Jonathan Cuneo

Working for the plaintiff's securities bar, Cuneo was the lead lobbyist opposing passage of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act in 1995. Although the coalition Cuneo led was unsuccessful in preventing passage of the bill, some of its more extreme provisions were defeated as the Supreme Court recently recognized in Amgen v. Connecticut Retirement Plans and Trust Funds, (February 26, 2013). After President Bill Clinton vetoed the bill in December 1995, Congress overruled that veto, the only veto override of the Clinton Presidency.

Cuneo has authored numerous pieces in newspapers and professional journals, including The New York Times, Yale Human Rights & Development Law Journal, Georgetown Law Journal, The George Washington Law Review, The Nation, and the Legal Times. He is the co-editor of The International Handbook on Private Enforcement of Competition Law, published in the U.S. in January 2011.

Cuneo was selected by the Trial Lawyers for Public Justice as a finalist for its 2006 Trial Lawyer of the Year award.

Cuneo's firm, Cuneo Gilbert & LaDuca, LLP, successfully represented Hungarian Holocaust Survivors seeking restitution and an accounting against the United States government in the Hungarian Gold Train case, which was settled for $25.5 million in 2005 after nearly five years of litigation. The settlement's terms also included an apology from the Bush Administration for the conduct of the U.S. Army.

Cuneo served as Washington counsel on behalf of defrauded investors in Enron from 2002 through 2008. This Enron Securities Litigation recovered over $7 billion, the largest in the history of federal securities litigation.

Cuneo served as Washington counsel in the first case to challenge the "Joe Camel" cigarette advertising campaign. The action was filed in California state court in 1991 well before the U.S. Attorney General began tobacco litigation. This litigation led to the release of documents that revealed R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company had studied under-aged smokers with a view toward selling cigarettes and consequently induced youths to start smoking through targeted advertising. Congressman Henry Waxman called Cuneo and his colleagues "American Heroes" for their release of these documents.

Since 1986, Cuneo has served as General Counsel and Legislative Representative to the Committee to Support Antitrust Laws ("COSAL"). He also co-founded the National Association of Securities and Commercial Law Attorneys ("NASCAT") in 1988, and served as its general counsel from 1988 until 2004.

Subsequent to his tenure at the FTC, Cuneo served as assistant counsel and then counsel to the Subcommittee on Monopolies and Commercial Law of the United States House Committee on the Judiciary. There, Cuneo counseled Congressman and Committee Chairman Peter W. Rodino (D-NJ) regarding many antitrust issues. He also assisted in the Committee's consideration of potential budget-balancing amendments to the United States Constitution in 1982. He conducted a large-scale committee investigation and successfully advocated for oversight of the insurance industry.

The American Antitrust Institute awarded Cuneo the Alfred E. Kahn Award for Antitrust Achievement, previously awarded to distinguished individuals Joel Klein, Robert Pitofsky, Frederic M. Scherer, Mario Monti, and Donald I. Baker. The AAI lauded his efforts to defend the antitrust laws even when there existed immense external pressure to weaken them in the 1980s, stating, "Mr. Cuneo was the only person outside of the government to be a spokesperson, clearinghouse, and advocate for strong antitrust enforcement.".

After receiving his undergraduate degree from Columbia University and his J.D. degree from Cornell Law School, Cuneo clerked for Judge Edward Tamm of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit until 1978. After completing his clerkship, he worked as an attorney in the Office of the General Counsel of the Federal Trade Commission until 1981.

Jonathan W. Cuneo (born September 10, 1952) is an American lawyer who has represented clients in state and federal litigation and in government relations in the fields of antitrust, civil and human rights, consumer protection, corporate governance and securities for over three decades.