Widely recognized as one of the country’s leading litigators, Evan R. Chesler was Cravath, Swaine & Moore’s Presiding Partner from 2007 through 2012 and Chairman from 2013 through 2021—the first person to be given that title in the firm’s 200-year history. Over his career, he tried numerous cases and argued many appeals in federal and state courts across the country, representing clients in virtually every industry, including technology, media, pharmaceuticals, manufacturing, and financial services. Mr. Chesler is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers and the International Academy of Trial Lawyers. He has received both Chambers USA’s and New York Law Journal’s Lifetime Achievement Awards, has been featured as one of the National Law Journal’s “Winning Litigators,” became the first recipient of Benchmark Litigation’s Hall of Fame Award, and was named to The Legal 500 US Hall of Fame. He retired from Cravath in December 2023.
Mr. Chesler was named New York University’s Chairman of the Board of Trustees on September 1, 2023. He also chairs the Board’s Executive Committee, chairs NYU’s Board of Overseers of the Faculty of Arts and Science, is a member of the NYU School of Law Board of Trustees and of its Executive Committee, and of the NYU Langone Health Board of Trustees. He is Chairman of the Board of the Institute of Judicial Administration. He also founded and chairs the Lawyer Alumni Mentoring Program (LAMP) at NYU’s College of Arts and Science, which provides mentoring and curriculum enrichment programs for prelaw students. Mr. Chesler has served as adjunct professor of law, teaching an advanced trial seminar, and has been an adjunct faculty member at NYU’s College of Arts and Science, where he taught an honors seminar entitled, “Constitutional Rights in Times of National Crisis.”
Mr. Chesler has earned numerous awards from NYU, most notably the Albert Gallatin Medal for Outstanding Contributions to Society, NYU School of Law’s Edward Weinfeld Award, its Honorary Order of the Coif Award, and its Alumni Achievement Award. He has also received the University’s Alumni Meritorious Service Award and its Alumni Distinguished Service Award.
Mr. Chesler also served as Chairman of the Board of the New York Public Library for eight years and now serves as Chair Emeritus. He is also a member of the Council of the American Law Institute.
Mr. Chesler received a Juris Doctor degree cum laude from the NYU School of Law, where he was elected to the Order of the Coif, was Topics Editor of the NYU Law Review, served as Junior Fellow at the Center for International Studies (at which he co-authored two published articles on aspects of international law), twice received the John Norton Pomeroy Prize for academic excellence, and was awarded the Benjamin Butler Prize. Following his graduation, Mr. Chesler served as a law clerk to the Honorable Inzer B. Wyatt of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. He joined Cravath in 1976 and was elected partner five and a half years later. Mr. Chesler received a Bachelor of Arts with highest honors in history from NYU, after which he earned a Master of Arts in Russian area studies from Hunter College, where he was later inducted into Hunter’s Alumni Hall of Fame.