Andy Schapiro is a litigator with more than twenty years of trial and appellate experience representing major corporations and individuals in sensitive, high-profile, and high-stakes matters. Legal 500 United States has ranked Mr. Schapiro as one of the country’s leading appellate lawyers and labeled him a “superstar.” He is listed in the Best Lawyers in America and has been described in the press as “one of the brightest legal minds of his generation.”
Mr. Schapiro has first-chaired fourteen federal jury trials, managed large litigation teams, and argued and won important appeals in state and federal courts. He works primarily in the areas of white-collar defense, intellectual property, complex commercial litigation, and appeals.
From 2014 until 2017, Mr. Schapiro served as the U.S. Ambassador to the Czech Republic, having been nominated to the position by President Obama and confirmed by a unanimous United States Senate. He led America’s 240-person, multi-agency post in Prague and oversaw all aspects of the relationship with this important Central European NATO ally and trading partner. During his tenure, Mr. Schapiro advocated for and negotiated on behalf of the U.S. government and U.S. companies on a daily basis, strengthening a $6 billion trade relationship and deepening cooperation on issues such as cyber security, education, and law enforcement.
Earlier in his career, Mr. Schapiro served as a trial lawyer with the Federal Defenders’ Office for the Southern District of New York, defending individuals accused of a wide range of federal offenses and achieving favorable verdicts in a majority of his trials. He has been pro bono counsel for groups including the Asian-American Legal Defense and Education Fund, the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, the Sierra Club, and the Innocence Project.
A former law clerk to Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun and to Seventh Circuit Judge Richard A. Posner, Mr. Schapiro is a magna cum laude graduate of Harvard Law School, where he was Articles Co-Chair of the Harvard Law Review and recipient of the Sears Prize. He was a Marshall Scholar at Oxford, and received his undergraduate degree magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, from Yale.
- Argued and won important appeal for Google in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in long-running copyright dispute with company that claimed Google infringed the copyrights in thousands of images. The Ninth Circuit upheld a lower court’s decision not to grant a preliminary injunction against Google, and in a precedent-setting ruling reversed its longstanding rule that a plaintiff alleging copyright infringement can automatically satisfy the “irreparable harm” requirement merely by showing likelihood of success on the merits. (Perfect 10 v. Google, 9th Cir.)
- Won jury verdict for global manufacturer of transportation equipment as co-counsel in federal trial concerning misappropriation of client’s trade secrets. The jury’s award, which represented the full amount sought, is one of the largest ever reported in a New York trade-secrets case. (Faiveley v. Wabtec, S.D.N.Y.)
- Lead counsel for Cablevision in federal lawsuit brought by programmers seeking to enjoin Cablevision from offering its subscribers an application that it had developed for the iPad. The Wall Street Journal called the dispute, which involved both contractual and copyright claims, “a public war over who will control video piped into American living rooms.” The parties reached a mutually satisfactory settlement. (Viacom v. Cablevision, S.D.N.Y.)
- Argued and won significant appeal in the First Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals for Las Vegas Sands Corporation CEO Sheldon Adelson. The court’s unanimous decision rejected the claims of a former business partner in a billion-dollar dispute over ownership of the Venetian Macao hotel and casino resort. (Adelson v. Hananel, 1st Cir.)
- Won summary judgment as lead counsel for YouTube and its parent Google in a billion-dollar copyright infringement suit brought by Viacom in federal district court in New York. The court’s landmark decision held that the Digital Millennium Copyright Act’s “safe harbor” protects YouTube against liability for the presence of allegedly infringing videos on the site. The Washington Post called the win “an immense legal victory” for Google, and The New York Times observed that “the ruling in the closely watched case could have major implications for the scores of Internet sites” that rely on user-generated content. (Viacom et al. v. Google et al., S.D.N.Y.)
- Represented Bernard Kerik, the former Police Commissioner of New York City, in his appeal before the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. (U.S. v. Kerik, 2nd Cir.)
- Won acquittal on all counts for NYSE Specialist Broker accused of securities fraud as lead counsel in two-week jury trial. The Wall Street Journal noted that the victory was the government’s “first defeat in prosecutions of allegedly improper trading activity on the New York Stock Exchange,” and observed that the jury’s verdict in favor of Mr. Schapiro’s client was “quick and unanimous.” (U.S. v. Scavone, S.D.N.Y.)
