Evan A. Davis

Evan A. Davis retired as an active partner in July 2012 and as a Senior Counsel at the end of 2025.

While a partner his work focused on litigation and other forms of international and domestic dispute resolution. As Senior Counsel he supervised pro bono litigation.

He handled complex securities, merger and acquisition, contract disputes, art and museum restitution law, and insurance coverage litigations. He has extensive arbitration and mediation experience in complex domestic and international commercial cases as a party-appointed arbitrator, an arbitration tribunal chair, a mediator and an advocate in arbitration and mediation.

Evan served as President of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York from May 2000 through May 2002, and as Vice Chair of the Trustees of Columbia University, where he also chaired the Finance Committee. He also served as a Vice President of the Legal Aid Society and as Senior Warden of Trinity Church Wall Street. He is a member of the Board of Disability Rights Advocates.

Prior to joining Cleary Evan served as the leader of the Watergate and Cover-up Task Force in the United States House Judiciary Committee Inquiry into the Impeachment of President Richard Nixon.

Clients for whom he has worked include Bank of America (arbitration), Showa Denko (mass tort litigation), Barclay’s Bank (securities litigation and contract arbitration), Lloyds of London (Beazley syndicates) (insurance coverage), General Electric (insurance coverage), the American Museum of Natural History (Native American claims litigation), the Guggenheim Foundation and MoMA (art law litigation), Sharp Corporation (commercial litigation), United Technologies Corporation (arbitration and trade practices litigation), Fitch, Inc. (securities litigation), Goldman Sachs (creditors rights and antitrust litigation), HSBC (securities litigation) and KBC, D.E. Shaw, the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Calamos and others hedge funds (commercial litigation).

Evan began work at the firm in 1975 and became a partner in 1978. In September 1985, he left the firm to serve as Counsel to New York State Governor Mario M. Cuomo, rejoining the firm in February 1991. While Counsel to the Governor he was in charge of negotiating the Governor’s legislative program with the Legislature.

Evan is the recipient of many awards and honors including The American Lawyer’s Lifetime Achievement Award, Columbia University’s Medal of Excellence, the Federal Bar Council’s Emory Buckner Award for Distinguished Public Service and its Whitney North Seymour Award in recognition of his work as City Bar President organizing volunteer lawyers to assist 9/11 victims and responders, the Brennan Center’s William J. Brennan Jr. Award for Outstanding Contribution to Public Discourse, the New York Lawyers for the Public Interest’s Law and Society Award, The New York Correctional Association’s 1846 Award, the Episcopal Diocese of New York’s Servant of Justice Award and The Legal Aid Society’s Servant of Justice Award. He was the honoree at the New York City Bar Twelfth Night musical roast in 2010. He was a candidate for the Democratic nomination for Attorney General in 1998.