Profile

David Neal Allen has been trying lawsuits for more than 30 years with close to 100 juries empanelled during that stretch. Recognized by Best Lawyers as the Leading Product Liability Attorney in Charlotte, he regularly represents pharmaceutical and medical device companies, manufacturing and chemical companies, physicians and hospitals as well as corporations in complex business litigation in federal and state courts throughout the region.

A former President of the North Carolina Association of Defense Attorneys (NCADA), Mr. Allen is a frequent lecturer on substantive and technical aspects of trial practice for numerous sponsors of continuing legal education presentations, having addressed both the NCADA and the North Carolina Academy of Trial Lawyers (now NCAJ) in recent years.

Mr. Allen is admitted to practice before all State and U.S. District Courts of North Carolina as well as the Supreme Court of the United States and the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. He also represents the Firm’s clients in other jurisdictions, having tried cases in Virginia, South Carolina, Alabama, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Puerto Rico.

Experience Highlights

• Lead trial counsel in In Re: Pedestrian Walkway Failure Litigation, one of the largest mass tort actions in North Carolina history, involving more than 100 claimants, 47 lawsuits, several trials to verdicts, and more than half a dozen appeals to the North Carolina Court of Appeals

• Mr. Allen’s most recent reported Appellate decision is HealthPrime, Inc. v. Smith/Packett/Med/Com, LLC, 2011 WL 2176166 (11th Cir.), a case involving complex issues of corporate governance, construing the Georgia Statute of Limitations. He also recently tried a significant trade dress and Lanham Act case in the Western District of North Carolina, Irwin Industrial Tool Co. v. Worthington Cylinders Wisconsin, LLC, 2010 WL 565251 and prevailed in a 1983 action on behalf of the City of Asheville Robert D. Gaddy, Jr. v. W.M. Yelton, et al. 2011 WL 3608023 (W.D.N.C.)

• Involved across the country in national and multi-district litigation and has been national counsel for his clients in medical device litigation

• Regularly defends pharmaceutical companies in the Carolinas, achieving one of the first victories in the thimerosal litigation, foretelling the lack of a link between thimerosal and autism. Doe 2 v. Ortho-Clinical Diagnostics, Inc., 440 F.Supp.2d 465 (M.D.N.C. 2006)

News

• Forty-Two Parker Poe Attorneys Named as 2012 NC Super Lawyers
  January 20, 2012
• David Allen Named Chair of NC State Bar Ethics Committee
  December 15, 2011
• Three Parker Poe Attorneys Awarded Lawyer of the Year for 2012
  October 5, 2011
• 69 Parker Poe Attorneys Recognized as Best Lawyers® for 2012
  September 6, 2011
• Thirty-Seven Parker Poe Attorneys Named NC Super Lawyers for 2011
  January 25, 2011
• 61 Parker Poe Attorneys Recognized as Best Lawyers® for 2011
  August 18, 2010
• Law & Politics Names 36 Parker Poe Attorneys as Super Lawyers
  January 28, 2010
• Twelve Parker Poe Attorneys Among "Legal Elite" for 2010
  January 4, 2010
• 55 Parker Poe Attorneys Recognized as Best Lawyers®
  July 30, 2009
• New NCADA Leader to Keep and Eye on the Legislature
  North Carolina Lawyer's Weekly
  June 29, 2009
• David Allen Elected President of the North Carolina Association of Defense Attorneys
  June 22, 2009
• Forty-Six Attorneys Named Super Lawyers
  January 26, 2009
• Parker Poe Increases Number of Attorneys Recognized as Best Lawyers in America
  October 1, 2008
• More than 50 Parker Poe Attorneys among Business Leader's Top Lawyers
  September 24, 2008
• Curious About Curiae? NCADA Amicus Curiae Briefs
  The Defender
  April 9, 2008
• Twenty-One Parker Poe Attorneys Named Super Lawyers
  January 28, 2008
• 40 Parker Poe Attorneys Named Among 2008 Best Lawyers in America
  September 14, 2007
• Allen Elected as NCADA Officer
  July 5, 2007
• Nineteen Parker Poe Attorneys Named North Carolina Super Lawyers 2007
  January 26, 2007
• Fifteen Parker Poe Attorneys Among "Legal Elite"
  January 8, 2007
• Parker Poe Attorneys Elected to North Carolina Bar Leadership
  December 13, 2006
• Parker Poe Attorneys Named to Best Lawyers in America
  September 12, 2006
• Seventeen Parker Poe Attorneys Among "Legal Elite"
  January 20, 2006
• Parker Poe Attorneys Among The Best Lawyers in America
  September 13, 2005
• Parker Poe Attorneys Honored as The Best Lawyers in America and the "Legal Elite" in North Carolina
  February 28, 2005

Memberships

• North Carolina Association of Defense Attorneys
  President, 2009-2010; Board of Directors, 1998-2000, 2005-present
• 26th Judicial District
  State Bar Councilor, 2007-present
• International Association of Defense Counsel
  Member
• Defense Research Institute
  Member
• Federation of Defense and Corporate Counsel
  Member

Cases

• Huge Victory for Johnson & Johnson Subsidiary