Edward Pekarek is a business and litigation lawyer and former law professor who clerked in the federal courts for the Hon. Kevin Nathaniel Fox (SDNY).  Ed’s degrees include an LL.M. from Fordham Law School in Corporate, Banking & Finance Law (cum laude); a Juris Doctor from Cleveland-Marshall College of Law (magna cum laude); and a Bachelor of Arts from The College of Wooster (Sociology with department honors).

As a law student, Ed co-authored and edited respondent’s merits brief in the United States Supreme Court matter of City of Cuyahoga Falls v. Buckeye Community Hope Foundation, and an amicus brief in the copyright matter of Eldred v. Ashcroft.  As a practitioner, Ed represented the petitioner in Stone v. Bear Stearns (securities arbitration), and represented the respondent in Campbell-Postingle v. Kovacic (4th Amendment), both of which were resolved on certiorari.  He has written for and/or argued before state and federal appellate courts in numerous areas of law.

Ed has accrued extensive editorial experience as a former editor of the Public Investor Arbitration Bar Association (PIABA) Bar Journal, as Editor-in-Chief of the Cleveland-Marshall Journal of Law & Health, as editor of the Fordham Journal of Corporate and Financial Law, as a three-year editor of The Gavel, Cleveland-Marshall’s national award-winning law school newspaper, and he served for years as a co-editor of the New York State Bar Association Securities Litigation and Arbitration website.  Ed also co-authored and edited the FINRA Foundation investor education publication, Investor’s Guide to Securities Disputes. Ed’s scholarly work includes more than one dozen published writings, including textbook chapters, law review and journal articles, columns, and legal blogs.  His scholarly writings have been cited by the Securities and Exchange Commission, a United States District Court, and a variety of other institutions, government bodies, and academics, including such notables as former Securities and Exchange Commission Enforcement Director Linda Chatman-Thomsen, the Chilean Finance Ministry, Greek National Bank, Levy Economics Institute of Bard College, and by the RAND Corporation in its seminal report commissioned by the Securities and Exchange Commission regarding Broker-Dealers and Investment Advisers. Ed has commented frequently about an array of business and securities law topics for various media outlets, including: The Wall Street Journal; ABC News; CNN; Dow Jones Newswire; Bloomberg; Kiplinger Finance; MarketWatch; Law 360; NPR; Progressive Farmer; The Brock Report; and the Cleveland Plain Dealer. 

Ed is also a former supervising attorney for John Jay Legal Services, and an Assistant Director of the Pace Law School Investor’s Rights Clinic, during which he served as a faculty advisor and coach of Pace Law School’s Securities Dispute Resolution Triathlon Team which won the national FINRA-sponsored 2011 Securities Triathlon competition in New York City.  He has been a frequent blogger and co-authored the article “The Make Believe of Janus,” which was named among the “Best of NYSBA” for 2011.  Ed’s many articles have been downloaded thousands of times and he has been ranked consistently as a top ten percent author on SSRN for more than a decade.

While in private practice, Ed has represented many business and non-profit clients in transactional, litigation, dispute resolution, and appellate work, within industries including financial services, securities, medical, dental, mental health, legal, accounting, real estate, construction, agriculture, traditional and alternative energy, digital media, restaurants and bars, retail, automotive, technology, and transportation, among others.  He has also assisted various municipalities and quasi-governmental agencies (e.g., county land bank, telecommunications development corp., non-profit assigned counsel organization, and a county office of the aging).  His real estate experience includes conveyances, development, and financing, spanning hundreds of residential and commercial transactions.

Current and former memberships:
Allegany County Bar Association; American Bar Association; American Civil Liberties Union; Cattaraugus County Bar Association; Clinical Legal Education Association; Federal Bar Council; Nassau County Bar Association; New York County Lawyers’ Association; New York State Bar Association; Public Investors Arbitration Bar Association (PIABA) (SRO Policy Committee and PIABA Bar Journal Board of Editors); Steuben County Bar Association; Suffolk County Bar Association; United States Supreme Court Bar.

Community Service:
Board of Directors – ARC of Allegany-Steuben; Allegany Chamber of Commerce and Tourism; David A. Howe Public Library; Southern Tier Library System.  Volunteer – Cornell Cooperative Extension; Habitat for Humanity; Legal Assistance of Western New York, Inc.