David E. Garrett is Managing Director and oversees the firm’s Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Seattle offices. In that role, he is in charge of daily operations while also actively managing cybercrime response, security risk assessments, digital forensics, and electronic discovery projects for Fortune 500 corporations and major law firms. Mr. Garrett has extensive cybersecurity experience and regularly consults with CIOs, CISOs, top executives, Boards of Directors, and General Counsels concerning security risk management strategies, security incident investigations, and post-incident assessments. He often collaborates closely with corporate directors and senior management to ensure that they are fulfilling their fiduciary obligations to effectively manage their organization’s cyber risks.
Since joining Stroz Friedberg in late 2008, Mr. Garrett has managed more than 200 engagements, including investigations into data breaches, investigations into alleged theft of trade secrets, source code, or other highly sensitive intellectual property, and large-scale, international electronic discovery matters. His work in these matters is often indispensable for clients who are seeking or defending temporary restraining orders, filing expert witness declarations in support of dispositive motions, or struggling with electronic discovery obligations. Companies routinely hire Mr. Garrett to recover or remediate confidential data from all varieties of computer media and data storage, including proprietary databases, mobile devices and cloud storage repositories. Mr. Garrett also has extensive international experience working on the ground in Asia. He has managed numerous cross-border electronic discovery matters, Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) investigations, and international data remediation projects.
Prior to joining Stroz Friedberg, Mr. Garrett served as Senior Corporate Counsel for Oracle Corporation, where he successfully resolved hundreds of commercial and intellectual property matters, including copyright infringement claims, licensing disputes, and government investigations. Mr. Garrett advised Oracle’s senior management on long-term litigation and settlement strategies for several large matters, including the defense of a $100 million copyright infringement claim. He also spearheaded Oracle’s global electronic discovery initiative, where he led legal and IT teams across multiple business units, evaluated new technologies to increase efficiencies and lower costs, and created extensive internal electronic discovery guidelines and protocols.
Before joining Oracle, Mr. Garrett was a senior associate at Cooley LLP in San Francisco. At Cooley, he handled numerous complex civil litigation matters, including the successful defense of a large software company and an online retailer against trademark infringement claims and an action to identify and prosecute a computer hacker who attacked an e-commerce business.
Mr. Garrett is a member of the ABA’s Section of Science and Technology Law and the Sedona Conference. He speaks regularly at educational events and legal conferences on various cybersecurity, data privacy, and forensics topics. He is the author of several articles, including “No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: The Unintended Consequences of Using Your Personal Devices for Work” which appeared in Bloomberg BNA’s Digital Discovery & e-Evidence in September 2012.
