Distinguished Lawyers Panel:
A Look Inside the Extraordinary Legal Careers of QC Alumni
Eugene Fidell, ’65
Of Counsel, Feldesman Tucker Leifer Fidell Florence Rogatz
Visiting Lecturer and Senior Research Scholar at Yale Law School
As the Florence Rogatz Visiting Lecturer and Senior Research Scholar at Yale Law School, Mr. Fidell has taught Military Justice, Habeas Corpus, Guantánamo; and The Original Jurisdiction of the United States Supreme Court, Federal Indian Law, Tribal Law; and Law of the Sea, Admiralty, and Disasters. He has also taught at Harvard Law School and American University Washington College of Law and is of counsel at the Washington, D.C. law firm Feldesman Tucker Leifer Fidell LLP. He graduated from Queens College of the City University of New York (B.A. 1965), where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, and Harvard Law School (LL.B. 1968). He served in the U.S. Coast Guard from 1969 to 1972.
Mr. Fidell is president emeritus of the National Institute of Military Justice and chairs the Committee on Military Justice of the International Society for Military Law and the Law of War. He has represented members of all branches of the U.S. armed forces and has consulted on military justice matters for the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. He is the author or coauthor of four books on military justice, including Military Justice: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford 2016).
Mr. Fidell is a life member of the American Law Institute and an adviser to its current project on the Restatement of the Law (Third), The Law of American Indians.
Roger L. Stavis, ’79
Partner, Gallet Dreyer & Berkley LLP
Roger Stavis is one of New York’s most experienced and respected criminal defense attorneys. He has tried more than 100 cases to verdict in state and federal courts, many of which were high-profile, complex, multi-defendant cases. Mr. Stavis has also argued more than 100 appeals in various state and federal courts around the country.
Mr. Stavis is a former prosecutor and is the former Chairman of the Criminal Courts Committee of the New York City Bar. He also lectures widely and is a faculty member at the Cardozo Law School Intensive Trial Advocacy Program.
Mr. Stavis received his B.A Magna Cum Laude from Queens College in 1979. He received his J.D. with honors from George Washington University in 1982.
Frederic S. Fox, '81
Partner, Kaplan Fox & Kilsheimer LLP
Mr. Fox first associated with Kaplan Fox in 1984 and became a partner of the firm in 1991. He has concentrated his work for 30 years in the area of class action litigation and individual securities litigation. Mr. Fox has played important roles in many major securities class action cases, including as a senior member of the litigation and trial team in In re Bank of America Corp. Sec., ERISA & Der. Litig., No. 09-MDL-2058 (S.D.N.Y) (“In re Bank of America”) arising out of Bank of America’s acquisition of Merrill Lynch, which recently settled for $2.425 billion. Mr. Fox was also a member of the litigation and trial team for one of the first cases tried to verdict under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.
Mr. Fox is actively involved in maintaining and establishing the firm’s relationships with institutional investors and oversees the Portfolio Monitoring and Case Evaluation Program for the firm’s numerous public pension funds and other institutional investors. Mr. Fox currently represents many institutional investors, including governmental entities in both class actions and individual litigation, including serving as lead or co-lead counsel on behalf of major public pension funds in pending securities litigation involving Bank of America, Fannie Mae, AAC Holdings and Petrobras. Mr. Fox is also Lead Counsel to a large public pension fund system in a derivative action against the directors of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (“Wal-Mart”) involving alleged bribery and fraud at Wal-Mart’s Mexican subsidiary. In the past, Mr. Fox has served as the lead attorney in In re Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc. Securities, Derivative & ERISA Litigation, which was settled for $475 million, In re Merrill Lynch Research Reports Securities Litigation (S.D.N.Y.) (arising from false and misleading analyst reports issued by Henry Blodget); In re Salomon Analyst Williams Litigation (S.D.N.Y.) and In re Salomon Focal Litigation (S.D.N.Y.) (both actions stemming from false and misleading analyst reports issued by Jack Grubman). Mr. Fox is a frequent speaker and panelist in both the U.S. and abroad on a variety of topics, including securities litigation and corporate governance.
Mr. Fox is listed in the current editions of New York Super Lawyers and was recognized in Benchmark Litigation as a New York “Litigation Star.”