- Argued and won important appeal in New York’s highest court establishing that a plaintiff cannot prove negligent design in a products liability case without showing that the proposed safer alternative would have been acceptable to consumers. (Adamo v. Brown & Williamson, N.Y. Court of Appeals)
- Co-authored the brief that persuaded the Second Circuit to throw out the obstruction of justice conviction of well known investment banker Frank Quattrone. In the wake of that decision, in the words of Time magazine, “prosecutors waved a white flag” and abandoned any effort to pursue a retrial. (U.S. v. Quattrone, 2nd Cir.)
- Co-authored successful certiorari petition and winning merits briefs in landmark Supreme Court case establishing new limits on punitive damages. (Philip Morris USA v. Williams, U.S. Supreme Court)
- Won reversal of highly publicized murder conviction, pro bono, after demonstrating significant prosecutorial and police misconduct. (People v. DiGuglielmo, Westchester County)
- Co-authored winning appellate brief for business owner convicted of wire fraud and tax fraud in connection with sales of industrial chemicals. (U.S. v. Shellef, 2d Cir.)
- Co-authored merits brief for the New York Board of Trade in Supreme Court case about the limits of standing to sue under the Commodities Exchange Act; case dismissed pursuant to Rule 46.1. (Klein & Co. Futures, Inc. v. Board of Trade of the City of New York, U.S. Supreme Court)
- Argued and won appeal for attorney convicted of fraud, resulting in vacatur of sentence and release of client. (U.S. v. Conley, 5th Cir.)
- Represented the American Bar Association as amicus curiae in the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark case banning execution of people with mental retardation. (Atkins v. Virginia, U.S. Supreme Court)
- Won acquittal on all counts for businessman charged with attempting to extort millions of dollars from a large financial institution. (U.S. v. Greer, S.D.N.Y.)
- Won acquittal on all counts for business owner charged with violating federal bribery statutes in connection with school construction contracts. (U.S. v. Lech, S.D.N.Y.)
- Harvard Law School
- (J.D., magna cum laude, 1990)
- Harvard Law Review:
- Co-Chair, Articles Office
- Recipient, Sears Prize
- Harvard Law Review:
- Oxford University
- (M.A., Philosophy, Politics, and Economics, 1987)
- Marshall Scholar
- Yale University
- (B.A., magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, 1985)
- The State Bar of Illinois
- The State Bar of New York
- United States Supreme Court
- United States Courts of Appeals:
- First Circuit
- Second Circuit
- Fifth Circuit
- Ninth Circuit
- Tenth Circuit
- Federal Circuit
- United States District Courts:
- Northern District of Illinois
- Southern District of New York
- Eastern District of New York
- U.S. Department of State:
- United States Ambassador to the Czech Republic, 2014-2017
- Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, LLP:
- Partner, 2011-2014
- Mayer Brown LLP:
- Partner, 2001-2011
- Associate, 1998-2000
- Federal Defenders’ Office for the Southern District of New York:
- Trial Attorney, 1993-1998
- Law Clerk to the Hon. Richard A. Posner:
- United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, 1991-1992
- Law Clerk to the Harry A. Blackmun:
- United States Supreme Court, 1992-1993
- Named “Litigator of the Week” by The AmLaw Litigation Daily (June 24, 2010 and April 25, 2013).
- Ranked in the Legal 500 USA as one of the country’s leading appellate lawyers.
- Selected for inclusion in the Best Lawyers in America in appellate practice, 2023
- Selected as a New York “Super Lawyer” each year since the list’s inception.
- Firm Memorandum: Title III Suits Under The Helms-Burton Act - A Primer, (May 2019).
- Firm Memorandum: Illinois Supreme Court Opens the Floodgates to Biometric Information Privacy Act Suits (February 2019).
- “Discretionary Interlocutory Appeals and Mandamus,” and “Criminal Appeals,” Federal Appellate Practice, BNA Books, 2008.
- “Serving Two Masters: When is Joint Representation of a Corporation and its Employees Permissible?”, New York Low Journal, July, 18, 2005.
- “Supreme Court Practice” (Chapter in A Defense Lawyer’s Guide To Appellate Practice (2004)) (with A. Frey).
- “Second Circuit Review Before Final Judgment” New York Law Journal, August 23, 2004.
- “Federal Grand Jury Investigating A Corporate Client? Counsel Wisely,” New York Law Journal, March 29, 2004 (with S. Chesin).
- “Guideline Developments in the Second Circuit: A Willingness to Make law,” 7 Fed. Sent. R. 230 (1995).
- Note, “The Disenfranchisement of Ex-Felons: Citizenship, Criminality, and The Purity of the Ballot Box,” 102 Harv. L. Rev. 1300 (1989).
- Member, Second Circuit CJA Advisory Committee
- Member, Board of Directors, Federal Defenders of New York, 2006-2011