There isn’t a whole lot that Gary Naftalis, now 81, hasn’t accomplished in his legal career. He was an assistant U.S. attorney in the Southern District of New York. He tried mob cases in the 1970s with Robert Morgenthau. He defended Michael Eisner (successfully) in a landmark shareholder derivative suit. He has his name on the shingle of a prominent Big Law firm. When it came to “bet the company” litigation in the securities industry, Naftalis was (and some say still is) the man to go to. He was and is actively involved in the pro bono program at his longtime home of Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel.

Over 50 years of practicing law, Naftalis has seen, and done, if not “all of it,” then “most of it.”