Jacob W. Buchdahl

Jacob Buchdahl represents both plaintiffs and defendants in a wide range of commercial litigation in federal and state courts and before arbitration panels. Current matters include defending a hedge fund against state RICO and other claims relating to short-selling; enforcing a finder's fee contract against a financial services firm in AAA arbitration; and representing numerous clients in litigation relating to mortgage-backed securities, bond insurance, and CDOs.

Before joining Susman Godfrey in 2007, Buchdahl was a member of the Public Corruption Unit in the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, where he investigated and prosecuted criminal conduct in federal, state, and local government and at the United Nations. Buchdahl never lost a jury verdict in his five years as a federal prosecutor, convicting sixteen defendants at ten different trials, including the former highest-ranking Russian at the UN on money-laundering charges and the President of a broker-dealer in a multi-million dollar securities fraud. In addition, Buchdahl filed over twenty briefs and argued more than ten appeals before the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Prior to his government service, from 1999 until 2002, Buchdahl was an associate at Davis Polk & Wardwell in New York.

Buchdahl lives in New York City with his wife Angela, the Senior Cantor of Central Synagogue, and their three children Gabriel, Eli, and Rose. Buchdahl is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Abraham Joshua Heschel School and of the Board of Directors of Recess Activities, Inc.

Yale College (B.A., magna cum laude, 1994)
Yale Law School (J.D., 1997)

• Law Clerk to the Honorable Charles S. Haight, Jr., United States District Court, Southern District of New York (1997-98)
• Law Clerk to the Honorable John M. Walker, Jr., United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit (1998-99)

• Named a "Rising Star" in the Super Lawyers New York Metro Edition, 2011
• Assistant United States Attorney, U.S. Attorney's Office, Southern District of New York (2002-07)

Recent successes:

• Overcame a motion to dismiss breach of contract claims brought by our monoline insurance company client against the issuer of nearly a billion dollars of RMBS.
• Obtained a multi-million dollar New York state court judgment (subsequently upheld by the Appellate Division) against Ron Perelman on behalf of a movie development company.
• Won a AAA arbitration hearing on behalf of a client seeking to enforce a finder's fee contract against a company following its acquisition by a multi-billion dollar financial institution.
• Successfully represented the seller of a chemical company against a private equity firm that had refused to close on the transaction and which, after argument was heard on a motion to dismiss, agreed to settle the dispute by proceeding with the acquisition.

Member of the Federal Bar Council.

Representative clients include Third Point LLC; Assured Guaranty Municipal Corp.; CIFG Assurance North America; and TPG-Axon Capital Management.