Keith Gottfried

In June 2014, Gottfried left Alston & Bird LLP to join the Washington, D.C. office of the law firm Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP as a partner in its Business & Finance Group. Gottfried's practice is primarily concentrated on M&A transactions, defending companies against proxy contests and other shareholder activism campaigns, contested control transactions, corporate governance, SEC reporting issues, NYSE and NASDAQ compliance, and general corporate matters.

In April 2012, Gottfried left Blank Rome LLP to join the Washington, D.C. office of the law firm Alston & Bird LLP as a partner in its Corporate Transactions & Securities Group.

On March 14, 2006, the Gottfrieds announced the birth of their daughter, Sophie, at the University of Maryland Medical Center. On July 12, 2008, they announced the birth of their son, Benjamin, at the Shady Grove Medical Center in Rockville, Maryland. Gottfried and his family resides in the Washington, DC suburb of Rockville, Maryland.

Keith Evan Gottfried (born 1966 in Brooklyn, New York) is an American lawyer, most notably nominated by President George W. Bush on July 29, 2005, and unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate on October 7, 2005, to serve as the 19th General Counsel for the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

Gottfried has commented on both his personal life and his upbringing in Queens in regards to his views on housing and urban development; this can be seen in his public comments to the media and in his prepared statement (while a Nominee to be General Counsel of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development) given to the U.S. Senate during a hearing of the United States Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs on September 15, 2005.

On April 1, 2005, Gottfried and Goldwasser were married in a civil ceremony held in San Jose, California. Two weeks later, on April 17, 2005, they were married in a religious ceremony held at the Tierra del Sol Resort, Spa & Country Club in Aruba.

On July 29, 2005, Gottfried was nominated by President George W. Bush to serve as General Counsel for the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

On September 15, 2005, Gottfried appeared before the United States Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs and provided testimony in connection with the Committee's consideration of his nomination to be General Counsel of the HUD. On October 7, 2005, Gottfried's nomination was unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate.

On December 7, 2005, at a ceremony held at HUD's headquarters in Washington, D.C., the Robert C. Weaver Federal Building, Gottfried was sworn-in as the 19th General Counsel of the HUD.

Gottfried is the son of Rosalie Gottfried and the late Bertram Gottfried. Gottfried's mother is the daughter of immigrants from Çanakkale, Turkey and a long-time resident of Howard Beach, Queens. She worked as a middle-school math teacher for the New York City Board of Education for over 40 years until her retirement in 2004; her last teaching assignment prior to her retirement was the Albert Shanker School Of Visual And Performing Arts in Queens, New York. She also previously taught at the Horace Greeley Middle School JHS 10 in Long Island City, Queens. Prior to his death in 2011, Gottfried's father was a resident of Melbourne, Florida and a sales representative for various companies in the tobacco and cigar industries.

In August 2004, Gottfried became engaged to Cindy Goldwasser, an attorney, who was then employed as a mediator with the Peninsula Conflict Resolution Center in San Mateo, California.

Mrs. Gottfried, a graduate of the McGeorge School of Law of the University of the Pacific in Sacramento, California, was admitted to the practice of law in the State of California on December 1, 2004. Mrs. Gottfried, a naturalized U.S. Citizen, is a native of Bogota, Colombia, having emigrated with her family to the United States as a young child in 1978.

Among other issues, Gottfried was a strong advocate for the passage of free trade agreements. On June 10, 2003, Gottfried testified on behalf of the Business Software Alliance before the Subcommittee on Trade, Committee on Ways and Means of the U.S. House of Representatives to advocate for the implementation of U.S. bilateral free trade agreements with Chile and Singapore.

From 2003 to 2004, Gottfried was a significant fundraiser for the campaign to re-elect President George W. Bush to a second term. Together with numerous other Silicon Valley executives and representatives from the venture capital community, Gottfried served as a co-host for numerous events to raise funds for the President's re-election campaign (San Francisco, CA - June 2003; Fresno, CA, October 2003). In July 2003, in recognition of his efforts on behalf of the President's re-election campaign, he was among the supporters of President George W. Bush invited to visit with President Bush and the First Lady Laura Bush in Crawford, Texas.

Gottfried left Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP in June 2000 to join the firm's client Borland Software Corporation, then known as Inprise Corporation, as Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary.

From 2000 to 2004, Gottfried served as a senior executive with Borland Software Corporation, a global provider of software development solutions located in Scotts Valley, California, formerly known as Inprise Corporation, having represented Borland (as its outside counsel) prior to joining Borland.

From 1994 until 2000, Gottfried was a corporate attorney in the New York City office of the law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP where he practiced in the mergers & acquisitions group.

Gottfried was admitted to the practice of law in 1992 and is admitted to the state bars of California, New York, New Jersey and the District of Columbia. Gottfried is also admitted to practice before a number of federal courts, including the Ninth Circuit, the Northern District of California, the Southern District of California, the Eastern District of New York, the Southern District of New York, the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, and the District of New Jersey.

As a law student, Gottfried worked as a summer associate, during the summers of 1990 and 1991, in the Philadelphia office of the law firm Blank Rome LLP. Following graduation from Boston University School of Law in 1992, Gottfried joined the Philadelphia office of Blank Rome LLP as a corporate associate. He left Blank Rome LLP in 1994 to join the mergers and acquisitions practice of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP in New York City. More than a dozen years later, following his service in the administration of President George W. Bush, Gottfried rejoined Blank Rome LLP in March 2007 as a partner in its Washington, D.C. office where he practiced in the firm's public companies group.

Following his graduation from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, Gottfried practiced public accounting as an auditor with the Philadelphia office of the accounting firm Arthur Young & Company, a predecessor firm to Ernst & Young LLP, and became a certified public accountant in 1989. At Arthur Young & Company, Gottfried advised clients in the hospitality, computer software, technology, manufacturing, retailing and defense sectors. He was also worked on a number of the firm's Atlantic City casino audits, including Bally's Park Place and the former Bally's Grand. In addition to working out of the Philadelphia office, Gottfried worked from the Berwyn, Pennsylvania office of Arthur Young & Company which served as the base of operations for the firm's Entrepreneurial Services Group.

Gottfried graduated from John Adams High School (Queens) in 1983. At John Adams High School, Gottfried served as the Editor-in-Chief of the high school's newspaper, The Campus.

Gottfried received his undergraduate education at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia where he graduated from its Wharton School in 1983 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics concentrated in Accounting.

Gottfried spent much of his childhood growing up in the Howard Beach, Queens area of New York City. His mother continues to live in the same house in Howard Beach that Gottfried's parents first moved into in 1967.

Gottfried was born in 1966 in Brooklyn, New York. At or around his first birthday, Gottfried's family moved from an apartment in the Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn section of New York City to Howard Beach, Queens where they moved into a then newly built two-level ranch house in the Rockwood Park, Queens section of Howard Beach, Queens.