Robert Bishop Fiske, Jr.

Mr. Fiske is a senior member of Davis Polk & Wardwell's Litigation Department. Among his practice specialties are professional liability, securities, products liability and white collar crime. He has tried many cases concerning a wide variety of industries and areas of the law in courts across the country.

He represented Clark Clifford and Robert Altman in investigations of their roles in the BCCI matter, represented Exxon in New York and New Jersey investigations of the Arthur Kill oil spill, and represented Prudential Securities in the complex of proceedings arising out of its limited partnership sales practices. His financial and securities experience has included representation of General Electric, Exxon, Bankers Trust and other clients in securities actions. He obtained a reversal and judgment of acquittal in the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals of the mail fraud conviction of David Brown, former chairman of the board of General Development Corporation.

Mr. Fiske also has significant products liability experience. He obtained reversals in the Missouri Supreme Court of two multi-million dollar compensatory and punitive damage verdicts against Suzuki after trials involving a rollover of the Suzuki Samurai sport-utility vehicle. He successfully defended one of the highest-stakes cases ever brought, a $4 billion suit arising out of the Three Mile Island accident, brought by General Public Utilities against Babcock & Wilcox, which had designed and manufactured the nuclear reactor at Three Mile Island.

He was co-counsel in the successful defense of the National Football League in the antitrust suit brought by the U.S. Football League and has frequently represented prominent law firms in professional liability matters. He recently represented the New York Mets in the successful defense of an effort by Cablevision to block the formation of the Mets cable TV network with Time Warner and Comcast.

Mr. Fiske's experience as a government prosecutor and lawyer is extensive. He was an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York from 1957 to 1961, and the U.S. Attorney for the same district from 1976 to 1980. During his four-year term as U.S. Attorney, Mr. Fiske handled a number of important cases personally, including the conviction of narcotics kingpin Leroy �Nicky� Barnes; the labor racketeering conviction of Anthony Scotto and Anthony Anastasio; and the representation of Attorney General Griffin B. Bell in connection with contempt proceedings in the Socialist Workers Party litigation. While U.S. Attorney, he served as Chairman of the Attorney General's Advisory Committee of U.S. Attorneys. He served as Independent Counsel in the Whitewater Investigation from January to October 1994.

He represented the Judicial Council of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in disciplinary proceedings against a U.S. District Judge and has also served as chairman of a Judicial Commission on Drugs and the Courts appointed by New York State Chief Judge Judith S. Kaye. He was a member of the Commission for the Review of FBI Security Programs (Webster Commission).

He joined Davis Polk in 1955 and became a partner in 1964.

Mr. Fiske graduated from Yale University in 1952 and in 1955 received his J.D., Order of the Coif, from the University of Michigan Law School, where he was associate editor of the law review. He has received honorary degrees from the University of Michigan (1997) and the Vermont Law School (2005).

Mr. Fiske is a past president of the American College of Trial Lawyers and of the Federal Bar Council. He has served as chairman of the Standing Committee on Federal Judiciary of the American Bar Association and as chairman of the Planning and Program Committee of the Judicial Conference of the Second Circuit. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers and a former Trustee of the Vermont Law School. In 2007, he was a recipient of the New York City Bar Association Medal and the Fordham-Stein Prize; and in 2008, he was awarded The American Lawyer Lifetime Achievement Award.