Evan A. Davis’s practice focuses on litigation and other forms of international and domestic dispute resolution.
He has handled complex securities, merger and acquisition, contract disputes, art and museum restitution law, and insurance coverage litigations. He has extensive arbitration and mediation experience in complex domestic and international commercial cases as a party-appointed arbitrator, an arbitration tribunal chair, a mediator and an advocate in arbitration and mediation.
Evan is a recognized authority on New York law and has argued frequently in the New York Court of Appeals, the State’s highest court. He has also provided expert opinions on matters of professional ethics. He served as President of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York from May 2000 through May 2002, and as Vice Chair of the Trustees of Columbia University, where he also chaired the Finance Committee. He has been recognized by Benchmark Litigation: The Definitive Guide to America’s Leading Litigation Firms and Attorneys, Who’s Who in the World, Euromoney’s Guide to the World’s Leading Experts in Commercial Arbitration, Law Business Research’s The International Who’s Who of Business Lawyers and Who’s Who of Commercial Litigators, Mondaq’s Guide to the World’s Leading Commercial Arbitration Advisors, The Legal 500 U.S. and The Best Lawyers in America.
Clients for whom he has recently worked include Bank of America (arbitration), Barclay’s Bank (securities litigation and contract arbitration), Lloyds of London (Beazley syndicates) (insurance coverage), General Electric (insurance coverage), the American Museum of Natural History (Native American claims litigation), the Guggenheim Foundation and MoMA (art law litigation), Sharp Corporation (commercial litigation), United Technologies Corporation (arbitration and trade practices litigation), Fitch, Inc. (securities litigation), Goldman Sachs (creditors rights and antitrust litigation), HSBC (securities litigation) and KBC, D.E. Shaw, the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Calamos and others (commercial litigation).
Evan began work at the firm in 1975 and became a partner in 1978. In September 1985, he left the firm to serve as Counsel to New York State Governor Mario M. Cuomo, rejoining the firm in February 1991. Evan became senior counsel in July 2012.
Evan was awarded the Medal for Excellence by Columbia University in 1987, the Emory Buckner Award for Distinguished Public Service by the Federal Bar Council in 1990, an environmental award by the Wildlife Conservation Society in 1995, the Milton Gould Award for Outstanding Appellate Advocacy by the Office of the Appellate Defender in 1996, the William J. Brennan Jr. Award for Outstanding Contribution to Public Discourse by the Brennan Center in 1999, the Law and Society Award by New York Lawyers for the Public Interest in 2000, the 1846 Award by the New York Correctional Association in 2001, the Whitney North Seymour Award by the Federal Bar Council in 2002, the Servant of Justice Award by the Episcopal Diocese of New York in 2004 and the Servant of Justice Award by the Legal Aid Society in 2008. He was the honoree at the New York City Bar Twelfth Night musical roast in 2010. He was a candidate for the Democratic nomination for Attorney General in 1998.
Evan is a member of the American Law Institute, and the board of Governors of the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute in Hyde Park, New York. He is a Director of the Center for Family Representation and Episcopal Charities, a Trustee of The Spence School where he heads the Admissions Committee and is a member of the Advisory Council of New York Common Cause and the Advisory Board of Disability Rights Advocates. He is a Warden of Trinity Church Wall Street. He formerly chaired the American Bar Association’s Standing Committee on Public Education and its Commission on Youth Education for Citizenship.