Louis A. Chaiten
Partner

Contact

(T) +1.216.586.7244
(F) +1.216.579.0212

Education

  • Northwestern University (J.D. 1998; Order of the Coif; Articles Editor, Law Review); University of Rochester (B.A. 1993, cum laude and with distinction)

Bar Admissions

  • Ohio, U.S. Supreme Court, and multiple U.S. Courts of Appeals and District Courts

Clerkships

  • Justice Antonin Scalia, U.S. Supreme Court; Judge Jeffrey S. Sutton, U.S. Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit

Government Service

  • Office of Legal Counsel, U.S. Department of Justice (2004-2005)

Louis Chaiten provides U.S. and overseas clients with advocacy, analysis, and advice concerning a broad range of complex litigation and prelitigation matters. He is an accomplished appellate litigator. His recent appellate victories include successfully defending an international iron ore supplier in a dispute over reclamation services, multiple financial institutions in litigation over their securitization activities, and a corporation and its directors against claims of securities fraud.

In trial court litigation and arbitration proceedings, Louis has handled disputes involving commercial contracts, joint ventures, securities, corporate governance, and accounting issues. He is frequently called upon to advise clients on their most analytically difficult legal issues. His current representations include a public auditing firm in litigation relating to its attest work for a failed lender and a large pharmaceutical company in litigation over a development agreement.

Louis commits substantial time to pro bono work. In collaboration with the New York-based Innocence Project, he successfully argued an appeal on behalf of Thomas Siller, an Ohio man convicted of murder in 2001. Recently discovered forensic evidence undermined that conviction. Mr. Siller was freed in March 2011 after more than a decade in prison.

Louis previously served in the Office of Legal Counsel at the U.S. Department of Justice — which is responsible for advising the president, the attorney general, and other executive branch officials on complex issues of constitutional, statutory, and international law — and clerked on the U.S. Supreme Court and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.


Louis Chaiten