Gallardo, Paul

Edward Gallion was awarded his Bachelor's Degree from Northwestern University in 1979. He served as Legislative Assistant (and subsequently as the Legislative Director) for the Honorable Gerald B.H. Solomon, U.S. House of Representatives (Chairman, House Rules Committee) from 1980 through 1986, during which time he also attended and obtained his law degree from the Georgetown University Law Center, where he also served as an editor of the Georgetown Law Review.

After obtaining his law degree, Mr. Gallion was selected for the extremely prestigious clerkship with the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (Miner, J.); the Court's jurisdiction includes, among other states, New York and Connecticut. Following his clerkship, Mr. Gallion joined one of the most prominent Wall Street law firms -- Sullivan & Cromwell -- where he represented many of the world's largest corporations, such as Exxon Corporation, Philips Electronics, American Insurance Group (AIG) and Goldman, Sachs & Co. His areas of expertise include defending complex corporate and civil litigation matters, white-collar criminal defense representation, contract disputes and securities litigation and regulation.

During his tenure at Sullivan & Cromwell, Mr. Gallion was one the primary attorneys representing Exxon Corporation in the aftermath of the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska. While representing Exxon in the Valdez matter, he was one the principal architects of the strategy for dealing with the defense of the derivative suits initiated by dissident shareholders, helped to create the structure (and define the scope of inquiry) of Exxon's Special Investigation Committee (chaired by President Jimmy Carter's former head of the Justice Department, United States Attorney General Griffin Bell) and developed many of the innovative strategies that protected Exxon and its officers to the maximum extent possible under the attorney-client privilege and other protections from disclosure.

Beyond the Exxon Valdez controversy, Mr. Gallion served as one of the leaders of the teams assigned to any number of hostile take-over litigations, including successfully protecting the Avon Corporation from being taken over by an unwelcome purchaser, as well as assisting one of the nation's pioneering wireless technology companies to acquire a communications consortium against the target's wishes.

Mr. Gallion also has successfully represented corporations and company directors and officers before regulatory and prosecuting authorities to defend them against allegations of securities fraud, the dissemination of false financial results, SEC reporting violations and other allegations of corporate misdeeds.