Biography: Commercial Litigation

Mr Wise is a member of Davis Polk's litigation department. He has concentrated in commercial and complex litigation, including securities, antitrust, contracts, and business tort cases. His clients in these matters include investment and commercial banks, professional firms, officers and directors, and industrial companies. His practice has involved both trial and appellate advocacy. He has tried jury and non-jury cases in federal and state courts in New York, California, Texas and other states. Mr Wise has an active securities litigation and SEC enforcement practice on behalf of both issuers and financial institutions.

Career highlights include successfully defending a major underwriter in the four-month MiniScribe securities fraud trial before a Texas state court jury that resulted in verdicts against other defendants totaling hundreds of millions of dollars. More recently he has represented a series of issuers in Federal Securities Law Rule 10b-5 class actions. Mr Wise also won a defence verdict in a non-securities law trial on contract and fraud claims against a major Japanese bank after a two-week federal jury trial in New York. In an industrial products liability case, Mr Wise participated in the trial of the commercial liability claims between the utility operator and the supplier of the nuclear reactor arising out of the Three Mile Island accident.

In his antitrust practice, he represented Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan and DLJ in antitrust and securities law investigations, litigation, and settlement negotiations arising out of trading practices in the Nasdaq market. Mr Wise is currently representing several investment banks in several federal class litigations challenging various aspects of the initial public offering market and the securities lending business.

Mr Wise has been listed as a leading lawyer in several legal industry publications, including Legal Media Group's Benchmark Litigation; Expert Guide to the World's Leading Litigation Lawyers; and Expert Guide to the World's Leading Competition & Antitrust Lawyers and Law Business Research's The International Who's Who of Business Lawyers and The International Who's Who of Commercial Litigators; and incisivemedia's (formerly American Lawyer Media) Litigation 2008 – Best Lawyers in Commercial Litigation.

Mr Wise has participated in a number of panels and other programmes sponsored by bar associations, and is co-author of a practice book on the 1993 amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure published by the New York State Bar Association. He is currently a fellow, American College of Trial Lawyers, a member of American Bar Association and a member New York State Bar Association. He was previously co-chair of the joint committee on local rules, Southern and Eastern Districts of New York, a trustee of the Practising Law Institute, a member of the executive committee, section on commercial and federal litigation, New York State Bar Association, chair of the federal procedure committee, section on commercial and federal litigation, New York State Bar Association, chair, financial markets subcommittee of the insurance committee of the antitrust section, American Bar Association and member of the committee on state courts of superior jurisdiction and the juvenile justice committee, New York City Bar.

Mr Wise graduated from the University of Virginia 1969, with high distinction and received his JD from Yale Law School in 1972. Has been a partner since 1979.