DAVID M. FOGG
BACKGROUND
David M. Fogg is the founder and principal attorney of Cornerstone Tech and Estate Advisors, PLLC, a forward-thinking legal services and consulting company licensed in Idaho, Washington, and Arizona. He brings a rare combination of deep technical expertise, executive leadership, and legal acumen developed across four decades in aerospace engineering, semiconductor manufacturing, international business, and law. His practice focuses on business law, estate planning, real estate, and technology matters, with a particular emphasis on how artificial intelligence and emerging technologies are reshaping legal services and industry.
He began his career as a technical designer at General Dynamics, contributing to the F-16 aircraft program with a focus on surface design and pioneering 3D modeling-based manufacturing design automation — a first-of-its-kind systems approach in aerospace fabrication. He subsequently joined Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, where he automated design and manufacturing fabrication processes and served as a member of the NIST Systems and Network Architecture working group. In that capacity, he contributed to the IETF’s development of TCP/IP protocols and open systems interconnection models that would become foundational to global communications infrastructure.
David joined IBM in 1990 as a Deep UV equipment engineer, focused on automating the lithography process for the 200mm fabrication line. He went on to spend a significant portion of his technical career at IBM, advancing into progressively senior engineering and management roles at the company’s Vermont semiconductor fabrication facility, with responsibilities spanning lithography automation, process fabrication, equipment controls, communications systems, and Bond, Assembly, and Test (BAT) operations—experience that set the stage for his subsequent leadership roles, including IBM’s Best of Breed program.
PRACTICE AREAS
Business Law
Estate Planning
Real Estate Law
Technology
From 1992 to 1995, David served as IBM’s Hot Process Best of Breed (BOB) Equipment Manager, leading structured evaluations and selection of commercial tools for the fab’s most critical thermal operations—diffusion, oxidation, LPCVD, and epitaxial growth—often operating above 1,000°C. The BOB methodology benchmarked vendors on temperature uniformity, film consistency, contamination control, reliability, service capability, quality systems, and technology roadmaps; designated tools became IBM’s standard procurement choice for that process category.
In this role, David was assigned to the SEMATECH consortium in Austin, Texas, supporting IBM’s participation in the Standardized Supplier Quality Assessment (SSQA) program. As part of the SSQA team, he helped develop and deploy a shared supplier-assessment framework that replaced redundant, company-by-company audits with joint evaluations using common scoring criteria and documentation—an approach that became an enduring model for semiconductor supply-chain quality management.
David’s career at IBM culminated in his appointment as Director of Engineering and Manufacturing for the Semiconductor BAT facility in Singapore, where he led complex technological and operational initiatives at one of IBM’s most strategically significant international manufacturing sites.Following IBM, David served as Chief Executive Officer of Nano Silicon Technologies, Ltd., a Singapore-based fabless technology venture, from 2000 to 2003.
“Effective solutions emerge from understanding both technical details and human needs."
At Cornerstone Tech and Estate Advisors, David has made it a priority to reimagine legal services through a product-based model — one that is transparent, efficient, and tailored to each client’s needs. His practice increasingly focuses on how emerging technologies, particularly AI, can transform legal service delivery, moving the profession beyond traditional frameworks toward a more dynamic, client-centric approach reflective of the innovation he has championed throughout his engineering and legal career.
David currently chairs the newly formed Technology and Management Bar Section of the Idaho State Bar, with a significant focus on machine learning, artificial intelligence, and large language models. He has also been appointed to a three-year term on the Technology Working Group of the Arizona State Bar.
Outside of his professional work, David is an avid runner and cyclist, logging hundreds of miles annually. A certified divemaster with more than 500 logged dives since 2000, he has explored underwater environments from Cozumel to the waters of Southeast Asia. His travels across multiple continents have reinforced a lifelong commitment to continuous learning and an expansive view of the world’s possibilities.
EDUCATION:
A firm believer in lifelong learning, David has pursued advanced study throughout his career. His B.S. focused on manufacturing design, and his M.S. emphasized robotics and advanced composites, including a thesis on glass–polycarbonate matrix adhesion. He is currently enrolled in the University of Colorado Boulder’s M.S. program in Artificial Intelligence.
- B.S., Design Engineering and Technology, Brigham Young University (1985)
- M.S., Computer Science, Johns Hopkins University (1989 transferred)
- M.S., Manufacturing Engineering & Manufacturing Technology, Brigham Young University (1990), Summa Cum Laude, Phi Kappa Phi
- J.D., University of Idaho (2007)
- M.S. Artificial Intelligence, University of Colorado – Boulder (anticipated completion 2028).
Articles and Publications:
The Many Faces of Computer-Aided Design, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, McClure Center, Fall 1988 Volume 6, No. 3
Managing the Introduction of New Technology to Engineers and Manufacturers, Journal or Engineering Technology, Fall 1991
Improved Filament-Matrix Adhesion in Glass-Polycarbonate Composites, Department of Manufacturing Engineering and Engineering Technology, Brigham Young University, January 1990
Rethinking Legal Work in the Intellectual Age, October 2025;
AI Data Security and Client Confidentiality, January 2026;
The Coming Revolutions: How Artificial Intelligence Will Reshape the Legal Industry’s Billable Hour Paradigm, January 2026;