Robert A. Alessi is Co-Chair of the firm’s Litigation Practice Group and Chair of the firm’s Crisis Management, Investigations & Constitutional Law Practice Group. His diverse practice has encompassed complex litigation (including multidistrict federal litigation) and arbitration at the pretrial, trial and appellate stages across the nation in myriad practice areas, including, among others, constitutional issues; RICO; securities fraud class actions and derivative lawsuits; proxy contests; insurance and insurance brokerage; employment restrictive covenants; defamation; contract disputes; corporate and LLC dissolutions; and business torts.
In addition, Bob has conducted internal corporate investigations and defended a wide variety of investigations commenced by the Department of Justice, the Securities and Exchange Commission and other governmental and quasi-governmental agencies into, among other conduct, alleged accounting and financial fraud; securities law violations; misuse of retail vendor allowances; insider-trading; and alleged fraud and abuse involving healthcare companies.
Another significant aspect of Bob’s practice is providing prophylactic guidance to clients. He has counseled numerous boards of directors, committees thereof and company executives in connection with various matters, including corporate governance; fiduciary duties; disclosure requirements under the securities laws; the drafting and implementation of internal policies and compliance programs; and the retention and management of companies’ confidential information.
After graduating summa cum laude from Stony Brook University, Bob graduated as a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar from Columbia Law School. Prior to joining Meltzer Lippe, Bob served as a litigation partner in the New York City office of Cahill Gordon & Reindel LLP, where he represented a host of sophisticated clients in connection with complex matters.
Since 2009, Bob has also served as an Adjunct Professor in Stony Brook University’s Department of Political Science, where he has taught various courses, including The Erosion of Civil Liberties & Privacy Rights; Civil Liberties & Civil Rights; Federal Government Power: Constitutional, Legal & Political Limitations; Introduction to Civil Procedure; Introduction to Torts; Pretrial, Trial & Appellate Practice; and Securities Regulation, Enforcement & Litigation. Bob has also received on multiple occasions the Department’s Frank Meyers Excellence in Teaching Award, including for the Fall 2025–Spring 2026 school year.
Bob was peer nominated and elected a Fellow of The New York Bar Foundation, an honor shared by approximately one percent of the New York State Bar Association membership.
The following are among Bob’s publications and presentations:
Presentations:
- “Is it Time To Launch a Preemptive Internal Investigation?” (February 2026)
- “The Non-Lawyer’s Introduction and Response To Threatened and Actual Litigation” (March 2025)
- “Corporate Directors: Fiduciary Duties & Best Practices” (November 2024)
- “An Introduction To Civil RICO” (February 2024)
- “The First Amendment and Current Challenges To Freedom of Expression” (April 2023)
- “The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act” (February 2023)
- “Recent Developments in the Law of Insider Trading” (September 2022)
- “Document Retention and Internal Controls” (April 2022)
- “Responding To a DOJ or SEC Investigation” (February 2022)
- “Corporate Investigations: A Balancing Act,” AICPA National Conference on Fraud (September 2004)
- “Sarbanes-Oxley,” AICPA National Conference on Fraud (October 2003)
- “Conducting the Internal Corporate Investigation,” Food Marketing Institute’s 2003 Legal Conference (May 2003)
Publications:
- “J.G.G. v. Trump and the Separation of Powers Doctrine: Permissible or Impermissible Judicial Intrusion Into the Executive Branch’s Constitutional and Statutory Powers?” Stony Brook University Undergraduate Law Review (Vol. , Issue No. 1, Spring 2025)
- Principal Author, The Pandemic Newsletter (Vols. I and II), Meltzer, Lippe, Goldstein & Breitstone, LLP (compendium of legal issues arising out of the COVID-19 Pandemic and related government-mandated shutdowns, programs and curtailment of certain contractual, religious and other rights) (Summer 2020)
- “The Emerging Judicial Hostility to the Typical Damages Model Employed by Plaintiffs in Securities Class Action Lawsuits,” The Business Lawyer (February 2001)