Edward M. Spiro

Edward M. Spiro is a litigator with many years of experience handling complex commercial and criminal litigation at the trial and appellate level in state and federal courts, and in arbitrations for high-profile, high-net worth individual and corporate clients. Ed has represented clients in diverse matters, including business and partnership disputes, securities litigation, employment disputes, including sexual harassment and discrimination, tax fraud, real estate disputes, professional responsibility and liability, and insurance coverage litigation.

Ed has extensive experience defending litigation related to concurrent governmental investigations or prosecutions, including class actions, derivative cases, and other complex matters involving the securities and antitrust laws. He has represented public and privately held corporations, financial institutions, hedge funds, accounting firms, law firms, and corporate directors and officers, and served as an expert in the areas of legal ethics and standards of care. He recently represented the former CEO of Petrobras in a securities class action, and secured a landmark appellate decision addressing the standard to be applied in challenging international arbitration awards.

Ed was honored with a Burton Award for Distinguished Legal Writing. He is recognized as a “Litigation Star” by Benchmark Litigation: The Definitive Guide to America’s Leading Litigation Firms & Attorneys in the area of General Commercial Litigation. Ed is also recommended by The Legal 500 United States for Securities: Shareholder Litigation and is regularly listed in Thomson Reuters’ Super Lawyers.

Ed is co-author of Civil Practice in the Southern District of New York, 2d Ed. (Thomson Reuters 2022), a two-volume treatise updated annually, and co-author of a regular New York Law Journal column on civil practice in the Southern District of New York. He has lectured on professional ethics for the Practicing Law Institute and for several years chaired a New York City Bar Association CLE program entitled “Ethics, Discipline and Real World Obligations.”

Ed recently completed his second term as a member of the Attorney Grievance Committee of the Appellate Division, First Department. He is a former member of the House of Delegates of the New York State Bar Association; a former director of the New York County Lawyers’ Association and former Chair of its Committee on Professional Discipline; and a former Chair of the Committee on Professional Discipline of the New York City Bar Association. He is a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation and a member of the American Bar Association (Litigation and Criminal Justice Sections), the New York State Bar Association (Commercial and Federal Litigation Section), and the Federal Bar Council. In addition, Ed is a member of the Board of Trustees of the State University of New York, Chair of its Audit Committee, and a director of the SUNY Research Foundation.