About Evan Chesler

Evan R. Chesler is Cravath’s Chairman. He has broad experience in both trial and appellate courts, and has tried numerous cases in federal and state courts all over the country.

Mr. Chesler handles a wide variety of litigation, including securities, shareholder derivative, intellectual property, general commercial, environmental, ERISA, contractual disputes and antitrust. His practice also includes the representation of clients in government and internal investigations. Mr. Chesler has represented companies and their management in virtually every industry including technology, media, pharmaceuticals, manufacturing and financial services.

Mr. Chesler is a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, a fellow of the International Academy of Trial Lawyers, a fellow of the American Bar Foundation and a fellow of the New York Bar Foundation. He is the President of the Institute of Judicial Administration, the oldest nonpartisan organization in the United States devoted to the education of the judiciary. Mr. Chesler is Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the New York Public Library and Chairman of the Lawyers for the Library Committee. He is also a member of the Leaders Council of the Legal Services Corporation, a member of the Council of The American Law Institute and a Trustee of the Supreme Court Historical Society. Mr. Chesler is the author of numerous articles on legal topics as well as a chapter in the popular book, Inside the Minds of Leading Litigators (Aspatore Books, 2002). He is also a co‑author of a chapter on removal to federal court in Commercial Litigation in New York State Courts (Third Edition), for which he received the New York County Lawyers’ Association’s 2013 Boris Kostelanetz President’s Medal, and a chapter on cross‑examination in Winning at Trial: Insights from the Bench and Leading Litigators (Law Journal Press, 2014). 

Mr. Chesler is an Adjunct Professor of law at New York University School of Law, where he teaches an Advanced Trial Practice Seminar, and has been an adjunct faculty member at NYU’s College of Arts and Science, where he has taught an honors seminar entitled, “Constitutional Rights in Times of National Crisis.” 

Among his many accolades, Mr. Chesler was named a 2019 “Litigator of the Year” by The American Lawyer and has received both New York Law Journal’s Lifetime Achievement Award and Benchmark Litigation’s Hall of Fame Award.  In addition, he has been recognized as a leading litigator in several practice areas by numerous other professional publications, including Chambers USA, Chambers Global, The Best Lawyers in America, IAM Patent, The Legal 500 US, Lawdragon, The National Law Journal and Law360. 

Mr. Chesler received a law degree cum laude from New York University School of Law, where he was elected to the Order of the Coif (the national honor society for law students), was Topics Editor of the Law Review, served as a junior fellow at the Center for International Studies (at which he co‑authored two published articles on aspects of international law), twice received the John Norton Pomeroy Prize for academic excellence and was awarded the Benjamin Butler Prize.

Following his graduation, Mr. Chesler served as a law clerk to Hon. Inzer B. Wyatt of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. He joined Cravath in 1976 and was elected a partner in 1982. Mr. Chesler became Head of the Litigation Department in 1996. He was elected Deputy Presiding Partner in November 2005, and Presiding Partner effective January 1, 2007. As of January 1, 2013, Mr. Chesler became Chairman of the Firm, the first person to be given that title in the Firm’s history.

Mr. Chesler received an A.B. degree, with highest honors in History, from New York University, after which he earned an M.A. in Russian Area Studies at Hunter College. He is a member of the Board of Trustees of New York University and of the Board’s Executive Committee, Chairman of NYU’s Board of Overseers of the Faculty of Arts and Science and founder and Chairman of LAMP (the Lawyer Alumni Mentoring Program), which provides mentoring and curriculum enrichment programs to prelaw students. Mr. Chesler is also a member of the Board of Trustees of New York University School of Law and of the Board’s Executive Committee, as well as a member of the Advisory Board of the Center on Civil Justice at NYU School of Law. He serves on the NYC 2025 Advisory Committee, which is a program set up under the Wagner Graduate School of Public Service at NYU to consider and propose means to enable the economic recovery and growth of New York in a post-COVID world. Mr. Chesler was also inducted into the Alumni Association of Hunter College’s Hall of Fame for his extraordinary contributions as one of the country’s leading litigation and corporate lawyers.