William Snipes is a member of the Firm’s Litigation Group. His practice is focused on representing clients in complex commercial litigation in a variety of areas, including securities, banking, intellectual property and products liability, and in major internal investigations and regulatory enforcement proceedings before federal and state authorities.
Mr. Snipes has represented a broad range of U.S. and foreign industrial and financial services clients. He has represented the world’s largest oil and gas company in antitrust litigation and the world’s largest spirits manufacturer in youth marketing litigation. He has handled antitrust litigation for a major U.S. sports league and litigation against a large law firm in the national tobacco litigation. He represented the New York State Department of Financial Services in litigation challenging the state’s regulatory authority over insolvent foreign banks and the Superintendent of Banks in subsequent liquidation proceedings.
Professional Activities and Community Involvement
Mr. Snipes is one of the principal co-founders of the Pipeline Crisis/Winning Strategies Initiative—his innovative brainchild—that was launched in 2006 to marshal private sector leadership, investment, and advocacy to address the social and economic gap between young black men and their peers. The American Lawyer called Mr. Snipes a lawyer-statesman and his initiative “unprecedented”, observing that “[h]istorically Wall Street law firms and investment banks have spent little time trying to address the root causes of African American poverty.”
Mr. Snipes serves on the governing boards of the John Jay College Foundation, Zahn Innovation Center at City College and Center For Employment Opportunities and is a former member of the Executive Committee of the New York City Bar Association, Board of Trustees of New School University, and Mayor’s Advisory Committee on the Judiciary. Mr. Snipes, for many years, taught trial advocacy at Columbia Law School.
