Douglas J Pepe is a partner in Cohen & Gresser’s New York office. His practice focuses on litigating complex commercial matters on behalf of corporate and institutional clients, defending major law firms in high-stakes legal malpractice cases, and blockchain law.
Throughout his career, Doug has litigated tens of billions of dollars in claims involving a wide variety of complex substantive and procedural issues, including the securities laws and RICO Act; fiduciary, contractual and pre-contractual liability; corporate, class action and derivative litigation; legal malpractice and sanctions defense; and insurance subrogation, mass tort, aircraft disaster and terrorism litigation. He has extensive experience in large multiparty disputes and played a leading role on the Court-appointed Executive Committee charged with directing the subrogation and property damage claims arising out of the 9/11 terrorist attack, which were successfully resolved in a $1.2 billion settlement approved by the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
Doug is a Professorial Lecturer in Law at The George Washington University School of Law, where he teaches blockchain law and technology. He is also a member of the American Law Institute, the preeminent independent organization in the US producing scholarly work to clarify, modernize, and otherwise improve the law. Doug has authored numerous articles and book chapters on complex commercial litigation issues that have been cited in legal treatises, law reviews and other professional journals, and the commentaries to the New York Civil Practice Law and Rules. He speaks regularly on blockchain-related legal issues.
Before joining the firm, Doug practiced for 20 years at Joseph Hage Aaronson LLC, one of the country’s preeminent litigation boutiques. Before that, he was an associate at Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP, where he practiced in both the Corporate and Litigation departments, working principally in the fields of Mergers & Acquisitions, White Collar Criminal Investigations and Securities Litigation. Doug also served as a law clerk for United States District Judge Faith S. Hochberg of the United States District Court for District of New Jersey. He is a graduate of Columbia Law School, where he was a James Kent Scholar.
Education
Columbia Law School (J.D., Chancellor Kent Scholar, 1999); State University of New York at Buffalo (B.A., summa cum laude, 1996)
Bar Admissions
New York State; New Jersey State; U.S. Supreme Court; U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Second Circuit, Ninth Circuit and Federal Circuit; U.S. District Courts for the Southern District of New York, Eastern District of New York, and District of New Jersey
Activities and Affiliations
Fellow, Litigation Counsel of America
Member, American Law Institute