Sullivan & Cromwell’s Robert Giuffra Jr.: From Rehnquist to VW

[Image “Giufa” (src=https://bol.bna.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Giufa-e1487976650735.jpg)]

Robert Giuffra Jr.

Partner, Sullivan & Cromwell

Robert Giuffra Jr. has been a partner at Sullivan & Cromwell since 1997, and spent time in the White House and as a lawyer for U.S. Senate committees. He’s currently representing Volkswagen in connection with its ongoing diesel emissions scandal.

Education

Bronxville High School, Bronxville, New York, graduated 1978

Giuffra’s father was also an attorney, and had his own firm focused on insurance and admiralty law. Growing up, Giuffra said he can remember watching his father in court and falling in love with the profession.

“I knew I was going to become a litigator,” the younger Giuffra said, noting that two out of his three siblings also followed in their father’s footsteps.

[Image “Giuffra siblings” (src=https://bol.bna.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Giuffra-siblings-e1487971405383.jpg)]

Giuffra attended two high schools, finishing at Bronxville High School in Westchester County where he was named the first chief judge of the Bronxville High School Student Court, a body that decided and handed down punishments to students.

“It wasn’t exactly the easiest job, because if you’re telling somebody they were late 12 times and they’re getting detention, it didn’t exactly make you very popular.” Giuffra said.

Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, graduated 1983

Giuffra was a champion golfer in high school, winning the Westchester Junior Golf championship, and placing second in a Metropolitan PGA Junior Golf tournament on Long Island, which helped him gain admission to top colleges.

“I was a decent student in high school, but I wasn’t an academic superstar or anything like that,” Giuffra said.

At Princeton, golf took a backseat to his studies and Giuffra graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa.

Yale Law School, New Haven, Connecticut, graduated 1987[Image “Giuffra in Yale” (src=https://bol.bna.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Giuffra-in-Yale-e1487974142535.png)]

At Yale Law School, Giuffra enrolled in an evidence and securities regulation course taught by Ralph Winter, a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Years later, Winter hired him as a clerk.

Notable people in Giuffra’s section include Steve Higginson, a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit; Richard Painter, chief ethics lawyer under former President George W. Bush; and George Conway, a partner at Watchell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz and the husband of White House Counselor Kellyanne Conway.

Work experience

White House Office of Public Liaison, 1981-82

Giuffra, a Republican who had worked on Ronald Reagan’s presidential campaign in college, took a position as a low-level staffer in the Reagan White House. His duties included planning presidential events, preparing briefing memos and drafting correspondence.

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Clerk for Judge Ralph Winter, U.S. Court of Appeals, 2nd Circuit, 1987-88

During his clerkship with Judge Winter, Giuffra said he learned the importance of simplifying arguments and figuring out the winning argument, not getting lost in the weeds and not assuming judges know the minutiae of every case.

“The most important question of any case is ‘Why should we win?’” Giuffra said. “Why should the judge rule for us and not the opponent?”

[caption id="attachment_43461" align="aligncenter” width="400"][Image “giuffra winter” (src=https://bol.bna.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/giuffra-winter-e1487974287807.jpg)]Giuffra, right with Winter, center and his Yale classmate George Conway III, left.[/caption]

Clerk for Chief Justice William Rehnquist of the U.S. Supreme Court, 1988-89

Giuffra said he was so nervous during the interview to become Rehnquist’s clerk that when the judge asked him if he had any questions, he said, “No, I just admire you and want to be your clerk.” Rehnquist showed Giuffra the door soon after, so he was surprised he landed the job.

“He did not like people who had a lot of airs, if you know what I mean,” Giuffra said. “So it was the right answer. I didn’t know it at the time, but it was.”

[Image “Giuffra Rehnquist” (src=https://bol.bna.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Giuffra-Rehnquist-e1487975491395.jpg)]

Sullivan & Cromwell LLP, associate, 1989-95

Giuffra devoted long hours to his work and handled a variety of different cases including banking, security and intellectual property.

