Lewis A. Kaplan

Lewis A. Kaplan (born December 23, 1944) is a senior United States district judge serving on the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. He was the presiding judge in a number of cases involving high-profile defendants, including E. Jean Carroll v. Donald J. Trump, Virginia Giuffre v. Prince Andrew, the criminal case against Sam Bankman-Fried, and trials of Al Qaeda terrorists such as Ahmed Ghailani. Education, career, personal life Born in Staten Island, New York, Kaplan received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Rochester in 1966 and a Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School in 1969. He served as a law clerk for Judge Edward McEntee of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, from 1969 to 1970. Kaplan was in private practice in New York City from 1970 to 1994 and was a Special Master for the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, from 1982 to 1983. During his time in the private sector, Kaplan was a partner at Paul, Weiss and represented Phillip Morris. He married former New York Times reporter and former vice president of Random House Lesley Oelsner on February 29, 2004.