Alumnus David Anders ’94 reflects on his career path and Fordham Law experience in an interview with Lawdragon.
Scoring a perfect trial record as an assistant U.S. attorney in the nation’s most elite prosecutorial branch, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, will invariably have its benefits – including options of where to take your rarefied set of skills in private practice. David Anders chose the ultra-elite Wachtell Lipton where, not surprisingly, he has thrived alongside what he considers the best peers you can find in the profession. Anders joined the firm in 2006 and became a partner less than two years later, handling investigations (by outside agencies and internal) and civil matters for the firm’s esteemed roster of clients. A proud and active alum of Fordham Law School, Anders also represents indigent defendants by serving on the Southern District’s Criminal Justice Act (CJA) panel.
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LD: You seem to have gone straight from Dartmouth to Fordham Law. When did you decide to become a lawyer, and why? Was it during undergrad or was this a goal that developed earlier?DA: I decided I wanted to be a lawyer in undergrad. Dartmouth is on trimesters and requires students to work or study off campus for one term during the school year. I spent my off-term in Washington, D.C., working at Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering. I was fortunate to be assigned to work for a young associate named Steve Cutler, long before he became well-known as the Director of Enforcement at the SEC or chief legal officer at JP Morgan. I worked closely with him on a variety of securities litigation matters he was handling at the time; he tolerated my hanging around him all day and soaking in everything he did. He taught me many of the good habits that are necessary to be a successful lawyer. And I was fascinated by the work – I loved reading cases, even as a college student, and finding support for arguments. So that’s when I knew I wanted to be a lawyer.
LD: Was there any course, professor or experience at Fordham that was particularly influential to how your career turned out?
DA: I participated in a prosecution clinic my third year of law school. It was a full year clinic at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Brooklyn. The Eastern District of New York had a student practice rule, which allowed law students to appear in court; so, in addition to working with an AUSA on his or her cases, we handled petty offense cases on our own. Students from New York University Law School, who were in a federal defender clinic, represented the defendants (opposing counsel included one of my best friends from college and my now sister-in-law). I was fascinated with the work and knew from that experience that I wanted the opportunity to be an AUSA. Everything I did in my early career after that was guided toward trying to get that chance.
LD: You have stayed active with Fordham after graduating. Can you share some thoughts about what makes the school special or why you developed a fondness for it?
DA: I taught first-year legal writing at Fordham for eight years and am now the President of the Fordham Law Alumni Association. So, yes, I have tried to stay active with Fordham after graduating. One of Fordham’s best attributes is the loyalty and collegiality among its alumni. It is in many ways more like an undergraduate school than a graduate school in the way that graduates support each other. That support helped me greatly early in my career and I have tried to return the favor to younger alumni as I got older.
