Former New York State Bar President Stephen P. Younger has joined Foley Hoag LLP as a partner in the Litigation Department. He is resident in the firm’s New York office and will help expand Foley Hoag’s commercial litigation and alternative dispute resolutions (ADR) capabilities.

Younger is a seasoned business litigator and trial lawyer with more than 35 years of experience and has long been a leader in the New York legal community. Younger’s experience spans trying cases in federal and state courts and before arbitration panels and includes an active appellate practice in the New York courts. Younger significantly builds on Foley Hoag’s existing commercial, securities, insurance and real estate disputes practices in New York, while also bringing to Foley Hoag his extensive practice representing European and Latin American companies. His clients include financial institutions, hedge funds, private equity funds, venture capital firms, real estate developers and multi-national conglomerates, among others.

“As a frequent advocate in New York’s Commercial Division and an unrivaled leader in the ADR space, Steve brings invaluable expertise to our full-service litigation practice,” said Foley Hoag Co-Managing Partner Kenneth Leonetti.  “Steve’s decades of leadership in the New York legal community will greatly expand and enhance our capabilities and presence in New York. He is a welcome addition to the firm, and we look forward to the wide-ranging benefits he will bring to our clients and colleagues.”

Younger is a leading authority on New York’s Commercial Division.  He is a member of the Chief Judge’s Commercial Division Advisory Council, which proposes rules and practices for the Division.  He also edits the Commercial Division Practice Guide, a well-regarded treatise on the court.

Younger also serves on the Governor’s Judicial Screening Committee for the Appellate Division, First Department.  He was previously long-time Counsel to the Commission on Judicial Nomination, which nominates New York’s Court of Appeals judges.

Among his many roles in the New York and U.S. legal community, Younger serves on the Board of Directors of the CPR Institute for Dispute Resolution. He is a founding Board member and Vice Chair of the New York International Arbitration Center. Moreover, he is the State Delegate for New York to the American Bar Association’s (ABA) House of Delegates, and chairs the ABA’s Committee on Issues of Concern to the Legal Profession.  He also chairs the Board of the Historical Society of the New York Courts. Younger serves as an Adjunct Professor at Fordham University School of Law, teaching commercial litigation.

In addition to his previous role as State Bar President, when he oversaw a landmark study of the Future of the Legal Profession, Younger has sat on numerous New York State Bar committees. He is Past Chair of the State Bar's Commercial and Federal Litigation Section and of the State Bar’s Task Force on Non-lawyer Ownership of Law Firms.

Before joining the firm, Younger was a litigation partner with Patterson Belknap. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Harvard University and a Juris Doctorate from Albany Law School where he is a Trustee emeritus.