Morvillo represented celebrities such as Martha Stewart, when in 2004, she hired him to defend her against charges relating to illegal stock trading. In addition, he represented real estate developer John A. Zaccaro, the husband of the former vice-presidential candidate Geraldine R. Ferraro, in a bribery case, as well as Maurice R. Greenberg, the former chief executive of American International Group, in the legal battle with the New York attorney general.
Morvillo was described by his colleagues, friends and family as sharp, brilliant, and tempestuous.
In 1973, Morvillo joined a boutique firm founded by John S. Martin and Otto Obermaier, two of his former government colleagues. The firm was one of the few at the time making a business from providing representation for big name businessmen and politicians in high profile trouble. At the time, New York white-shoe law firms said no to those types of cases; to represent them was seen as almost bringing shame upon the firm.
Now, almost forty years later, every large corporate law firm in the country has a white-collar defense practice in competition with Morvillo Abramowitz. The firm employs about 60 lawyers.
According to information at his law firm's website, Morvillo, Abramowitz, Grand, Iason, Anello & Bohrer, P.C., Morvillo has been the recipient of numerous awards and recognition, including the New York Council of Defense Lawyers' Norman Ostrow Award for significant contribution to the defense function in March 2000, and being listed in Chambers USA – America's Leading Lawyers for Business, The Best Lawyers in America, and New York Magazine – The New York Area's Best Lawyers. In addition, he was among those named as the Top 10 lawyers in New York Super Lawyers – Manhattan Edition, and he was named Business Crime Lawyer of 2006 by The International Who's Who of Business Lawyers.
Morvillo earned his J.D. from Columbia University School of Law. There, he was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar and an editor of the Law Review. He served in the Southern District of New York, first as law clerk for U.S. District Judge William B. Herlands, then as an Assistant U.S. Attorney, Chief Trial Assistant in charge of the Frauds Unit, and finally Chief of the Criminal Division. In 1973, he left that office to become a founding partner of a predecessor to Morvillo Abramowitz. He was a frequent speaker on various topics relating to white-collar criminal cases.
However, many of his big name clients were never known to the public because he was able to resolve their issues before public charges were brought.
Morvillo's most recent high profile client was his representation of Anil Kumar last year, who was a former senior executive at McKinsey & Company, and a key witness in the insider-trading trial of the former hedge fund manager Raj Rajaratnam. As well, in January of 2010, New York police commissioner Raymond W. Kelly named Morvillo to a three-person panel reviewing the Police Department's internal crime-reporting system.
Although Morvillo dedicated a large portion of his legal career to providing representation to white-collar defendants, during a speech he delivered at a Colgate alumni event in 2007, he posed the following question, per the nytimes.com article: “How can we arrest poor people for shoplifting, selling marijuana or overindulging in alcohol and then ignore corporate embezzlers or fat-cat fixers simply because they give a lot of money to charity or are well connected politically?”
Morvillo is survived by his wife of 48 years, Catherine, and his four sons, Christopher, Gregory, Scott and Robert, along with ten grandchildren, as well as his brother, Richard. Morvillo died in his sleep following a recent surgery.
Morvillo's credentials speak for themselves. Undoubtedly, his life, and his life's work will serve as an example to the entire legal profession – lawyers and students of the law – about the value of hard work, ingenuity, and entrepreneurship.
