In 2001, George Pratt, a former United States Circuit Court Judge for the Second Circuit Court of Appeals and a former United States District Court Judge in the Eastern District of New York, rejoined Farrell Fritz, the firm he helped found prior to his judicial appointments. Judge Pratt, an arbitrator and mediator in national and international disputes, serves as Special Counsel to Farrell Fritz’s litigation department in major federal and state trial and appellate cases.

George C. Pratt was appointed to the federal bench as a United States District Judge for the Eastern District of New York in 1976. He served on that bench for six years, until he was appointed to the United States Second Circuit Court of Appeals in 1982. Judge Pratt served with distinction until he retired from the Second Circuit on January 31, 1995. In 1993, Judge Pratt became a Professor of Law at Touro Law School, where for ten years he taught civil procedure, federal courts, civil rights law, class actions and appellate advocacy. He has been a member of the Board of Governors of Touro Law Center since 1995. He serves as an arbitrator and mediator in national and international disputes for companies and institutions in industries as diverse as finance, communications, securities, entertainment, insurance, reinsurance, patents, utilities, and state agencies. Judge Pratt has also been retained as an expert witness, consultant, special counsel and special master in various commercial matters.

In addition to his affiliation with Touro Law School, Judge Pratt was the Distinguished Visiting Professor at Hofstra Law School from 1979 to 1993; and during that same period he served as an Adjunct Professor of Law at St. John’s University Law School. Judge Pratt is a Fellow of the College of Commercial Arbitration and has lectured extensively at civil rights and trial and appellate advocacy programs of PLI, NITA, ALI-ABA, ARIAS, the New York State Bar Association, and numerous other bar associations.

Additionally, he is the author of two volumes on appeals to the federal circuit courts in the current edition of Moore’s Federal Practice and is co-author of a volume on jury charges in federal civil rights cases.

George C. Pratt graduated from Yale Law School in 1953, after receiving his Bachelor of Arts from Yale College in 1950. He served as a law clerk to the Honorable Charles W. Froessel, Judge of the New York State Court of Appeals until 1955, at which time he went into private practice as a trial and appellate lawyer, concentrating in construction, land use, and municipal law. He was a founding partner in Pratt, Caemmerer and Cleary, which merged into the present Farrell Fritz firm in 1975.

Judge Pratt is admitted to practice in New York State.

You can send email to George C. Pratt at gpratt@farrellfritz.com

George C. Pratt concentrates in:
Commercial Litigation