Gregory J. Wallance has a wide breadth of experience in white collar litigation and civil and commercial litigation.
Mr. Wallance served as Assistant United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York from 1979 to 1985. As an AUSA, he was a member of the ABSCAM prosecution team, which convicted six United States congressmen and a United States senator of bribery (ABSCAM became the basis for the movie American Hustle), and lead trial prosecutor in the highly publicized United States v. The Southland Corporation, which resulted in the conviction of a major corporation and a former New York City councilman arising from a bribery investigation.
On the civil side, from 1995–2001, Mr. Wallance served as Chief Litigation Counsel (while remaining a Partner at the firm) at Kidder, Peabody & Co. Incorporated, where he both supervised and tried securities litigations. He recently concluded a fourteen-year accounting fraud and malpractice litigation in federal court on behalf of a bankrupt pharmaceutical wholesale distributor against a major accounting firm that resulted in a substantial recovery for creditors, and represented a leading liquor company in a derivative lawsuit in Delaware Chancery Court arising from the multibillion-dollar sale of Grey Goose vodka.
In the product liability area, on behalf of foreign companies sued in the highly publicized Chinese drywall litigation, Mr. Wallance resolved thousands of homeowner claims for defective drywall board by negotiating and supervising a “pilot remediation program” that remediated, or is remediating, more than 2,500 homes. MDL Drywall Litigation Judge Eldon E. Fallon (E.D. La.) called the pilot program “very successful” and stated that “I have been mentioning [the pilot program] to my colleagues around the country as a potential method of trying to resolve these [mass tort] cases.” He has tried numerous criminal and civil cases and arbitrations, and argued appeals in multiple state and federal appellate courts.
As pro bono counsel, he has filed amicus curiae briefs in the Supreme Court on behalf of the National Alliance on Mental Illness and other leading mental health organizations in a case involving excessive police force against persons with mental disorders; in the Eleventh Circuit on behalf of Autism Speaks in a challenge to the Florida Medicaid agency’s denial of effective therapy for impoverished children with autism spectrum disorders; and in the Second Circuit on behalf of a leading social scientist and child justice organizations in a case arising under the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction.
Perspectives
Credentials
- JD, Brooklyn Law School, 1976, Co-Editor-in-Chief, Brooklyn Law Review (1975–76); Member of National Moot Court Competition Team (1975–76)
- BA, Grinnell College , 1970
- Supreme Court of the United States
- New York
- US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
- US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit
- US District Court, Northern District of New York
- US District Court, Southern District of New York
- US District Court, Eastern District of New York
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Assistant United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York