Muhammad U. Faridi is a Partner in the firm's Litigation department. In May 2024, he was elected as the 71^st President of the New York City Bar Association, a 154-year-old organization comprising over 22,000 members that is considered one of the most preeminent bar associations in the country.  Mr. Faridi is the youngest person and the first ever Muslim-American to serve in this role. He is a go-to litigator on complex commercial matters involving claims relating to breaches of contract and commercial torts. He has represented clients—as both plaintiffs and defendants—in several industries, including financial services, pharmaceuticals and medical devices, software, and manufacturing. In the last three years alone, he has tried more than half a dozen cases. His successes in these cases include securing a directed verdict on a statute-of-limitations defense; securing a $2 billion jury verdict (for which he was selected as The American Lawyer's 'Litigator of the Week'); securing a $1.84 billion settlement for his client mid-way through trial; and securing a defense verdict on the adversary's claims while prevailing on counterclaims asserted by his client. 

His recent pre-trial victories include obtaining outright dismissal of a lawsuit alleging breaches of loan agreements and guaranties involving a $150 million commercial real estate transaction; dismissal of a lawsuit alleging contract and tort claims related to a substantial joint venture focused on ETFs; and dismissal of a lawsuit alleging breach-of-contract and tort claims in a supply chain dispute related to semiconductors (where he also defeated requests for a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction). Mr. Faridi has also handled sensitive internal investigations for his clients, including serving as lead counsel for a special committee charged with investigating a corporate executive.

As plaintiffs, Mr. Faridi's clients have recouped billions of dollars through litigation and out-of-court settlements, and, as defendants, they have avoided similar sums in liability.

Prior to being elected as the New York City Bar Association's President in May 2024, Mr. Faridi previously held other positions in the organization, including Vice President, Chair of the Executive Committee, Chair of its Committee on Capital Punishment, and Co-Chair of the Committee on the Recruitment and Retention of Lawyers, which focuses on enhancing diversity in the profession. In February 2023, Mr. Faridi was appointed as the independent civil representative to the New York City Police Department’s (NYPD) Handschu Committee. In that role, Mr. Faridi is charged with ensuring the NYPD’s compliance with the terms of a consent decree that regulates the NYPD’s policies and practices regarding investigations of political activity. Mr. Faridi previously served on the New York City Mayor's Advisory Committee on the Judiciary, entrusted to “ensure that only candidates with the highest qualifications and from diverse backgrounds are nominated for judicial appointments to criminal and family courts, as well as interim appointments to civil court.”  In 2021, he was elected to the American Law Institute, the leading independent organization in the United States producing scholarly work to modernize and improve the law.

Mr. Faridi maintains an active pro bono practice, representing indigent clients across a wide variety of matters. He is currently representing several Iraqi nationals in a lawsuit alleging violations of the Alien Tort Statute against an American military contractor at the Abu Ghraib prison facility during the Iraq war. He is also representing the family of a young Black American who was shot and killed by the police in Rochester, New York. Additionally, he has represented Muslim communities in two separate lawsuits challenging the denial of permits to build mosques. In both cases, he was able to secure significant victories for his clients, which included securing the right to build the mosques and millions of dollars in monetary recompense and attorney’s fees. As a result of Mr. Faridi’s work in Trump v. Hawaii, where he represented a union of federal asylum and refugee officers challenging government restrictions on the rights of refugees, Benchmark Litigation recognized the firm as the 2021 “Pro Bono Firm of the Year.”  In 2017, as a result of Mr. Faridi’s work on death penalty matters, the firm was awarded the Norman Redlich Capital Defense Pro Bono Award by the New York City Bar Association.

Mr. Faridi is the recipient of numerous other awards and honors. In March 2023, Mr. Faridi was named to City & State’s "2023 Law Power 100" List. Based on “peer and client recognition as [a] top trial attorney,” Benchmark Litigation has listed him as a “Litigation Star” for New York in its 2024 and 2023 Guides, a “Future Star” in its 2022 Guide, and in its “40 & Under” list for several years. He was named a “2018 Rising Star” by the New York Law Journal and was also awarded the New York State Bar Association’s 2014 Outstanding Young Lawyer Award. He is also the recipient of The Legal Aid Society’s Pro Bono Publico Award for multiple years, MFY Legal Services, Inc.’s Partner in Justice Award, and the Brooklyn Bar Association Volunteer Lawyers Project’s TD Bank Champion of Justice Award.

