David W. Johnson brings to his teaching a unique blend of breadth and depth in the practice of law. He began his career in the courtroom, with over 20 civil trials, state and federal. He has argued a dozen state appellate matters, with 6 district opinions issued, and one state Supreme Court argument challenging the prima facie constitutionality of a proposed tax on commercial speech. His law firm experience includes intellectual property and business litigation at Fenwick & West and Morgan/Lewis in Silicon Valley, representing an array of technology clients including Apple, Broderbund, Cisco, Compuware, Electronic Arts, Go Remote, Homestore.com, Intuit, Merrill-Lynch, McKesson, Sankyo Pharma, The Business Software Alliance and The Computer History Museum.

He was General Counsel for a pioneer in the social media and online advertising space, AllAdvantage.com. Thereafter, as GC and COO of the Palo Alto-based innovation accelerator MG Taylor, Inc., he negotiated its joint-venture into the nation’s first Healthcare Innovation Center at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. He was Deputy General Counsel at Xenogen (NYSE: XGEN), which implemented in vivo optical imaging technologies for cancer research invented by Dr. Chris Contag, Stanford’s internationally-renowned Professor of Microbiology & Immunology. David co-managed Xenogen’s merger with Caliper Life Sciences (NYSE: CALP), a microfluidics instrumentation developer, where he continued on as its Deputy GC. He has returned to the world of healthcare as a Principal and General Counsel at Triage Consulting Group, a hospital revenue-cycle consultancy serving non-profit, academic and children’s hospitals nationwide.

He regularly delivers lectures, seminars and panel presentations, has represented clients testifying before Congress, has himself testified before the California Senate, and in 2008 consulted on the Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade energy bill, HR2454, for Al Gore's Alliance for Climate Protection. He holds a BA from Carleton College, JD from the University of Miami, and a JSM in Law, Science & Technology from Stanford Law School. His interdisciplinary thesis examined the applicability of object-modeling and fuzzy set theory to law and policy making, eliciting from his faculty advisor the remark that he was "the most widely-read person I know." Dave is an avid sailboat racer, and a diligent but decidedly average tennis player and skier.