Who

One of the top antitrust lawyers in the country, Chesler is the presiding partner at the white-shoe law firm Cravath, Swaine & Moore.

Backstory

A New York native, Chesler doesn't seem to have left the city much during his first 25 years, earning a B.A from NYU and a Master's from Hunter before returning to NYU Law on a scholarship. In 1976, he joined Cravath and cut his teeth as part of the team defending IBM from an epic anti-trust suit by the Justice Department, a case that dragged on for more than a decade—and he's been defending corporate clients from federal regulators and their competitors ever since. After heading up Cravath's litigation department for a decade, Chesler ascended to the presiding partner position at the start of 2007, when Robert Joffe vacated the slot. Today, he oversees New York's second-biggest law firm by employees, right behind Skadden Arps.

Of note

Over his three-decade career, the canny litigator has specialized in working with big pharmaceutical companies. He represented Sanofi-Aventis and Bristol-Myers in their patent suit concerning the drug Plavix, and he defended Merck—the maker of Vioxx—in an $18 billion class-action suit. Other clients have included Qualcomm, Time Warner, Bank of America, Alcoa, and Xerox. One especially high-profile case Chesler worked on recently: He advised Silicon Valley power lawyer Larry Sonsini, who got caught up in the HP boardroom spying scandal of 2006. These days, though, Chesler only spends about two-thirds of his time working with the firm's clients. As presiding partner, he devotes a significant chunk of his time to administrative matters, like a deal to keep the firm housed in its current digs, Worldwide Plaza on Eighth Avenue. Chesler negotiated the 15-year, $900 million deal with Harry Macklowe's firm, Macklowe Properties.

For the record

Chesler was a close friend and colleague of David Boies before Boies left Cravath to found his own firm in 1997. Old friends they may be, but that didn't stop them from facing off against each other in an intellectual property case in 2003.

On the side

Chesler is an adjunct faculty member at alma mater NYU Law. He's also a member of the Board of Overseers of NYU's College of Arts & Sciences.

Personal

He and his wife, Barbara, live in Scarsdale.

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