David attended Buffalo Law School where he was an Editor of the Law Review and winner of the Desmond Moot Court Competition. After his second year he clerked for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund where he worked on appeals before the U.S. Supreme Court challenging the death penalty. David J. Clegg, Esq. Chairperson of the Human Commission After finishing law school, in June 1977, he joined Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA) and engaged in civil rights work representing Native Americans in Western Nebraska and South Dakota for two years. During that time he won landmark cases including the highest civil rights verdict in the history of the State of Nebraska. At the age of 27 he was hired by Western Nebraska Legal Services as their lead litigation attorney. During his time as senior litigation attorney, where he won numerous impact cases including a class action jail suit and civil rights/medical malpractice case against a hospital, and two landmark Native American Rights Cases Hawkman v. Parratt and Yellowbird v. City of Gordon. In 1982 he returned home to New York and founded his law firm specializing in medical malpractice and personal injury law. He is recognized as a Fellow by the American Association For Justice, the national trial lawyers association, and has completed the Ultimate Trial Advocacy course at Harvard Law School, a program reserved for only the most accomplished trial attorneys. Over the years, David has tried and won more than one hundred cases and has successfully settled many hundreds more. He is especially proud of the result he achieved in Campbell v. City of Elmira, a case involving a collision between a motorcyclist and an emergency vehicle, which was tried to a successful verdict and then appealed by the City of Elmira all the way to the New York State Court of Appeals. In a landmark ruling the high Court found in favor of David’s client. David has a history of successfully representing a wide variety of injured persons in difficult and complex cases with a substantial number of awards in excess of a million dollars. David believes strongly in community service and devotes both resources and time to numerous charitable causes. Over the years he has held leadership positions with community service and charitable organizations including the Boards of Mid Huston Legal Services, Darmstadt Homeless Shelter, Rip Van Winkle Boy Scout Council and Family of Woodstock. He has sponsored and coached youth basketball teams in the City of Kingston for over twenty years. David recently received a Masters degree from Yale Divinity School and has been commissioned as a Deacon in the United Methodist Church. He is presently a Commissioner on the Ulster County Human Rights Commission David has been married to his wife Karen for 36 years. They have two grown children. David’s recreational activities include basketball and mountain climbing.
