As a senior antitrust and litigation partner (now retired) at Weil, Gotshal & Manges Steven A. Reiss handled complex civil, criminal, and international matters, especially those with multi-jurisdictional or parallel civil and criminal components.
In recent years, he has represented companies in major international antitrust investigations and litigations, including those involving the airline, auction house, auto parts, freight forwarders, helicopter service, vitamin, lysine, carbon fiber, EPDM rubber, orthopedic implant, graphite electrode, military insignia, and milk industries. Reiss has extensive experience representing clients in high-profile matters at trial and on appeal, and currently heads his firm’s appellate practice. His clients have included American Airlines, Apple, Avon, BMW, Bovis Lendlease, Bridgestone Tire, Credit Suisse, Empire Blue Cross, Ericsson, the European Union, ExxonMobil, General Electric, General Motors, Tommy Hilfiger, Johnson & Johnson, and the New York State Assembly.
Prior to joining Weil in 1989, Reiss was a tenured professor of law at New York University School of Law, where he taught criminal law, constitutional law, evidence and trial advocacy. He has published numerous books and articles, as well as having co-authored Modern Federal Jury Instructions, a standard reference work on jury instructions and practice in the federal courts. He was the editor-in-chief and later contributing editor of the White Collar Crime Reporter and the Reporter for Second Circuit Judicial Conference Committee on Juries. He regularly writes on a variety of legal issues, and serves as editor of Weil’s False Claims Act Watch newsletter.
Reiss has been recognized in The Best Lawyers in America in four categories: antitrust litigation, appellate litigation, commercial litigation, and white collar criminal defense. He has also been recognized by Legal 500. Reiss served as a law clerk to Justice William J. Brennan, Jr. of the Supreme Court and to Judge John Minor Wisdom of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
He is a graduate of Stanford Law School, where he was articles editor of the Law Review, and of Vassar College, where he has served as a trustee.