Jay P. Lefkowitz

Jay Lefkowitz is a litigation partner at Kirkland. He is also an adjunct professor at Columbia Law School, where he teaches a seminar on Supreme Court advocacy. Jay has served as lead trial and appellate counsel in a wide variety of substantive areas, including shareholder disputes, antitrust, product liability, litigation against the FDA and False Claims Act matters. He has also conducted numerous internal investigations for public companies and audit committees.

In its 2013 release of “The 100 Most Influential Lawyers in America,” The National Law Journal describes Jay as “a leading voice on school choice issues” and “a no-nonsense appellate and antitrust lawyer for an array of blue-chip clients.” The Legal 500 U.S. noted that Jay “provides a depth of understanding and influence in some of the highest courts of our country,” and in Chambers USA, America’s Leading Lawyers for Business, clients say, “‘Jay is brilliant; there is no other way to put it.’” Jay was also named a Law360 “MVP of the Year” in 2011 for his Appellate practice, and in 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016 for his Life Sciences work. Jay is one of only three of the 189 MVPs named to the list six years in a row. The American Lawyer named him its “Lawyer of the Week” in December 2012 for his role in winning an antitrust lawsuit in the pharmaceutical industry.

Jay takes on groundbreaking work for high-profile clients, representing more than a dozen major pharmaceutical, medical device and health care companies in important and frequently precedent-setting matters. Jay has won two landmark 5-4 decisions at the United States Supreme Court in favor of the pharmaceutical industry overturning the decision of three Circuit Courts of Appeal. In Pliva v. Mensing in 2011, on behalf of Teva and Actavis, Jay convinced the Court to reject the views of the FDA and the Solicitor General and establish that generic drug companies may no longer be sued for “failure to warn claims,” finding that federal law preempts state law under the Constitution’s supremacy clause. His victory in Mutual v. Bartlett in 2013, overturned a $21 million verdict on behalf of Sun Pharmaceuticals, and extended the Mensing ruling to cover design defect claims.

Jay also represents clients in high-profile bet-the-company securities litigation, including in numerous pending Section 10(b)(5) class actions, e.g., Fernandez v. Knight Capital Group., Fage v. Bioscrip, and Teva. Kirkland is one of only three “powerhouses” for Securities and Finance Litigation in a survey of corporate counsel conducted by BTI Consulting and published in 2014, Practice Group of the Year for Securities by Law360 for 2014, 2015 and 2017, and a Tier 1 ranking for Shareholder Litigation and Securities by The Legal 500 for 2012–2015 and U.S. News and World Report, Best Lawyers®, 2007–2017. The BTI Consulting Group's “Litigation Outlook” also named Kirkland as one of the firms that formed the Fearsome Foursome — the four “most feared” litigation firms — in 2011 and 2013–2017.

Jay currently serves on Advisory Boards for many organizations, including Columbia Law School, NYU Alexander Hamilton Center and Barnard College, and his public service career includes serving as a senior White House advisor to two presidents, and as United States Special Envoy on Human Rights in North Korea.