John D. Lovi

MANAGING PARTNER

Mr. John D. Lovi has been a litigator and trial lawyer at major “white shoe” law firms in New York City for 30 years.  For the past 12 years, Mr. Lovi had been a partner at Steptoe & Johnson LLP’s New York office, which he opened in 2004 as its Managing Partner.  Before that, he was a partner at McDermott, Will & Emery in New York for 10 years.  He also spent eight years as an Associate in the Litigation and M&A Groups at Sullivan & Cromwell.  

Mr. Lovi has successfully tried jury cases to a verdict in state and federal court in New York, as well as litigated matters in state and federal courts across the United States.  He has also conducted major international arbitrations in New York, London, Paris, Hong Kong, and Singapore.  In addition, he has handled appeals in various appellate courts where he is admitted.

Mr. Lovi’s practice is as a general commercial litigator, with a specialty in securities, derivatives, and M&A law, as well as complex litigations involving international components.  For example, he represented the Korean Government and many of its largest financial institutions following the fallout of the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis.  He obtained settlement payments for or saved clients from paying more than $800 million in derivative liabilities.  He has handled national debt crises for clients with interests in Venezuela, Argentina, and Puerto Rico.  His clients include many major companies, financial institutions, and hedge funds in the United States, Korea, Singapore, Nigeria, and the United Kingdom.  

Some of Mr. Lovi’s significant victories include: Won a defense verdict in a $47 million jury product fraud case in New York federal court for a Korean manufacturer doing business in China; Successfully defended a $400 million securities class action case for a large New York hedge fund in N.M. federal court; Defended a $610 million arbitration against a large French mobile phone company.

A significant part of Mr. Lovi’s practice has involved risk management and analysis for financial clients and hedge funds.  Mr. Lovi has developed cutting-edge methods and metrics for analyzing litigation risk and litigation strategies to help clients reduce litigation expenses and liabilities, and to avoid liabilities in their business and commercial transactions.  He has developed this expertise through many years representing some of the top investment banks, venture capital firms, and hedge funds, as well as utilizing skills learned through classes taken at Yale’s School of Management while studying law there.

Mr. Lovi has many years of experience representing clients on an “alternative fee basis” and has headed his firms’ committees in this area for more than 10 years.  He has successfully worked with well-known “litigation funding firms” on several matters and has developed his own funding arrangements for clients with great success.