David M. White

Adjunct Professor of Law

White & Associates, P.C.
Phone: 973-642-8084
Fax: 973-642-8064

Professor David M. White is a recognized innovator in the field of professional skills development. His areas of expertise include commercial negotiation, federal court-annexed mediation, and securities arbitration before the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (“FINRA”). He provides frequent media commentary on decisions and trends within those fields.

Prior to beginning his legal education, Professor White was a human resources/labor relations executive with United Parcel Service of America, Inc. (“UPS”). He served as a management representative at the historic 1997 collective bargaining negotiation with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.

As a law student, Professor White co-founded the Fordham Dispute Resolution Society, a student organization that the American Bar Association has lauded as a model for other institutions. He was a two-time interschool competition national champion (2000 National Criminal Procedure Moot Court Tournament, Best Brief – Appellant Award; 2002 ABA Representation in Mediation Competition). He subsequently coached three separate schools to Representation in Mediation Competition regional titles: Fordham (2004, 2005, 2006, 2007); Benjamin N. Cardozo (2008); and Seton Hall (2010, 2011).

Prior to joining the full-time legal academy, Professor White specialized in complex commercial litigation and white-collar criminal defense. He was a member of the trial team in NAACP v. AcuSport, et al. (EDNY 2003), a case recognized by the National Law Journal as one of the Top 10 Defense Verdicts of that year. He defended one of the principal figures in United States v. LoCascio, et al. (EDNY 2005), a case the Department of Justice has characterized as the largest non-securities consumer fraud in American history. More recently, he defended an individual accused of the $80 million fraudulent sale of automated teller machines.

Professor White honed his conflict management skills at the Harvard Program on Negotiation. He is a past Co-Chair of the ABA Section of Dispute Resolution Lawyer as Problem Solver Committee and has presented to the Legal Educators’ Colloquium. He serves as a court-appointed mediator in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York Panel and the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York Storm Sandy Panel.

Professor White is a staunch proponent of the Civil Gideon movement, an initiative that calls for universal access to justice. Through an innovative partnership with the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, Seton Hall student advocates represent federal litigants before mediators and magistrate judges. Chief Judge Loretta A. Preska praised this undertaking as “the biggest win/win/win of which I can conceive.”

Professor White also serves as the founding director of the Investor Advocacy Project (“IAP”), one of 8 law school securities arbitration clinics to receive a $250,000 grant from the FINRA Investor Education Foundation. The IAP’s dual mandate is to promote informed investing and to provide zealous advocacy to Garden State residents of modest means. Vulnerable populations include seniors and the families of active military personnel.

Professor White maintains strong relationships with various law enforcement agencies including the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”) and the New York City Police Department (“NYPD”). He is an alumnus of the FBI Citizens Academy and maintains active membership in the FBI’s Infragard Alliance/Metro New York Chapter. He is an oft-invited guest of the Citizens Crime Commission of New York City.

Professor White served as a civilian appointee to Reengineering 2014, NYPD Police Commissioner Bill Bratton's initiative to critically consider the organization's day-to-day policies and procedures.

Professor White also has a pedagogical interest in the application of crisis negotiation (hostage/barricade/kidnapping) techniques to legal practice. He has trained with the NYPD Hostage Negotiation Team and is one of a discrete number of non-law enforcement professionals to have completed the FBI one-week Crisis Negotiation Course. In collaboration with the FBI Crisis Negotiation Unit (Quantico, VA), Professor White designed the first full-length course to be offered at an American law school.

Professor White is a member of the adjunct faculties of the Georgetown University Law Center (Negotiation Seminar), the Fordham University School of Law (Advanced Client Counseling Seminar), and the Yeshiva University Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law (Dispute Resolution Processes; Interviewing and Counseling), and the City University of New York John Jay College of Criminal Justice (Constitutional Law; Criminal Law; Police Ethics). He taught International & Domestic Dispute Resolution at Queens University (Belfast, Northern Ireland) and University College Dublin (Republic of Ireland) as a member of the Fordham Summer Program.

The Seton Hall Law Student Bar Association Honored Professor White as the 2013-2014 Clinical Professor of the Year.