San Diego Appellate Litigation Attorney

Partner, Appellate Litigation

David A. Schlesinger received his J.D. degree with cum laude honors from the New York University School of Law in 1996 and his Bachelor of Arts degree with summa cum laude honors from Duke University in 1993. He is a member of Phi Beta Kappa. After graduating from law school, Mr. Schlesinger worked as a law clerk for The Honorable Roderick R. McKelvie, United States District Judge for the District of Delaware, in Wilmington, Delaware. Following that clerkship, Mr. Schlesinger returned to his native New York City, where he practiced commercial litigation and white-collar criminal defense for more than three years with the law firms Cahill Gordon & Reindel and Swidler Berlin Shereff Friedman, LLP. While in private practice in New York, Mr. Schlesinger represented clients in federal and New York trial and appellate courts. He later worked as a law clerk for The Honorable Gerard E. Lynch, United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, and The Honorable M. Margaret McKeown, United States Circuit Judge, United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Thereafter, from October 2002 until January 2005, Mr. Schlesinger was a litigation associate at the well-regarded firm of Coughlan, Semmer & Lipman, LLP, in San Diego, California, where he practiced white-collar criminal defense and business litigation. Mr. Schlesinger’s practice at the firm included representing clients in proceedings in federal and California trial and appellate courts. In January 2005, Mr. Schlesinger became a partner in the firm that is now known as Jacobs & Schlesinger LLP.

Mr. Schlesinger focuses his practice on representing clients during all phases of appellate proceedings in civil, criminal, and immigration cases in the federal courts of appeals, California courts, the Board of Immigration Appeals, and the Administrative Appeals Office of the Citizenship and Immigration Services agency. In particular, Mr. Schlesinger has strong knowledge of the Ninth Circuit’s procedures and practices, and is available to counsel attorneys in all stages of representation of clients before that court. Additionally, Mr. Schlesinger is available on a contract basis to assist attorneys with any research and writing projects, including pre- and post-trial motion practice.

In April 2009, Mr. Schlesinger was appointed by the Ninth Circuit to be one of 22 inaugural Appellate Lawyer Representatives to the Ninth Circuit Judicial Conference. As part of his responsibilities, Mr. Schlesinger attends periodic court meetings, including the annual circuit-wide judicial conference; serves on Appellate Lawyer Representative subcommittees involving attorney education and pro bono representation; and participates in professional events involving Lawyer Representatives to the Judicial Conference from the Southern District of California.

Mr. Schlesinger is a member of the bars of the states of California and New York. He is admitted to practice before several federal courts, including the United States District Court for the Southern District of California and the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Mr. Schlesinger is also a member of the Executive Committee of the San Diego Chapter of the Federal Bar Association (Immigration Liaison), the San Diego County Bar Association (Appellate and Immigration sections), and the American Immigration Lawyers Association. Mr. Schlesinger is conversant in Spanish.