Biography
Owner and partner at Henson Fuerst, David Henson, joined Henson Fuerst in 1998. David dedicates his time to the practice areas of eminent domain/land condemnation. He has represented, negotiated, and litigated hundreds of cases across the state against the North Carolina Department of Transportation, local municipalities, utility companies, school boards, transit authorities, and other condemnors. Current clients regularly include commercial property owners, national franchise chain owners or operators, commercial and residential developers, national and local churches, land investors and speculators, and agricultural and farm operators.
From 2014 – 2021, David and Anne Duvoisin managed the firm’s Map Act litigation which challenged the constitutionality of Transportation Corridor Official Map filings by the NC Department of Transportation. Those maps filed by the DOT under the 1989 Map Act allowed the state to designate future roadway corridors where they intended to build roads at some indeterminate time in the future. During that unspecified time period, property owners were effectively prevented from obtaining building permits, renovating homes or businesses, obtaining subdivision or development permits, or otherwise improving their property. This led to wide swaths of properties within these corridors being unmarketable and frozen in time with no recourse by the property owners.
David successfully managed and represented more than one hundred property owners with Map Act cases involving the Hampstead Bypass (Pender and New Hanover Counties), the Greenville Bypass (Pitt County), and the Shelby Bypass (Cleveland County), and the Southern Wake Expressway (I-540 around Raleigh-Wake County). With David’s work, property owners sought and successfully recovered damages for unconstitutional takings dating back to 1996 (and the corresponding interest payments owed to those dates), property taxes, attorney’s fees, and the direct condemnation damages for current takings by the Department. These cases resulted in unprecedented damage valuations, calculations, and resolutions for his clients of over $36 million*.
David is past President of the North Carolina Advocates for Justice – North Carolina’s state trial lawyer association with more than 2,300 lawyers and legal professionals dedicated to protecting people’s rights through community, education, and advocacy. He was honored to be chosen by his peers from across the state to lead this organization, the third-largest trial lawyer association in the Country. During his tenure on the Board of NCAJ, he led numerous committees, task forces, strategic planning initiatives, and restructuring efforts.
Outside work, David spends all of his free time with his wife Carma, a partner with Henson Fuerst, and their two teenage sons, Caleb and Parker. The four spend as much time as possible on a boat or the beach near Cape Lookout and Shackleford Island exploring, fishing, or relaxing.