Philip A. Byler

Philip A. Byler for 12 straight years (2012-2023) has been selected for inclusion in the Thomson Reuters New York Metro Super Lawyers.

Mr. Byler received his J.D. degree in 1976 from the Harvard Law School. From 1976 to 1978, Mr. Byler was law clerk to the Honorable Judge John W. Peck of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. In 1978, Mr. Byler began the private practice of law as an associate in the Litigation Department of Cravath, Swaine & Moore in New York City working on antitrust, securities, First Amendment and civil rights litigations. Mr. Byler was at the Cravath firm until 1984 when he moved to Weil Gotshal & Manges in New York City, where he worked on international trade, accounting fraud, First Amendment, RICO, ERISA, breach of contract and commercial litigations. In 1990, Mr. Byler established his own practice.

Mr. Byler is currently the Member of The Offices of Philip A. Byler, practicing primarily in federal court but also in state appellate court. Since 2002, he has practiced in federal court and complex state court practice, specializing in appeals and trials. He has tried cases in New York state court and in federal court. He has orally argued cases in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, the Arizona SupremeCourt, the New York Court of Appeals and the New York Appellate Divisions for the First and Second Departments. He is also a member of the U.S. Supreme Court Bar. Mr. Byler’s current practice is in Title IX law, First Amendment, defamation and church property. 

Mr. Byler argued and won in the New York Court of Appeals the landmark constitutional case of Immuno A.G. v. Dr. Jan Moor-Jankowski, 77 N.Y.2d 235, 567 N.E.2d 1270, 566 N.Y.S.2d 906, cert denied, 500 U.S. 954 (1991). Mr. Byler successfully briefed and orally argued in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit the appeal of what has been said to have nationwide significance in Doe v. Columbia, 831 F.3d 46 (2d Cir. 2016) (Leval, J.), obtaining the reinstatement of a Title IX discrimination suit for a male student. Mr. Byler successfully briefed and orally argued in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit the
appeal in an even more significant Title IX case in Doe v. Purdue, 928 F.3d 652 (7th Cir. 2019)(Barrett, J.), given the author of the Court opinion, again obtaining the reinstatement of another Title IX discrimination suit for a male student. Mr. Byler successfully briefed and orally argued the reversal of the denial of the use of a pseudonym by a student seeking challenging a university sexual misconduct finding and sanction in Doe v. MIT, 46 F.4th 61 (1st Cir. 2022) (Selya, J.) . Mr.
Byler briefed and successfully argued in the Arizona Supreme Court the case of Mesnard v. Campagnolo, 47 Ariz. Cases Dig. 21, 489 P.3d 1184 (2021), upholding a former state legislator’s defamation action over a press release issued by the Speaker of the Arizona House. Mr. Byler tried and won in 2012 in O’Brien v. Golden, Index No. 11889/08 (Sup.Ct. Suffolk Co.), a two-week property jury trial in New York Supreme Court-Suffolk County. He tried and won in Delshah Group LLC v. Atit Javeri, et al., 09-Civ-6909 (KBF), 2013 WL 2322488, Fed. Sec. L.Rep.. P 97,504 (S.D.N.Y. May 28, 2013), a two-month federal securities bench trial in the
U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York (Katherine Forrest, J.). Mr. Byler argued and won in the New York Appellate Division-First Department in AJ Holdings Group LLC v. IP Holdings LLC, et al., 129 A.D.3d 504, 11 N.Y.S.3d 55 (1st Dep’t 2015), the reversal of the award of discovery sanctions for alleged spoliation of electronic evidence. Mr. Byler argued and won in the New York Appellate Division-First Department in Miller v. Ross, 43 A.D.3d 730, 841 N.Y.S.2d 586 (1st Dep=t 2007), the unwinding of a conversion of a New York limited partnership into a Delaware limited liability company as a legal nullity.

Mr. Byler is a member of the Bars of, among others, the States of New York and Ohio, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the U.S. District Courts for the Southern, Eastern, Northern and Western Districts of New York, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio, the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the First, Second, Third, Fourth, Sixth, Seventh, Eighth, Ninth and Tenth Circuits and the U.S. Supreme Court.

