Philip Allen Lacovara
Senior Counsel
placovara@mayerbrown.com
New York
Ph: +1 212 506 2585
Fax: +1 212 849 5585

Experience

Philip Lacovara advises management and business clients.  His corporate legal counseling includes the areas of securities, antitrust and corporate governance.  He also has an extensive litigation practice that includes trial and appellate litigation, appearances before the US Supreme Court (where he has argued more than 15 cases during his career) and regulatory enforcement matters.  Philip also is experienced in alternative dispute resolution, and since 2004 he has been an arbitrator and mediator in New York and Washington, DC, handling matters with the International Chamber of Commerce, the American Arbitration Association, JAMS and other ADR providers.

Among other honors in his professional career, Philip in 1997 received the Charles A. Horsky Award for Outstanding Lawyering from Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law.  In 1975 he was awarded the Columbia University Medal for Excellence by Trustees of the University.  In 2006 Chambers conferred on him the award for outstanding contribution to the legal profession.

An extensive background in academic research, teaching and lecturing, and in government service and public policy formulation, reflect the varied range of Philip’s more than 40 years of high-profile legal experience.  He joined Mayer Brown in 1993 as a partner and assumed his current status as senior counsel in 2004.  Before coming to the firm he held two senior positions in the private sector:  as Managing Director, General Counsel, and member of the Management Committee at Morgan Stanley & Co., Incorporated (1990-1993), and as Vice President and Senior Counsel for Litigation and Legal Policy at General Electric Co. (1988-1990).  For a dozen years prior to that, he practiced at the Washington, DC office of a major Wall Street law firm, where he was named office partner-in-charge.

Earlier in his career, Philip held a number of significant positions in federal and New York City government.  From 1973 to 1974 he was Counsel to the Special Prosecutor, Watergate Special Prosecutor’s Office.  Previously at the US Department of Justice in Washington, DC, he served in the Office of Solicitor General as Deputy Solicitor General and Assistant to the Solicitor General.  From 1971 to 1972, with the New York City Police Department, he was Special Counsel to the Police Commissioner.  Philip began in practice by serving a judicial clerkship with US Circuit Judge Harold Leventhal in the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. 

Education

Executive Development Program, European Institute of Business Administration (INSEAD), Fontainebleau, fall 1989 • Columbia University, JD, summa cum laude, 1966; First in class each year; awarded John Ordronaux Prize as outstanding graduate; Chairman of Board of Visitors, 1991-1995 • Georgetown University, BA, magna cum laude, 1963; Pi Sigma Alpha

Admissions

  • Solicitor of the Supreme Court of England and Wales, 2003
  • District of Columbia, 1974
  • Supreme Court of the United States, 1970
  • New York, 1967
  • US District Courts for the Southern, Eastern, and Northern Districts of New York
  • US District Court, District of Columbia
  • US Courts of Appeals for the First, Second, Third, Fifth, Seventh, Eighth, Ninth, Eleventh,, District of Columbia, and Federal Circuits
  • Member, London Court of International Arbitration
  • Member, The Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (London)

Publications

  • As a widely published author, Philip’s articles have appeared in Columbia Law Review, Yale Law Journal, Harvard Journal of International Law, Arizona Law Review, Minnesota Law Review, Inter-American Law Review, St. John’s Law Review, Law & Contemporary Problems, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, National Law Journal, and others

Seminars & Presentations

  • Philip has presented academic lectures at many distinguished institutions, including Yale Law School, Columbia Law School, Duke University, Wesleyan University, United States Military Academy (West Point), University of Arizona, Arizona State University, Marymount Manhattan College, Hunter College and others

Civic Activities

  • Counsellor-Legal Adviser, Permanent Observer Mission of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta to the United Nations, 2005 to date
  • Appointed by Governor Cuomo to the New York State Superintendent of Banks Advisory Commission on the Regulation of Transnational Banking Institutions, 1991-1992
  • Appointed by President Reagan to Judicial Nomination Commission for the District of Columbia, 1981-1985
  • Other appointments include Chairman of the Board of Trustees of District of Columbia Public Defender Service, various judicial conferences, and court committees

Professional Activities

  • American Bar Association, formerly Chair, ABA Special Committee on Amicus Curiae Briefs;former member, ABA House of Delegates (Delegate from the District of Columbia Bar); Past Chair, Section of Individual Rights
  • District of Columbia Bar, President, 1988-1989; formerly General Counsel and member of Board of Governors
  • American College of Trial Lawyers
  • American Association of Appellate Lawyers
  • American Law Institute (life member)
  • Adjunct Professor of Political Science, Hunter College, City of New York; formerly Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University Law Center; lecturer in law at Columbia Law School; adjunct lecturer at John Jay College, City University of New York
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