David J. Creagan Partner

David Creagan’s practice focuses on the resolution of complex disputes.  Keeping his clients’ business strategies and fundamental values in mind, David works collaboratively with clients to understand their business and advance their interests through effective and nuanced legal approaches. 

David represents reinsurers and ceding companies in disputes involving varied claims under pro rata, excess-of-loss, stop-loss and clash treaties and under facultative certificates and financial risk reinsurance contracts.  Issues he has handled include accumulation, allocation, retentions, follow-the-fortunes, reinstatements, additional premium, offsets, and deficit-carry-forward and aggregate extension clauses.  David has secured wins for reinsurers and cedents in arbitrations that have gone to final hearing in the United States and Bermuda.  He has also successfully litigated reinsurance disputes in federal district court, and has argued and won appeals in the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.

In his commercial litigation practice, David represents clients in industries as diverse as biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, oil and gas, railroads, manufacturing, insurance and finance. He has helped clients reach successful outcomes in securities fraud and other class actions, in securities fraud opt-out cases, in SEC-led investigations, in litigation stemming from the licensing of intellectual property, in antitrust class actions and unfair competition suits and in corporate governance matters. 

David has been first chair trial counsel in federal and state courts and in AAA and ARIAS arbitrations, and has argued and won cases on appeal in the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. He also has experience in international arbitration and litigation, including taking and coordinating discovery abroad.  

Before practicing law, David was a Foreign Service Officer with the U.S. Department of State for nine years, serving at United States embassies abroad and as a Special Assistant to the Secretary of State. He is a recipient of the Department of State's Superior Honor Award.

David is an arbitrator in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas mandatory arbitration program and a volunteer mediator in the Philadelphia Bar Association's Lawyer-Client Fee Disputes Program.

During law school, David was Executive Editor of the Virginia Law Review.

Representative Matters

• Achieved a favorable settlement for a major pharmaceutical company mid-way through a AAA arbitration concerning intellectual property rights and contractual duties of good faith and fair dealing
• Represented a private equity fund in a common-law fraud case that eventuated in a directed verdict for the fund
• Obtained a final award of all requested relief for a ceding company in an arbitration over the scope of coverage under an excess-of-loss facultative certificate

Recognition & Involvement

David is an elected member of the Borough Council of Swarthmore, Pa.  He will serve a four-year term.

He has been AV® rated by the Martindale-Hubbell peer review rating system.

David was previously President of A Better Chance (ABC) Strath Haven, Inc., a local chapter of the national organization whose mission is to provide superior secondary school educational opportunities to students from disadvantaged backgrounds. David also served on the Board of Directors of the Swarthmore Community Center, Inc. and was a basketball coach for the Swarthmore Recreation Association.