Lewis A. Kaplan

Lewis A. Kaplan (born December 23, 1944)[1] is a Senior United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. He took senior status on February 1, 2011.[2]

Lewis A. Kaplan
Senior Judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York
Incumbent
Assumed office February 1, 2011
Judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York
In office August 10, 1994 – February 1, 2011
Appointed by	Bill Clinton
Preceded by	Gerard Louis Goettel
Succeeded by	Ronnie Abrams
Personal details
Born	December 23, 1944 Staten Island, New York
Spouse(s)	Lesley Oelsner
Education	University of Rochester (A.B.) Harvard Law School (J.D.)

Education, career, personal life

Born in Staten Island, New York, Kaplan received an Artium Baccalaureus degree from the University of Rochester in 1966 and a Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School in 1969. He served as a law clerk for Judge Edward McEntee of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, from 1969 to 1970. Kaplan was in private practice in New York City from 1970 to 1994 and was a Special Master for the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, from 1982 to 1983. During his time in the private sector, Kaplan was a partner at Paul, Weiss and represented Phillip Morris.[3]

Judge Kaplan was married to former New York Times reporter and former vice president of Random House Lesley Oelsner on February 29, 2004.[4]

Federal judicial service

On May 5, 1994, Kaplan was nominated by President Bill Clinton to a seat on the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York vacated by Judge Gerard Louis Goettel. He was confirmed by the United States Senate on August 9, 1994, and received his commission on August 10, 1994. He took senior status on February 1, 2011, and was succeeded by Judge Ronnie Abrams.

Notable cases

Kaplan presided over the first case where charges against Guantanamo captives were laid in a civilian court. On February 9, 2010, Kaplan ordered Ahmed Ghailani's prosecution to review the record of Ghailani's detention in the CIA's network of black sites.[5] According to The New York Times any materials that show the decisions "were for a purpose other than national security," must be turned over to Ghailani's lawyers.

Kaplan denied a motion to dismiss the charges on the grounds that due to Ghailani's long extrajudicial detention he was denied the constitutional right to a speedy trial, ruling that his extended incarceration had no adverse impact on Mr. Ghailani's ability to defend himself. This cleared the way for federal prosecutors to try him for his suspected role in Al Qaeda's 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.[6]

The New York Times reported that Kaplan's ruling could set a precedent for the cases of other Guantanamo captives, who, like Ghailani, are transferred to the civilian justice system. On January 25, 2011, Kaplan sentenced Ghailani to life, and called the attacks "horrific" and saying the deaths and damage they caused far outweighs "any and all considerations that have been advanced on behalf of the defendant." He also ordered Ghailani to pay $33 million as restitution.[7]

Working in New York City, Kaplan had been the judge in a number of federal racketeering cases involving Mafia members. In April 2010, Judge Kaplan was assigned to preside over the cases of 14 Gambino crime family members arrested on charges, among others, of racketeering, racketeering conspiracy, witness tampering (in the 1992 trial of John Gotti), and sex trafficking of a minor.

In 2016-2017 Kaplan presided over US v. Spoutz, one of the first cases of successful prosecution of attributed artwork in the United States. Eric Spoutz, an art dealer, plead guilty to one count of wire fraud related to the sale of falsely attributed artwork accompanied by forged provenance documents. Kaplan sentenced him to 41 months in federal prison and ordered to forfeit the $1.45 million he made from the scheme and pay $154,100 in restitution.[8]

Judge Kaplan also had been presiding over the environmental case brought by Ecuadorian Native groups against Texaco-Chevron. Kaplan excused Chevron from paying the judgement of the Ecuadorian courts and in turn fined the plaintiff's lawyer Steven Donziger $3.4 million for contempt and Chevron's legal fees, the largest contempt sanction in US History.[9][10] Ex-judge Alberto Guerra, whose testimony Kaplan cited as a key factor in his decision, admitted that he lied in a 2016 tribunal.[11] Kaplan later appointed private counsel to prosecute Donziger.[12] According to The Intercept, Kaplan has written favorably about Chevron and "bypassed the standard random assignment process and handpicked someone he knew well, U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska, to oversee the case being prosecuted by the firm he chose."[10] In September 2020, the National Lawyers Guild and International Association of Democratic Lawyers filed a joint complaint against Kaplan over his treatment of Donziger.[13]

Other well-known cases Kaplan has presided over at the district level include Bridgeman Art Library v. Corel Corp., Universal v. Reimerdes, Five Borough Bicycle Club v. The City of New York, and Crandell v. New York College of Osteopathic Medicine.

Awards

In 2007, the New York State Bar Association awarded Kaplan the Stanley H. Fuld Award for outstanding contributions to the development of commercial law and jurisprudence in New York.[14]

In 2009, the Federal Bar Council awarded Kaplan the Learned Hand Medal for excellence in federal jurisprudence.[15]

See also

• Bridgeman Art Library v. Corel Corp.

References

1. Inc, Marquis Who's Who (1 October 1983). "Who's Who in American Law". Marquis Who's Who – via Google Books.
2. "The Government Gave Big Oil the Power to Prosecute Its Biggest Critic".
3. Frankel, Alsion (2006-01-01). "The Lifesavers". The American Lawyer. Retrieved 2020-09-09.
4. "Weddings/Celebrations; Lesley Oelsner, Lewis Kaplan". The New York Times. 29 February 2004. Retrieved 25 November 2019.
5. Benjamin Weiser (2010-02-10). "U.S. Told to Review Files on Terror Case Detention". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 2010-02-11.
6. Benjamin Weiser (2010-07-13). "Judge Refuses to Dismiss Terror Suspect's Case". The New York Times.
7. "Gitmo Detainee Gets Life Sentence in Embassy Plot".
8. "Forging Papers to Sell Fake Art". Federal Bureau of Investigation (press release). April 6, 2017.
9. "Suspended lawyer ordered to pay $3.4M in attorney fees to Chevron as contempt sanction".
10. Lerner, Sharon (January 29, 2020). "How the environmental lawyer who won a massive judgement against Chevron lost everything". The Intercept.
11. Hershaw, Eva (2015-10-26). "Chevron's Star Witness Admits to Lying in the Amazon Pollution Case". Vice. Retrieved 2020-04-18.
12. "When Feds Demur, Judge Charges Ecuador Crusader Himself". Courthouse News. 13 August 2019.
13. "L'avocat Steven Donzinger harcelé par la compagnie pétrolière Chevron". Reporterre. 2020-09-09. Retrieved 2020-09-09.
14. "Commercial and Federal Litigation Section: Stanley H. Fuld Award - New York State Bar Association". New York State Bar Association. 2019-12-23. Retrieved 2020-12-29.
15. "New York Law Journal: Judges Profiles: Lewis Kaplan". New York Law Journal. Retrieved 2020-12-29.

External links

• Lewis A. Kaplan at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a public domain publication of the Federal Judicial Center.