David Clay Washington is a nationally recognized trial lawyer who represents plaintiffs in complex and high-stakes civil rights cases. A partner at Hadsell Stormer Renick & Dai LLP, Mr. Washington handles cases in federal and state courts, as well as in arbitration. His practice spans all phases of litigation—from early negotiations and discovery through trial and appeal.
Mr. Washington has secured numerous multimillion-dollar verdicts and settlements on behalf of his clients. Most recently, in March 2025, Mr. Washington obtained a $6 million jury verdict in Peck v. County of Orange, a widely publicized, precedent-setting police shooting case. His recoveries span cases involving unconstitutional prison conditions, police misconduct, whistleblower retaliation, discrimination against employees and consumers, systemic pension inequities, school abuse, and other forms of entrenched corporate and government malfeasance. Mr. Washington’s results and leadership have earned him recognition among Lawdragon’s 500 Leading Plaintiff Employment & Civil Rights Lawyers in America (2025) and on Thomson Reuters’ Super Lawyers Rising Stars lists for three consecutive years (2023-2025).
Beyond his trial practice, Mr. Washington lectures in the U.S. and abroad on the intersection of civil rights litigation and emerging technologies, with a particular focus on artificial intelligence and large language models. He is an active member of the National Lawyers’ Guild and the American Association for Justice.
Mr. Washington is admitted to practice in California, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, and the federal district courts of California and Alabama. He is also an inactive member of the Alabama Bar.
Before joining Hadsell Stormer, Mr. Washington practiced at the Southern Poverty Law Center, where he litigated Braggs v. Dunn—one of the largest prison reform lawsuits in Alabama’s history. The system-wide class action lawsuit resulted in sweeping federal rulings exposing unconstitutional and unlawful prison conditions, including understaffing, violence, suicide risk, solitary confinement, and inadequate mental health, medical, and disability care. Before his tenure at the SPLC, Mr. Washington served as a fellow at the Federal Defenders of San Diego and clerked for the Honorable Carmen Consuelo Cerezo, former Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Puerto Rico.
Mr. Washington earned his J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 2015 as a Toll Public Interest Scholar and a Bernard & Zelda Wolfman Fellow. At Penn, he served as Executive Editor of the Journal of Law and Social Change, co-led pro bono projects supporting immigrant rights and prisoner advocacy, and founded Penn Law Defenders of the Accused, Detained, and Incarcerated. He also volunteered at Esperanza Immigration Legal Services of Philadelphia, the Criminal Record Expungement Project, the ACLU of Pennsylvania, and the Pennsylvania Innocence Project.
A native of rural North Florida, Mr. Washington graduated summa cum laude from the University of Florida in 2009. He began his career in public service as the world’s youngest Peace Corps Volunteer at the time, serving in Honduras, before returning to work as a youth mental health counselor in the Bay Area.
Education
- J.D., University of Pennsylvania Law School
- B.A., University of Florida
Admissions
