ROBERT J.A. ZITO JOINS CARTER LEDYARD & MILBURN LLP AS PARTNER

NEW YORK, May 22, 2007 – Wall Street law firm Carter Ledyard & Milburn LLP announced today that Robert J.A. Zito will join the firm as partner in the litigation department effective June 1, 2007. Prior to joining the firm, Mr. Zito was a partner in the NY office of Schiff Hardin LLP.

“We are thrilled to expand our litigation team with a lawyer of Bob’s caliber,” said Lawrence F. Carnevale, member of the Executive Committee and Chair of the Litigation Department at Carter Ledyard. “His arrival, along with that of Mike Shapiro and Alan Lewis in December, expands and strengthens our white-collar defense, internal investigation and securities-related litigation capabilities.”

Bob Zito is a securities litigator and white-collar defense attorney with an expanded focus on Securities and Exchange Commission and Self-Regulatory Organization enforcement and securities and securities industry litigation: securities industry disputes; securities class actions; corporate and partnership disputes; directors' and officers' liability; corporate governance; shareholder freeze-outs; proxy litigation; shareholder derivative actions; company, director and partnership fiduciary duties; company, asset and real estate valuations; stockholder appraisal rights; tax shelters; and white collar crime. He has been first chair in over 40 trials and has extensive appellate experience as well.

Mr. Zito, who has prosecuted and defended general litigation matters for more than 25 years, has been involved in some of New York’s most high profile cases. He has led legal teams that represented a national broker-dealer in connection with the successful resolution of a $10 million clearing broker dispute, that defended a stock market in the successful resolution of an SEC enforcement proceeding under Reg. ATS, and that successfully cleared a large broker-dealer in connection with its alleged role in a “pump and dump” scheme. In 2003, he successfully reduced a $90 million jury verdict for punitive damages against the general partner of various public limited partnerships for breach of fiduciary duty.

Mr. Zito is the only defense attorney in the United States to have tried to verdict a Section 14 securities class action in the wake of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. 

Mr. Zito received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Tulane University in 1978 and his J.D. from New York Law School in 1981, where he also served as law clerk to the Honorable Leonard E. Yoswein, Supreme Court of the State of New York. Afterwards, he served in the New York Guard, Judge Advocate’s General Corps. for ten years, retiring at the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. Mr. Zito, 50, resides in Tribeca, NewYork.

Carter Ledyard & Milburn LLP (www.clm.com), established in 1854, has approximately 104 attorneys and has been headquartered on Wall Street since its founding and has additional offices in midtown Manhattan and Washington, DC. Carter Ledyard's general practice includes corporate, securities, mergers and acquisitions, private equity, litigation, intellectual property, environmental, employment, media and technology, immigration, investment regulation, antitrust, trusts and estates, maritime, ERISA, exempt organizations, real estate, tax and bankruptcy. A significant part of the firm's practice involves representing overseas-based clients and their U.S. affiliates, financial institutions and other financial services providers, governmental entities and media and technology clients.