David Ganfield has taught Street Law to inner-city school children, was a member of moot court teams, clerked for an appellate court justice, and served as a legislative assistant for Senator Charles Percy.
As senior in-house counsel to The Hartford, Ganfield currently consults in high-exposure matters and transactions. Previously, he was a partner with major law firms in Chicago and boutique litigation firms in the Chicago metropolitan area, focusing upon general corporate and civil litigation matters and trying more than 30 commercial litigation matters. He is a chair-qualified arbitrator in Lake and Cook counties; mediator; member of the Lake County Electoral Board, deciding contested election matters; member of the Chicago Bar Association's Judicial Evaluation Committee; author of several articles and white papers; speaker at association meetings; and active member of various county, state and national legal organizations.
Currently, Gainfield serves as an adjunct professor at DePaul College of Law, teaching upper-level drafting courses in transactions and civil litigation. He enjoys volunteering for many civic and other causes, including serving as a church school teacher, organizer of church mission trips to the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming, leader of local Waukegan YMCA Indian Princess / Indian Guide tribes, precinct committeeman for Shields Township, coach of baseball and AYSO soccer teams, caucus member for the Lake Bluff School Board and Park District, and former president and member of the Lake Bluff Park District Board of Commissioners. He also serves as a member of a social service 501(c) organization.
In the local legal community, Gainfield volunteers his time pro bono as an attorney for the Catholic Charities Legal Help Desk, Episcopal Lawyers Volunteer Network, and Legal Clinic for the Disabled (LCD) and Prairie State Legal Services (PSLS) where he was named volunteer of the year for both LCD and PSLS. He also has been involved with the Lake County Bar Association's mini internship with local physicians; judged high school, college and law school mock trial and appellate competitions throughout the Chicagoland area; and participated in Law Day activities by appearing before grade school students.