With more than 35 years of professional experience, David Ben-Meir has built a notable career in law, specializing in intellectual property, commercial litigation, and dispute resolution. When disputes call for a negotiated solution, Ben-Meir helps clients identify optimal, obtainable outcomes, then works hand in hand with them to develop and execute strategies to realize them. Ben-Meir also intentionally focuses on outcome durability. In this regard, Ben-Meir strives to minimize post-resolution friction and second-guessing.
From Engineering to Law
Before his legal career, Ben-Meir focused on science and engineering. After graduating with a Bachelor of Science in physics from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1988, he joined Litton Industries as an engineer. He immediately joined a small team tasked with researching and developing object and pattern recognition systems for military and commercial applications. As part of the team’s efforts, Ben-Meir explored and tested early artificial intelligence processing models. During this period, in 1994, he furthered his education, earning a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering from California State University, Northridge, with his master’s thesis directed to artificial intelligence and its potential to solve real-world pattern recognition problems.
Despite the satisfaction he gained from his R&D work, Ben-Meir felt he could have a greater impact on people’s lives by pursuing a different path. Driven by the intellectual challenge and his personal curiosity about the law, in 1993, Ben-Meir enrolled at Loyola Law School while continuing his work at Litton.
In 1995, a year after completing his master’s degree, Ben-Meir left Litton and joined the intellectual property law firm of Lyon & Lyon LLP, initially as a summer associate and law clerk in 1996, and then as an associate in 1997, after earning his Juris Doctor from Loyola that year. After moving to the law firm of Hogan & Hartson LLP in 2001, he became a partner there in 2006.
Founding Ben-Meir Law Group
Ben-Meir remained at Hogan until 2010, when he joined Alston & Bird LLP as a partner. Three years later, he joined Norton Rose Fulbright US LLP as a partner. Then, in 2023, driven by his belief that he could employ his skills and experience more effectively in the service of clients outside the large law firm environment, Ben-Meir founded the Ben-Meir Law Group.
Through his 30 years with major U.S. law firms and as a firm principal, Ben-Meir has gained valuable experience handling all manner of complex disputes, often involving intellectual property issues, and most frequently concerning complex technologies. While his cases have regularly dealt with accusations of patent infringement, he also has litigated disputes concerning trade secrets, technology licensing, and other matters with underlying intellectual property or technology issues.
Ben-Meir’s cases almost invariably have included efforts to negotiate out-of-court resolutions. It was during his time as a law firm partner that Ben-Meir observed a distinct and surprising lack of expertise in negotiations among litigators and dedicated himself to developing and honing his philosophy and skills in negotiations and dispute resolution.
As principal of Ben-Meir Law Group, he utilizes his insight, legal skills, and experience to identify and strategically pursue optimal solutions to his clients’ disputes.
In each case, Ben-Meir dedicates himself to understanding his clients’ positions, mindsets, circumstances, and needs. At the same time, he deliberately profiles his clients’ adversaries or counterparts. By repeatedly considering their respective viewpoints and circumstances, he formulates strategies to potentially achievable out-of-court solutions and then helps clients execute them. When a negotiated solution is not possible, Ben-Meir deploys his decades of experience as a skilled litigator to advance his clients’ objectives through the legal process, often revisiting negotiations when circumstances and leverage have changed, and at other times preparing for and taking cases to trial for adjudication.
This client-driven approach to handling disputes is often at odds with what Ben-Meir describes as “Big Law’s” model, which increasingly prioritizes maximizing legal fees over client interests. While litigation is sometimes necessary, law firms can be unmotivated and often fail to seriously explore or consider alternatives and whether they may better serve client business objectives. Ben-Meir makes such assessments an early and ongoing focal point of his counsel with clients.
Civic and Membership Involvement
Outside of his professional contributions, Ben-Meir is an active member of several civic and membership organizations. At his local courthouse, he has facilitated pro bono child adoptions on behalf of foster parents. On a pro-bono basis, he also regularly assists friends and others in resolving their personally stressful financial disputes, where paying an attorney’s fees is not economical. Additionally, he has been a member of the Licensing Executive Society, the American Bar Association, the Los Angeles County Bar Association, the American Intellectual Property Association, and the Worldwide Independent Lawyers League.
Plans for the Future
Moving forward, Ben-Meir plans to continue working closely with clients to achieve optimal, durable outcomes in their complex business disputes — whether through negotiated agreements or, when necessary, litigation. In Ben-Meir’s experience, attorneys retained to handle disputes rarely view the dispute in the context of the client’s overarching business strategy or direction. Seeing disputes for what they are – as business risk events – enables Ben-Meir to identify achievable, desirable outcomes that others may not recognize and then identify and execute strategies to attain them. After decades of accumulated experience in disputes, this is Ben-Meir’s craft, and it is one that he, through the Ben-Meir Law Group, looks forward to continuing to perfect for many years to come.
