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Robert W. Ray

Robert W. Ray is a partner in Pryor Cashman’s Litigation Group, with special emphasis on white collar criminal defense, corporate governance and compliance, internal investigations and general litigation, including civil RICO and commercial fraud. Bob’s experience and expertise include matters involving securities regulation, commodities trading, insurance transactions, money laundering, forfeiture, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the Bank Secrecy Act, environmental compliance, health care fraud, antitrust, the False Claims Act and the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. He has also litigated at all levels in New York state courts. For a list of Bob’s representative matters, please click here. 

Bob joined the Independent Counsel’s office in Washington, D.C. in 1995 and succeeded Kenneth Starr as Independent Counsel in October 1999. While Independent Counsel, Bob was responsible for, among other things, the In re Madison Guaranty investigations, which concluded with published final reports on matters involving FBI files, the White House Travel Office, Whitewater and Monica Lewinsky. Prior to succeeding Starr, Bob supervised, conducted and participated in complex, long-term and multi-defendant federal prosecutions involving public corruption, organized crime, violent crime and narcotics trafficking at all levels and stages in federal courts. Click here for a list of reported decisions.

From 1989 through 1995, Bob was an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York. Prior to that he was a judicial law clerk for the Honorable Frank X. Altimari in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

Bob is a 1985 cum laude graduate of Washington and Lee University School of Law, where he was a member of the Washington and Lee Law Review, was chosen as the best oralist at the John W. Davis Moot Court Competition (as well as being runner-up for best brief), and was a quarter finalist in the William and Mary Moot Court Competition. During 2004-2007, Bob served on Washington & Lee’s alumni advisory body as a member of the Law Council.

Previous Positions

• Kelley Drye & Warren LLP, Partner (2005-06)
• Day Pitney, Partner (2002-05)
• Independent Counsel’s Office, Washington, D.C., Independent Counsel (1999-2002), Senior Litigation Counsel (1999), Deputy Independent Counsel, Chief Associate and Counselor (1995-98)
• U.S. Attorney’s Office, Southern District of New York, Assistant U.S. Attorney (1989-95)
• Honorable Frank X. Altimari, U.S. Court of Appeals, Second Circuit, Law Clerk (1987-89)
• Sidley Austin Brown & Wood LLP, Associate (1985-87), Summer Associate (1984)

Publications

• Author, Case Comments and Note (civil RICO), Vol. 41, Washington and Lee Law Review

• Co-Author (with A. Robert Pietrzak), Private Litigation Involving Insider Trading, The Review of Securities & Commodities Regulation (March 1987)

• Also published as an op-ed contributor to The New York Times

Speaking Engagements

In connection with his service as Independent Counsel and its aftermath, Bob has appeared as a commentator or otherwise on Sunday talk and related political programs on all of the major television and cable networks, including:

• ABC Good Morning America
• Bill O’Reilly Factor
• CBS Early Show
• CNN Late Edition/Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer
• Fox News Sunday
• Hannity & Colmes
• Jon Stewart Show 
• NBC Nightly News
• Nightline with Ted Koppel
• PBS NewsHour with Jim Lehrer
• This Week with George Stephanopoulos
• Tim Russert hosting Meet the Press

Professional Affiliations

• American Bar Association
• Federal Bar Council, 2d Circuit
• Association of the Federal Bar of New Jersey
• Federalist Society
• Criminal Justice Act Panel, U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey (2003-09)
• Washington and Lee University, Law Council (2003-07)

Other Activities

• Bob was a candidate for the 2002 Republican nomination for U.S. Senate (New Jersey)