, and serving as counsel in In re: GE ERISA Litigation, resulting in a $61 million settlement. He litigated discrimination claims on behalf of sales representatives employed by Forest Pharmaceuticals, culminating in a $4 million court-approved class settlement; served as counsel in a gender discrimination case against Merck & Co., which culminated in a $6.2 million class settlement; and litigated on behalf of consumers alleging they were defrauded by energy company Starion Energy, resulting in a $2.5+ million court-approved class settlement.
David has also negotiated numerous seven-figure settlements for individual clients with discrimination and retaliation claims, including a $7 million settlement, along with non-monetary relief, for a senior executive with discrimination and retaliation claims, and a $4.95 million settlement for a client with discrimination claims.
He has litigated appeals in the United States Courts of Appeals for the Second, Fourth, and Eleventh Circuits, as well as the New York State Appellate Division, and has served as amicus counsel before the Second Circuit and the U.S. Supreme Court.
David received his law degree magna cum laude and Order of the Coif from New York University School of Law and his Bachelor of Arts magna cum laude from Yale University.
A member of the New York and New Jersey bars, David is the co-author of "Employers Should Owe a Duty of Loyalty to Their Workers," which appeared in Cardozo Law Review – De Novo (2020).
In 2024, The National Law Journal named David a Rising Star of the Plaintiffs Bar, and the New York Law Journal named him a Rising Star.
Before joining Sanford Heisler Sharp McKnight, David completed a clerkship for the Hon. Garland E. Burrell Jr. of the U.S. District Court, Eastern District of California.
- Class action
- Labor and employment
- Plaintiff
- B.A., Yale University
- J.D., New York University School of Law
- New York
- New Jersey