Daniel Slifkin is a partner in Cravath’s Litigation Department. His broad experience includes litigations and trials in both state and Federal courts throughout the United States, as well as in domestic and international arbitrations.

Mr. Slifkin has also represented his clients in regulatory investigations by both the DOJ and the SEC. He has substantial expertise in general contract and commercial disputes, as well as with class action defense, securities, intellectual property, shareholder derivative, employment, and bankruptcy matters. In recent years he has successfully handled numerous high-profile matters for some of the largest corporations in the world, including Alcoa, Lucent, Morgan Stanley and Vivendi, among others.

Mr. Slifkin’s recent cases and clients have included:

• Representing Vivendi in a securities class action, including a completed four-month long jury trial, in Federal court in the Southern District of New York. This is one of the very few securities class action cases ever to be tried to a jury verdict.
• Representing JPMorgan Chase and related entities as national coordinating counsel in residential mortgage-backed securities litigation filed in Federal and state courts across the country.
• Representing the former Chairman and CEO of FalconStor Software, Inc. in securities class action and related derivative litigation.
• Representing Lindsay Goldberg & Bessemer, L.P. in a shareholder derivative action filed in New York state court asserting claims for breach of fiduciary duty and unjust enrichment arising out of a public offering for nominal defendant Energy Solutions, Inc.
• Representing Alcoa in an action brought in Federal court in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania by Aluminum Bahrain B.S.C. (“Alba”), a state owned Bahrainian aluminum smelting company, alleging that Alcoa violated the FCPA and Federal RICO statutes by bribing officials from Alba and the Bahranian government to secure business with Alba and to gain a controlling interest in the Company.
• Representing Alcoa in an ERISA action filed in Federal court in the Eastern District of Tennessee by a class of thousands of retired Alcoa employees. Following a two-week bench trial, the Court entered judgment for Alcoa, dismissing the case with prejudice.
• Representing Morgan Stanley, its inside directors and certain of its executives in a shareholder derivative action filed in New York state court concerning executive compensation that was dismissed, with prejudice, at the motion to dismiss stage. The case is currently on appeal.
• Represented Morgan Stanley in an action in New York state court in order to obtain money from an antitrust suit to which it was entitled pursuant to the contract under which Discover Financial Services was spun off from Morgan Stanley. The Court granted summary judgment to Morgan Stanley on its breach of contract claim against Discover. Morgan Stanley obtained a judgment of over $800 million against Discover.
• Represented Alcoa in an FLSA class action lawsuit filed in Federal court in the Northern District of New York by current and former Alcoa employees concerning pay policies and protective equipment used in Alcoa’s factories. The Court granted Alcoa’s motion for summary judgment on all claims.
• Represented Alcoa in an adversary proceeding brought by the Trustee of Longview Aluminum LLC in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Illinois. The Trustee’s adversary action arose from Alcoa’s sale of a smelter to Longview in 2001 and involved unprecedented claims of breach of fiduciary duty, negligence, unjust enrichment and other claims against Alcoa. The Trustee of the estate filed suit, alleging, inter alia, that Alcoa aided and abetted breaches of fiduciary duties by Longview’s Chairman and was unjustly enriched by the sale of the smelter. The Court granted summary judgment to Alcoa on all claims.
• Represented a major American industrial company in an arbitration in London, England, conducted under International Chamber of Commerce rules, against one of its European customers in a dispute as to the correct interpretation of the contracts between the parties.
• Represented a European auto parts manufacturer in an arbitration before the American Arbitration Association regarding a breach of contract and breach of fiduciary duty dispute arising out of a joint venture agreement between the Company and a Mexican auto parts manufacturer.
• Represented Alcoa in an arbitration with The Fairchild Corporation concerning whether Alcoa was entitled to be indemnified by Fairchild for monies it expended for environmental and workplace safety projects related to manufacturing facilities Alcoa purchased from Fairchild. Following a two-week arbitration trial, the arbitrator found in favor of Alcoa.
• Represented priceline.com in defense of securities class action litigation in Federal court in the District of Connecticut alleging acts and omissions of priceline.com and certain of its officers, directors and auditors, which allegedly were designed to artificially inflate the shares of priceline.com. Also represented priceline.com and certain of its officers in a related derivative action before the Delaware Chancery Court. The class action settled on favorable terms and priceline.com won the derivative action in the Delaware Supreme Court.
• Represented Lucent Technologies Inc. and several former and current directors and officers of the company in over 50 shareholder and related ERISA, bondholder, debt security holder, derivative and state securities law litigations commenced between 2000 and 2003 in Federal courts in the District Court of New Jersey and the Southern District of New York, and in Delaware and New Jersey state courts. The cases settled on favorable terms.
• Represented Alcoa in an action by a French producer of aerospace alloys claiming invalidity and non-infringement of Alcoa’s patent on a high damage-tolerance aluminum alloy used to manufacture the fuselage skin of the Boeing 777 aircraft. After a two-week jury trial, it was found that Alcoa’s patent was both valid and literally infringed.

Mr. Slifkin serves on the Board of Americans for Oxford. In January 2010, Mr. Slifkin was featured as a “Litigator of the Week” in The AmLaw Litigation Daily. Mr. Slifkin has been selected by Lawdragon as one of “500 leading lawyers in America” for 2006 and 2009/2010 and was named to Lawdragon’s list of 100 Lawyers You Need to Know in Securities Litigation in 2008. Mr. Slifkin was also recognized as a “National Star” by Benchmark Litigation in 2011 for his general commercial litigation work.

Mr. Slifkin was born in London, England. He received a B.A., with first class honors, from Oxford University in 1987, where he was awarded the Martin Wronker Prize (Torts); a B.C.L., with first class honors, from Oxford University in 1988; and a J.D. magna cum laude from Harvard Law School in 1991, where he was an Editor of the Harvard Law Review and a Sears Prize winner. He joined Cravath in 1991 and became a partner in 1998.

Mr. Slifkin may be reached by phone at 212-474-1438 or by email at dslifkin@cravath.com.