Leslie D. Corwin

Of Counsel

  • Leslie D. Corwin
  • Phone: +1 212 692 1047

    Import to Address Book

  • Duane Morris LLP
    1540 Broadway
    New York, NY 10036-4086
    USA

Leslie D. Corwin is an experienced trial and appellate lawyer focusing his practice on disputes, mergers and acquisitions, liquidations, dissolutions and bankruptcies. He has broad experience with the full range of valuation, accounting and ethical issues that typically arise in business disputes. Mr. Corwin has litigated issues of first impression and his practice also includes elements of finance, securities, entertainment, employment law, ERISA, real estate and bankruptcy. He has represented and negotiated on behalf of principals, partners and senior executives of many of the country’s leading investment banks and private equity firms, international and national law and accounting firms, broker-dealers, investment banks, hedge funds and real estate developers.

Mr. Corwin is a member of the American Law Institute, the Committee on Character and Fitness for the Supreme Court of the State of New York, First Judicial Department, and serves on multiple other court committees. In 2019, he was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award by the New York Law Journal and was named one of its inaugural New York Trailblazers. In May 2021, he was named to American Lawyer’s Inaugural List of Northeast Trailblazers. He is a frequent analyst on CNN, CNBC, Fox, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times. Mr. Corwin also writes extensively for law journals and industry publications and has lectured for the judiciary, bar, legal associations and law schools, industry organizations and Harvard Business School. The 1998 book, Law Firm Partnership Agreements, which he co-authored, is considered the definitive treatise on the subject. He participated in the Aspen Institute’s 2017 Justice & Society Seminar, an annual, invitation-only seminar co-founded by the late Supreme Court Justice Harry A. Blackmun that is composed of 20 distinguished participants from various professional fields.

Mr. Corwin is a 1973 graduate of Fordham University School of Law and a graduate of Brown University.

Admissions

  • New York
  • U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York
  • U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York
  • U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado
  • U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
  • U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit
  • Supreme Court of the United States

Education

  • Fordham University School of Law, J.D., 1973
  • Brown University, A.B., 1969

Experience

  • Duane Morris LLP
    - Of Counsel, 2021-present
  • Eisner LLP
    - Managing Partner, 2018-2021
  • Blank Rome
    - Partner, 2014-2018
  • Greenberg Traurig
    - Principal Shareholder, 1998-2014
  • Morrison Cohen LLP
    - Founding Partner, 1984-1998

Professional Activities

  • American Bar Association
    - Section of Business Law
  • American Bar Foundation Life Fellow
  • American Law Institute
  • Association of Professional Responsibility Lawyers
  • Association of the Bar of the City of New York
  • Supreme Court of the State of New York, First Judicial Department
    - Committee on Character and Fitness
  • Supreme Court of New York County
    - Independent Judicial Screening Committee
  • New York County Lawyers Association
    - Judiciary and Federal Courts Committees
  • Aspen Institute
    - Justice Circle
  • Fordham University School of Law
    - Law Advisory Committee
  • Neutral, National Arbitration and Mediation (NAM)
  • New York Bar Foundation Fellow
  • New York State Unified Court System's Pro Bono Scholars Program Task Force

Honors and Awards

  • Listed in The Appellate Lawyers Directory, 2023-2024 

  • Listed in The Best Lawyers in America, 2005-2023

  • Named to American Lawyer’s 2021 Inaugural List of Northeast Trailblazers

  • Elected to the WC Mepharn High School Alumni Association’s Who's Who Hall of Fame in the Field of Law, 2020

  • Honored with 2019 Lifetime Achievement Award by the New York Law Journal

  • Named to the New York Law Journal's Inaugural List of New York Trailblazers, 2019

  • Listed in New York Metro Super Lawyers

  • Named a “Legal Elite” in Litigation, Avenue Magazine, 2011-2012

  • Listed, Appellate Practice Group of the Year, Law360, 2011

  • Listed in Who’s Who in American Law

  • Recommended in PLC Which Lawyer, 2009

  • AV Preeminent® Peer Review Rated by Martindale-Hubbell®

Civic and Charitable Activities

  • Israel Tennis Centers Foundation
    - Board of Directors

Media Hits

  • Quoted, "When Rainmakers Leave, Partners Ask 'Should I Stay or Should I Go?'," The American Lawyer, June 5, 2023
  • Quoted, "3rd Circ. Revives Tax Evader's Deportation Challenge," Law360, October 15, 2021

  • Quoted, “Partner Pay Cuts Could Reach Richest Firms if Recovery Drags,” Bloomberg Law, May 14, 2020

  • Quoted, “As Law Firms Change Their Pension Plans, Will Retiring Partners Shoulder the Risk?” The American Lawyer, April 21, 2020

  • Featured, “All-Star Acquisitions: The 25 Biggest Lateral Moves of 2018,” The American Lawyer, February 3, 2019

  • Quoted, “Battle Over Howrey Collapse on D.C. Court's Doorstep,” Bloomberg Law, December 14, 2018

  • Quoted, “Once Storied Sedgwick Files for Bankruptcy as Wind-Down Fails,” The American Lawyer, October 2, 2018

  • Quoted, “Beverly Hills Firm Lures Blank Rome Partner Duo to Expand in New York,” New York Law Journal, June 19, 2018

Selected Publications

  • Co-author. Law Firm Partnership Agreements, Law Journal Seminars-Press, 1998

  • Co-author, “What Baggage Can Withdrawing Law Partners Carry Out The Revolving Door?” Rhode Island Bar Journal, January 2001

  • Author, “Response to Loyalty in the Firm: A Statement of General Principles on the Duties of Partners Withdrawing from Law Firms,” 55 Wash. & Lee L.Rev. 1055, 1998

Selected Speaking Engagements

  • Lecturer, New York State Bar Association Commercial Litigation Academy, 2017 and 2019