Mr. Faridi previously taught commercial litigation as an Adjunct Professor at Fordham University School of Law, and he has also written extensively on commercial litigation. He is the co-editor of Commercial Division Practice Guide (Bloomberg), a treatise that focuses on litigation in the Commercial Division of the New York State Supreme Court.  The treatise has been described as “an indispensable resource for commercial litigators” and it can be found on the bookshelves of commercial division judges throughout the state. Mr. Faridi is also a contributor to the American Bar Association Section of Business Law's annual review of business courts. Further, he is a founding contributor to the firm’s blog, Commercial Disputes Digest, covering developments related to practice and case law in the Commercial Division. He has also made presentations before, among others, the New York State Judicial Institute.

Prior to joining Patterson Belknap, Mr. Faridi served as a law clerk to Judge Jack B. Weinstein, Senior U.S. District Judge in the Eastern District of New York.

Bar Admissions

• U.S. Supreme Court
• U.S. District Court, Southern, Eastern, Western Districts of New York; District of New Jersey; District of Columbia
• U.S. Court of Appeals, First Circuit; Second Circuit; Fourth Circuit; Ninth Circuit
• New York
• New Jersey

Education

• City University of New York School of Law (J.D., 2007)
  • Editor, New York City Law Review
  • First place, ABA Labor & Employment Section Trial Advocacy Competition
  • Recipient, NY State Bar Association Law Student Legal Ethics Award
• John Jay College of Criminal Justice (B.A., summa cum laude, 2004)

New York City Bar Association, Vice President (2019-2020), Executive Committee (Chair, 2018-2019; member 2015-2020), Committee on Recruitment and Retention of Lawyers (Co-Chair, 2020-present), Committee on Capital Punishment (Chair, 2010-2013; member 2005-present), Task Force on Mass Incarceration (2015-present), International Human Rights Committee (2019-present); Muslim Bar Association of New York (Board of Directors, 2009-2010; member, 2008-present); Federal Bar Council Inn of Court (2010-present); John Jay College Foundation Board of Trustees (2017-present); Practising Law Institute, Faculty (2020-present). 

SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS:

“New York Practice: The What, Where & How of Commencing a Lawsuit & Serving Parties,” New York City Bar CLE Webinar (July 23, 2020)

“Lessons Learned from the 1918 Pandemic: Historical and Legal Framework of the Spanish Flu and How It Relates to Today’s Crisis,” Historical Society of New York Courts (May 11, 2020)

“COVID-19’s Impact on Commercial Transactions and Disputes,” Practising Law Institute (April 17, 2020)

“Importance of Sharing the Jewish Experience in Immigration Litigation,” American Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists (March 25, 2020)

“Religious Land Use and Institutional Persons Act,” National Association of Muslim Lawyers (October 13, 2019)

“Keeping the Faith: The Latest on Mosque Opposition, Zoning Law and Religious Discrimination in New Jersey,” New Jersey State Bar Association (October 24, 2018)

“Litigation Practice in New York Courts: A Conversation with Leaders in New York Practice,” Albany Law School & Patterson Belknap (June 20, 2018)

“Combating Terrorism Through Sanctions, Civil & Criminal Liability, and International Cooperation,” American Bar Association Section of Int’l Law (April 18, 2018)

“Cost-Effective and Time-Effective Commercial Litigation in New York’s Commercial Division,” Bloomberg BNA Webinar (March 26, 2018)

• Takeaways From 4 NY Virus-Related Tenant Contract Rulings

  By Muhammad Faridi |December 2020

• COVID-19’s Effect on New York Commercial Division

  By Muhammad Faridi |March 2020

• Patterson Belknap Publishes New York Commercial Division Practice Guide

  By Muhammad Faridi |November 2017

• Author, "A Lawyer’s Struggle to Overcome Barriers and Live by Ideals in the Practice of Law," American Bar Association's TYL In Focus (June 2017)
• Co-author, "When Is A Working Capital Agreement A Loan? It Depends," Law360 (June 2017)
• Co-author, "Court Dismisses Claim Against Chinese Firm Due to Lack of Personal Jurisdiction," New York Law Journal (March 2017)
• Co-author, "First Department Allows $45 Million Fraud Claim To Proceed Against Patriarch Partners," Bloomberg BNA's Securities Regulation & Law Report (March 2017)
• Co-author, "Court Confirms Hedge Funds Did Not Act In Bad Faith, Affirms Large Judgment," New York Law Journal (February 2017)
• Co-author, "Long-Arm Jurisdiction In A Post-Daimler Era," Law360 (January 2017)
• Co-author, Undoing Time: A Proposal for Compensation for Wrongful Imprisonment of Innocent Individuals, 34 W. New Eng. L. Rev. 1 (2012)
• Author, Streamlining Habeas Corpus While Undermining Judicial Review: How 28 U.S.C. 2254(d)(1) Violates the Constitution, 19 St. Thomas L. Rev. 361 (2007)
• Co-author, Guantanamo Bay: An Introduction to the Symposium Issue, 10 N.Y. City L. Rev. (2008)