David H. Bate specializes in general business, corporate, real estate and construction transactions and litigation.  In the past few years, Mr. Bate’s practice has focused on formation of and counsel to various business entities, negotiation and documentation of contracts, including purchases and sales of businesses, intellectual property matters, including copyright and trademark issues, and a full range of real estate matters including office leases, easement and boundary line issues, purchase and sale transactions, and construction contracts.  Representative clients include Anschutz Entertainment Group, Inc. (Staples Center), Billabong International, Inc., Brinker Restaurant Corporation, CBOL Corporation, Cereplast, Inc., Howard Hughes Medical Institute, J. Paul Getty Trust (Getty Center and Getty Villa), Los Angeles United Investment Company, LLC, Manhattan Beach Trading, Inc., New Urban Builders, Inc., Orphalese Holdings, Inc., Pilgrim Lutheran Church, R.T. Frankian & Associates, Inc., Signature Group Holdings and Visokio Limited.

Mr. Bate's practice continues to include litigation and arbitration in general business and real estate matters. Mr. Bate has extensive courtroom experience, having tried numerous cases, federal and state, to judgment or verdict. Mr. Bate has also argued matters before the appellate courts of California and Colorado.

Mr. Bate founded Bate & Peterson, LLP (now BPDZY) in 1998, after six years at the Los Angeles office of the international law firm White & Case, where he litigated business, insurance, construction, and real estate matters for The Tokai Bank, Bank of America, Shaw Properties Corporation, Wells Fargo Bank and Brinker International. Prior to White & Case, Mr. Bate practiced in the Los Angeles office of Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton. At Sheppard, Mullin, Mr. Bate handled complex litigation matters for Security Pacific Bank, Wells Fargo Bank, and Northrop Corporation.

Mr. Bate received his B.A. degree, cum laude, from Claremont Men's College (now Claremont McKenna College) in 1979 with a double major in economics and psychology. He received his J.D. degree from the University of California at Los Angeles School of Law in 1982. Mr. Bate began his law practice in 1982 with the Denver, Colorado law firm of Rothgerber, Appel, Powers & Johnson, where he represented Sears, Roebuck & Company, Roper Corporation and United Bank of Denver, among others, in complex business litigation matters. Mr. Bate joined the startup litigation boutique Cortez & Friedman, P.C. (now the Denver office of McKenna & Cuneo, LLP) in 1985, where Mr. Bate continued to handle business, insurance, construction and real estate litigation matters. Mr. Bate relocated to California and was admitted to the California bar in 1988.

Mr. Bate is a member of the Board of Neighborhood Council Valley Village, one of the over 90 certified neighborhood councils in the City of Los Angeles, where he has served as the chair of the City Services Committee and currently chairs the Planning and Land Use Committee.