David M. Lira

Contact Info.:  700 Shore Road #3D, Long Beach, NY 11561, (800) 427-6458, (516) 222-2777, Cell (516) 398-6381, FAX (516) 706-0920

Areas of Practice:

Employment including discrimination, retaliation and harassment under Title VII, ADEA, ADA, NYS and Local Human Rights Laws – pension and other employee benefits, including health insurance – family medical leave issues – minimum wage, overtime, tips, on-call and other wage and hour issues – non-compete issues – federal, NYS and local civil service, including disciplinary hearings

Education issues from pre-school to post-graduate, including special education issues under IDEA and NYS Education Law.

Defendant and plaintiff personal injury including automobile accidents, trip/slip & fall, and intentional torts (such as defamation, false arrest, assault), no-fault.

Commercial litigation and debt collection, including mortgage foreclosure.

Skill Sets:

Litigation: from inception through trial and appeal, including intake, preliminary case evaluation, pleadings, discovery, depositions, motion practice, settlement and trial preparation.

Fact and legal research and writing: Including pleadings, discovery demands and disclosures, motions and supporting papers including memoranda of law, settlement position statements, proposed pretrial orders, proposed jury instructions, trial and appellate briefs, involving issues ranging from the simple to the complex on procedural, evidentiary and substantive issues, including a few cutting edge issues. Skilled at on-line legal research, and on-line fact research including of medical issues and of background of parties and witnesses.

Document management: A skill initially acquired while employed as a student clerk on the Northeast Railroad Bankruptcy proceeding, and honed while employed with the FTC, where document returns were usually measured by the truck-loads and involved very short turnarounds. Use of computer technologies, especially databases and scanning, to index and manage pretrial and trial files, and discovery returns so as to identify key documents and allow for ready retrieval of any needed document, and analyze available evidence to develop claims and defenses.

Depositions: I have literally conducted thousands of depositions, mostly in personal injury area, but many in employment and other matters.

Motion practice: Wide variety of motions, made and opposed, including for temporary restraining orders (“TROs”) and preliminary injunctions, dismissal, and summary judgment, with more demanding motions mostly concentrated in federal court, though there have been many motions in, in particular, NYS Supreme Court.

Trials: Conducted numerous trials in both federal and state court. For a period of time, I was doing one trial after another, mostly in the personal injury area. All aspects of trial work, from identification of exhibits and witnesses, witness preparation, jury selection, pretrial conference, charge conferences, examination of lay and expert witnesses on direct and cross, opening and closing statements, motions in limine.

Arbitration: Mostly as advocate but also as arbitrator in Nassau County District Court. From short and simple no-fault arbitrations to quasi-trials in forums such as AAA and OATH.

Mediation: Mostly as advocate but also as mediator in Nassau County District Court, Landlord-Tenant Part, and NYS Supreme Court, Nassau County, Commercial Part. Most mediations as advocate involved more involved employment matters, but there have been simpler matters.

Appeals: All aspects of appeals from notice of appeal, preparation with aid of appellate printer of appendix or record, preparation of brief, pre-argument conferences, oral argument.

Current Bar Admissions:

United States Supreme Court — United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit — United States District Court for the Southern District of New York — United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York — New York State

Education:

JURIS DOCTOR, Catholic University, Washington, DC

BACHELOR OF ARTS, Queens College, Flushing, NY

Forums In Which Have Practiced (not a comprehensive listing):

US Supreme Court – US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit – US District Court for the Southern & Eastern Districts of New York – NYSCourt of Appeals – NYS Appellate Division, First & Second Departments – NYS Supreme Court, New York, Bronx, Queens, Kings, Richmond, Nassau, Suffolk, Westchester and Rockland Counties – District Court, Nassau & Suffolk County – New York City Civil Court, New York, Kings and Queens County – EEOC – MSPB – NYS Division of Human Rights – NYC and Nassau County Commission on Human Rights – Workers’ Compensation Board (discrimination claims only, including hearings) – Unemployment Compensation Board (very limited experience) – NYC Office of Administrative Trials & Hearings – New York State, Department of Education – FTC

 Employment As Attorney:

SOLE PRACTITIONER, Garden City and Long Beach, NY

FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION, Bureau of Competition, Washington, DC, including work on Merger Guidelines Task Force between FTC and US Department of Justice, Antitrust Division

Other Experience, Awards and Affiliations:

Member, Judiciary Committee of Nassau County Bar Association (screening of judicial candidates and other candidates for quasi-judicial positions in Nassau County), 2010 to 2016

Member, Community Relations and Public Education, and Labor and Employment Law Committees Nassau County Bar Association

Speaker on Issues Related to Employment and Other Civil Rights issues through Nassau Academy of Law and Nassau County Bar Association Speakers Bureau

Chair, Alternative Dispute Resolution Committee, Nassau County Bar Association, 2006 to 2008; Co-Chair, 2004 to 2006; long-time member of this committee

Arbitrator training on Employment Discrimination Claims, Nassau County Bar Association, 1997 & 1998

Mediation Training, Nassau County Bar Association, 1999, 2002 & 2016

Former General Counsel, Queens College Alumni Association

Former Adjunct Professor of Law, C.W. Post Campus, Long Island University, Greenvale, NY

Arbitrator, District Court, Nassau County, until 2010

Volunteer Lawyers Project (assisting indigent clients with matrimonial, landlord-tenant, and foreclosure issues)

Nassau County Bar Association Pro Bono Attorney of Month, December, 1992 and December 2009 – Nassau County Bar Association Pro Bono Attorney of Year, 1992

Center for National Policy Review, Washington, D.C. (intern)

Author, Bankruptcy, Prentice-Hall (out of print and out of date)

Current and Past Memberships: American Bar Association — New York State Bar Association — National Employment Lawyers Association — Nassau County Bar Association — Queens County Bar Association — Long Beach Lawyers Association — National Hispanic Bar Association

Personal:  Born in Flushing, Queens, New York; raised in Corona, Queens, New York; long-time resident of Long Beach, Nassau County, New York; married.