Recognized in Best Lawyers since 2024 David Langfitt is a trial lawyer based in Gladwyne, Pennsylvania and the founder of Langfitt PLLC. For more than 30 years, he has practiced complex commercial litigation and mass personal injury litigation, with a focus on matters involving numerous parties, claims, and courts in both state and federal jurisdictions. His practice includes Mass Tort Litigation / Class Actions - Plaintiffs, as well as litigation involving federal securities laws, professional liability, legal malpractice, Pennsylvania’s Dragonetti Act, merger agreements, pre-packaged bankruptcy plans, fraud, breach of fiduciary duty, and intellectual property disputes involving patents and copyrights.
Mr. Langfitt currently devotes a significant portion of his practice to large-scale catastrophic personal injury litigation involving former athletes. He served on the Court-appointed Plaintiffs’ Executive Committee in the NFL Concussion Litigation and Settlement and later was appointed, along with three other lawyers, to the NFL Concussion Settlement Player Advocacy Committee, which assists former NFL players pursuing claims through the settlement program.
He has represented more than one thousand former professional football players in claims involving latent brain disease and continues to represent many former players in matters involving the NFL concussion settlement. His work in this area focuses on helping players navigate the claims process and pursuing appropriate recognition of qualifying neurological conditions.
Mr. Langfitt also represents former NCAA football players diagnosed with latent brain disease in litigation against the NCAA, colleges, and universities. These matters are pending in multiple state courts across the United States. His firm evaluates and pursues claims on behalf of players whose cases may proceed to trial before a jury.
He currently serves as lead counsel in several NCAA-related cases, including Sean Berton v. NCAA (Court of Common Pleas, Philadelphia County), Steven Schmitz v. NCAA (Court of Common Pleas of Cuyahoga County, Ohio), Mary Ann Gera v. NCAA (Court of Common Pleas of Cuyahoga County, Ohio), John Askin v. NCAA (Jefferson Circuit Court, Louisville, Kentucky), Robert Geathers v. NCAA (Court of Common Pleas of Orangeburg County, South Carolina), Josh Campion v. NCAA (Hennepin County, Minnesota), Kelly Merlino v. NCAA (New York State Supreme Court, New York County), and Michael Hamlin v. NCAA (Court of Common Pleas of Darlington County, South Carolina). He has litigated the Schmitz case since 2014 and obtained an opinion from the Supreme Court of Ohio in Schmitz v. Natl. Collegiate Athletic Assn., 155 Ohio St.3d 389, 2018-Ohio-4391, available here. Video of the oral argument before the Supreme Court of Ohio is available here.
Earlier in his career, Mr. Langfitt served for many years as nationwide patent litigation counsel to Q.I. Press Controls, a technology company headquartered in the Netherlands. He represented the company in patent infringement disputes and related litigation across the United States, including matters involving re-examination proceedings before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Representative decisions include Quad/Tech v. QI Press Controls, et al., 701 F. Supp. 2d 644 (E.D. Pa. 2010), aff’d, 2011 U.S. App. LEXIS 5729 (Fed. Cir. 2011), and QI Press Controls v. Lee, 752 F.3d 1371 (Fed. Cir. 2014).
Before founding Langfitt PLLC, Mr. Langfitt was a partner at Locks Law Firm in Philadelphia from 2010 to 2019. He previously practiced at Montgomery, McCracken, Walker & Rhoads LLP, where he was a partner from 2000 to 2010 and an associate from 1992 to 2000. During that time, he represented Federal Receiver David H. Marion in litigation arising from the Bentley Financial Services Ponzi scheme. The receiver was appointed by a federal court at the request of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to recover and distribute assets for defrauded investors. Through asset recovery and related litigation, approximately $360 million was recovered for investors. Mr. Langfitt also pursued claims against financial institutions alleged to have assisted the scheme.
Mr. Langfitt has also litigated claims under Pennsylvania’s Dragonetti Act, which addresses the wrongful use of civil proceedings. In one such matter, he defended and asserted counterclaims on behalf of a plaintiffs’ law firm in litigation brought by a Fortune 500 company concerning previously filed class action lawsuits. The case concluded with a public settlement reached shortly before trial.
His litigation experience also includes bankruptcy-related matters and representation of creditors’ committees, including committees composed of members of the plaintiffs’ asbestos litigation bar. These proceedings involved corporate restructurings affecting asbestos-related liabilities, including cases such as In Re: Bondex (U.S. District Court, District of Delaware), In Re: Combustion Engineering (U.S. District Court, District of Delaware), and In Re: Nutraquest (U.S. District Court, District of New Jersey). He has also served as lead litigation counsel to Celotex Corporation in wrongful death and personal injury cases filed in multiple jurisdictions, including cases arising from the 2003 fire at The Station nightclub in West Warwick, Rhode Island. In addition, he has negotiated settlements with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency involving environmental regulations and Clean Air Act compliance.
Earlier in his career, Mr. Langfitt served as habeas corpus counsel to former death row inmate Clifford Smith and obtained relief from a conviction for first-degree murder in Smith v. Horn, 120 F.3d 400 (3d Cir. 1997).
Outside of his legal practice, Mr. Langfitt serves as a trustee of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. He was also a founding board member of the Mural Arts Program of Philadelphia and served as board chair for more than ten years. In addition to his legal work, he is the author of the legal thriller Winnabow, available online at Amazon Books and here.
