Randy M. Mastro
Randy M. Mastro, a partner in the New York office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, is Co-Chair of the Firm’s Transnational Litigation and Crisis Management Practice Groups. He also serves on the Firm’s Management and Executive Committees. He routinely ranks among the nation’s leading litigators and trial lawyers in surveys of corporate counsel and other practitioners. The National Law Journal named him among the “100 Most Influential Lawyers in America,” recognizing him as one of the “100 lawyers in the United States who have shaped the legal world through their work,” and noting “his ease in the courtroom, delivery of arguments and command of the law have made Randy one of the most in-demand attorneys in the country by big-name clients.” Lawdragon Magazine has repeatedly cited him among the “500 Leading Lawyers in America.” In Chambers USA, he is a top-ranked litigator and trial lawyer nationally, praised for his “exceptional public reputation” as a “tough, smart,” “outstanding” litigator who “delivers fantastically well in court” and is “unafraid” of challenging cases. In The Legal 500—US Edition, he has been featured among the ‘Leading Trial Lawyers’ in the country, with corporate counsel saying he is “immensely impressive,” “simply excellent,” “flawless,” “captivating,” and “in a league of his own” in the courtroom, and “deserves an Academy Award” for “bringing a sense of drama and theater to his courtroom appearances.” Benchmark Litigation’s Guide to America’s Leading Litigation Firms and Attorneys has recognized him as a “brilliant and effective” “Litigation Star” who “always brings a fresh perspective and will fight you to the end,” with one peer joking, “You do not want to meet Randy down a dark alley. But you REALLY don’t want to meet him in a lighted courtroom,” while another peer noted, “I’ve never gone against Randy before myself but I’ve seen him at work and I can only imagine that going against him must be like wrestling an alligator.” The New York Observer named him to its inaugural “New York Political Power” list, describing him as “a formidable courtroom scrapper.” The New York Times has called him “the go-to lawyer for companies” suing the government, a “household name,” and a “fierce and combative litigator”; and The New Yorker has described him as a “merciless litigator,” “even by the pugilistic standards of the New York bar,” who “springs to life” and “is transfixing” in “the courtroom.” Among many high-profile matters, Mr. Mastro won a two-month RICO trial barring the enforcement of a $9 billion Ecuadorian judgment against Chevron, and led the successful effort to defeat the City’s controversial West Side Stadium project. Currently, he is representing the Office of the Governor of New Jersey in connection with allegations concerning George Washington Bridge toll lane closings at Ft. Lee and Sandy aid for Hoboken. He has tried dozens of cases in private practice and as a federal prosecutor in the Southern District of New York, and he has also argued more than 100 appeals in federal and state appellate courts throughout the country.
Mr. Mastro has represented such clients as Amazon.com, Bank of New York Mellon, Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield/Well Point, Daimler, Chevron, Wynn, JPMorgan, GE Capital, Estee Lauder, Park Place/Caesar’s/Harrah’s, Madison Square Garden, Cablevision, Dow Jones, Verizon, Home Depot, Quest Diagnostics, IAC/Home Shopping Network, Bear Stearns, Empire Merchants, Edison Schools, Edison Properties, Forest City Ratner, Georgetown, Peter Kalikow, Saks, Ziff Davis, UBS Financial Services, Hewlett Packard, Prudential Securities, Lehman Brothers, Xerox, Octagon, Martina Hingis, Anna Kournikova, and Steffi Graf.
Before returning to Gibson Dunn in 1998, Mr. Mastro served as Mayor Rudolph Giuliani’s Chief of Staff and then as New York City’s Deputy Mayor for Operations. In that capacity, he was responsible for overseeing all of the City’s operating agencies and budget, and served as the Mayor’s chief liaison with elected officials. In the Mayor’s absence, he was authorized to act on the Mayor’s behalf. During his years in the Giuliani administration from 1994 to 1998, Mr. Mastro spearheaded the City’s initiatives to remove organized crime from the Fulton Fish Market, the private carting industry, and the San Gennaro Festival. He also oversaw the successful turnaround of New York City’s Off-Track Betting Corporation. For two consecutive years, NY1-TV named Mr. Mastro one of City government’s “Winners of the Year,” and Manhattan Filemagazine featured him as one of the “45 Most Powerful New Yorkers 45 and Under.”
In the early 1990s, Mr. Mastro was a litigation partner in Gibson Dunn’s New York office. In 1990, he served as Associate Counsel on the Independent Counsel investigation of HUD Secretary Samuel Pierce. In 1991, he was appointed Special Master and Monitor of the assets of a Saudi tycoon implicated in the BCCI scandal.
From 1985 to 1989, Mr. Mastro served as Assistant United States Attorney and Deputy Chief of the Civil Division in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, where he specialized in organized crime cases and spearheaded the federal government’s landmark racketeering suit that compelled the International Brotherhood of Teamsters to hold democratic elections and to undergo court supervision. He received the Attorney General’s Distinguished Service Award, and Seven Days magazine cited him as one of “the 25 prosecutors and defenders other lawyers most admire, fear and talk about.”
After graduating cum laude from Yale College and the University of Pennsylvania Law School, where he was the school’s moot court champion, Mr. Mastro served as law clerk to Justice Alan B. Handler of the New Jersey Supreme Court. From 1982 to 1985, Mr. Mastro was a litigation associate at Cravath, Swaine & Moore, where he was part of the successful libel defense trial team in Westmoreland v. CBS.
Mr. Mastro currently teaches as an adjunct professor at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, and previously taught as an adjunct professor at Fordham Law School, where he taught complex civil litigation. He has authored articles in theFederal Communications Law Journal, Fordham Law Review, University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform, andSeton Hall Law Review. His op-ed pieces have appeared inThe New York Times, Daily News, and New York Post, and he has also written for the Washington Post and Time. Mr. Mastro also authored the chapter, “White Collar Crime,” inBusiness and Commercial Litigation in Federal Courts, recently published by Thomson Reuters.
Mr. Mastro is a member of the bars of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and many federal courts. He served on the Federal Courts Committee of the New York County Lawyers Association and chaired two New York City Charter Revision Commissions. In addition, Mr. Mastro serves as Vice Chair of the Board of the Legal Aid Society of New York City, as well as on the Boards of the Citizens Union of the City of New York, Hamptons International Film Festival, YMCA of Greater New York, Sanctuary for Families, and the University of Pennsylvania Law School Board of Overseers. He has also served on the Advisory Board of the Center for New York City Law.
