Faith Gay

Faith Gay and her seven-year-old firm only do litigation, both for plaintiffs and defendants. Many of her cases are complex commercial matters. For instance, she is representing a large private equity firm in Delaware Chancery Court and representing parties in some confidential disputes over law firm retirement programs. Recently, she settled litigation to claw back stock options from a senior executive of a pharmaceutical company.

A former high-level prosecutor in the U.S. attorney’s office in Brooklyn, Gay also represents people and companies under criminal investigation. None of them, her firm’s website says, “has been indicted, pleaded guilty or forced to accept deferred prosecution.”

But she and the firm are best known for their public interest work, which is about 30% of the practice. Among those matters, Gay and the firm were co-counsel to Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance in seeking to subpoena former President Donald J. Trump’s tax returns.

Currently, they are suing Trump, the Proud Boys and others on behalf of eight Capitol police officers over their physical and emotional injuries from the Jan. 6 riot. Smith v. Trump, 1:21-cv-02265 (D. D.C., filed Aug. 26, 2021).

Gay has been spending considerable time lately representing the governor of New York in dealing with the migrant crisis in New York City and the state. “We’re working to try to balance the needs of our current citizens and residents with those who have come to our city and to our state and to maintain our ethics and principles while doing so,” Gay said.

The matter is “on the edge of litigation,” she said, although no new lawsuit has been filed. Even so, “we’re in court every week on this,” in relation to a 1981 consent decree that established a right to shelter for the homeless in the city. The issue is in mediation.

Gay and her firm also are representing the American Federation of Teachers in a Florida lawsuit challenging statutes enacted under Gov. Ron DeSantis to “disempower” the union. Alachua County Education Association v. Rubottom, 1:23-cv-00111 (N.D. Fla., filed May 9, 2023).

Also, in Florida, the firm represents a publisher and some young readers challenging a few school districts that banned a book called “And Tango Makes Three” about two male penguins raising a family together. Parnell v. School Board of Lake County, Fla., 5:23-cv-00381, (M.D. Fla., filed June 20, 2023).

— Don DeBenedictis