Mr. Byler is active in Bar Associations. He is a member of the American Bar Association, New York State Bar Association, the New York City Bar Association and the Republican National Lawyers Association. He is and has been since 2007 a member of the Professional Discipline Committee of the New York State Bar Association, its current Secretary, its current Chair of its Subcommittee on Fitness To Practice and past Chair of its Subcommittee on Discovery in Disciplinary Proceedings; the whole State Bar Professional Discipline Committee adopted the Subcommittee=s report providing a 51-jurisdiction review of the discovery procedures in each State=s disciplinary system and made recommendations for reform. When Mr. Byler served on the Trial Evidence Committee of the New York State Bar Association, he was the Chair of the Subcommittee on comparing the Federal Rules of Evidence and New York state court evidence rules. Mr. Byler has been a member of the Professional Discipline Committee of the New York City Bar Association since 2008, and he was a member of the International Security Committee of the New York City Bar Association in the years 2007 to 2011, serving as its Secretary from September 2009 to May 2011. Mr. Byler has done election law lecturing for the Republican National Lawyers Association: in 2016, for the training of deployment attorneys for New Hampshire and Pennsylvania on behalf of the Republican National Lawyers Association; in 2017 and 2018, for the deployment of lawyers in New York State elections; and in 2019, Mr. Byler did ethics law lecturing for the Republican National Lawyers Association.

Mr. Byler has been quoted and mentioned in press articles: Anthony Lewis, “Abusing The Law,” May 10, 1991, New York Times (“Philip A. Byler, the winning lawyer”); M. Odendahl, A Purdue Ruling First In Flood Of Campus Sex Assualt Appeals,@ The Indiana Lawyer, July 24, 2019) (“Doe’s attorney, Philip Byler, senior litigation counsel at Nesenoff & Miltenberg LLP in New York, described Purdue’s procedure as ‘just awful.’ Asserting the university put its finger on the scale in favor of the woman, he said the 7th Circuit agreed by calling for a real hearing and ‘not a sham one.’ Overall, Byler was pleased with the 7th Circuit’s ruling. He said the opinion will help push back against academic disciplinary procedures by underscoring the need for due process and unbiased sexual assault tribunals”); “Bias Claim By Student Accused Of Misconduct Is Revived By Circuit,” July 29, 2016, New York Law Journal; “Columbia Male Student Urges Circuit To Revive His Bias Suit,” April 13, 2016; K. Breuninger, A Former Trump Lawyer Alan Dershowitz Sues Netflix Over Portrayal In Jeffrey Epstein Series,@ CNBC (May 26, 2021 (“Byler in a statement said Netflix and the Epstein series shows producers used the professor’s name “to drive views of their miniseries and then proceeded to defame him with clever manipulation of facts. . . This makes a mockery of our First Amendment, victims’ rights, and the truth itself.”); New York Law Journal; “Paul Nungesser’s Suit Against Columbia Over Mattress Protest Is Dismissed,” March 12, 2016, The Huffington Post; “Emma Sulkowicz Carrying Mattress At Graduation Further Smeared Student Accused Of Rape,” July 1, 2015, New York Daily News; “Paul Nungesser’s Lawyers Accused Emma Sulkowicz Of ‘Anti-Male’ Bias Campaign,” June 25, 2015, Jezebel; ADelShah Loses Fraud Suit Over $4M Loss in Condo Conversion,@ May 29, 2013, Law 360.

Mr. Byler is active in political and community affairs, including: Republican Party Committeeman for Town of Huntington, Long Island, New York and Suffolk County, New York; Delegate, 10th Judicial District Republican Nominating Convention 2009-2023; Delegate, 2008 Republican National Convention; Federalist Society; Trustee and former Recording Secretary, Long Island Ronald Reagan Republican Club; Marine Corps League - Affiliate Member, Huntington, Long Island; Director and Legal Advisor to Huntington Tri-Village Little League/Senior League Baseball Association; Manager, numerous Huntington Tri-Village Little
League and Senior League youth baseball teams, including the 1997 American Charter Williamsport Little League Tournament team and the 2003 District 34 Williamsport Big League Tournament team; Commissioner, Long Island Stan Musial Adult Baseball League; Player-Coach, Stan Musial Huntington Tri-Village Reds 2002-2017; Elder, Central Presbyterian Church of Huntington, Long Island (2005-present); Community Service Award, DePauw University
(2008).

The foregoing credentials, however, mean nothing to Mr. Byler compared to the fact that he is “Dad” to two hero sons. John, a Purdue graduate (Class of 2005) is now a U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel who served four combat tours of duty, two in Iraq, the first as an infantry platoon leader during the surge there when he earned a Bronze Star, and two in Afghanistan. James, also a Purdue grad (Class of 2008) now a Wounded Warrior U.S. Marines Captain (medically retired) who served as an infantry platoon commander in Afghanistan in the 3/5 Marines in Sangin District, Helmand Province, Afghanistan when he earned a Purple Heart and who has since earned an M.B.A. from New York University-Stern School of Business (2015) and is working as a trader at UBS.