He recalled the third deposition of his career: Giuffra was defending the Bank of New York against claims by Northeast Bancorp that it had breached a merger agreement. He was deposing then-Arnold & Porter Chairman John Hawke. A half-hour after Giuffra started the deposition, the Sullivan & Cromwell partner supervising him, John Warden, entered the room. Warden mainly worked on a crossword puzzle, Giuffra said, pausing a few times to provide notes. After two hours, Warden left because Giuffra was capably handling the deposition on his own.

About his early career lessons, he said he learned to always listen to the answers in court, give a non-scripted reply and cross-examine the logic of the witnesses’ story.

“In those days, it was kind of like boot camp for litigators,” Giuffra said of his firm.

[caption id="attachment_43476" align="aligncenter” width="400"][Image “Giuffra, left. Armand D’Amato, center, John Warden, right.” (src=https://bol.bna.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/SullCrom-e1487976066600.jpg)]Giuffra, left. Armand P. D’Amato, center, John Warden, right.[/caption]

In the fall of 1994 — a year before Giuffra was due to make partner — Washington, D.C. called. Senator Alfonse D’Amato, then chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, told the young attorney he wanted him to serve as the committee’s chief counsel. Giuffra talked it over with his parents and H. Rodgin Cohen, now the firm’s senior chairman, who all convinced him to take the job in Washington.

Chief Counsel, Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, 1995-96

Giuffra said he was the principal drafter of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, a tort reform bill that put new curbs on securities class actions. The bill was one of only two that survived a veto from President Bill Clinton. Giuffra criticized the partisan atmosphere.

“I was trying to get the bill passed rather than engage in some ideological score settling,” Giuffra said.

Counsel, Senate Whitewater Committee, 1995–96

Giuffra acted as counsel to the Senate committee created to investigate then-President Clinton and his wife Hillary, along with several of their business partners over their involvement in the defunct-Whitewater Development Corporation. He called it a “giant food fight.”

While there, he met his future wife, Joyce Campbell, at a victory party for Republican Sen. Bob Dole. She was his press secretary and her boss had just clinched the party’s nomination for president. The couple tied the knot in 1998, and Dole attended the wedding.

[caption id="attachment_44596" align="aligncenter” width="352"][Image “Bob Giuffra and Joy Campbell at their 1998 wedding with former Republican Senator Bob Dole.” (src=https://bol.bna.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/img058-230x130.jpg)]Bob Giuffra and Joyce Campbell at their 1998 wedding with former Republican Senator Bob Dole.[/caption]

“The best thing I got out of working in Washington was my wife,” Giuffra said.

Dole lost his bid for the presidency to Clinton, and in 1996, Giuffra left government and returned to New York to resume his career at Sullivan & Cromwell.

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Sullivan & Cromwell LLP, partner, 1997–present

Giuffra represents Volkswagen AG as its national coordinating counsel in its diesel-emissions scandal. It recently settled with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Justice Department and the California Air Resources Board to buy back diesel vehicles in the U.S., fix vehicles and pay $225 million to clean up the environment. This was part of another sweeping agreement for Volkswagen to spend $14.7 billion on settling customer lawsuits and charges that it scammed U.S. emissions tests. The case is ongoing and certain parts of it will go on for at least a year, he said.

Giuffra said it’s one of the most complicated cases he’s ever worked on. In settling, he said he wanted to resolve the matter as quickly as possible.

“Not too many people call me with the easy slam-dunk winners,” Giuffra said.

[caption id="attachment_8231" align="aligncenter” width="600"][Image “Photo by Krisztian Bocsi (Bloomberg)” (src=https://bol.bna.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/254085180_1-3-e1457988377654.jpg)]Photo by Krisztian Bocsi (Bloomberg)[/caption]

Sullivan & Cromwell LLP, member, management committee, 2006–present

Giuffra’s advice for young attorneys is to explain things in a clear and understandable way for the judge and jurors — don’t overcomplicate issues in court. He advises against specializing in one area of law.

“The law is a profession and there’s a cobbler aspect to it,” he said. “And if you don’t learn how to do it from the best, you’ll never be a great lawyer.”

UPDATED: An earlier version of this story mistakenly referred to Richard Painter as George Painter; and stated Giuffra attended three high schools, when he attended two. The description of the VW settlement has also been amended. We regret the errors.