Alex Spiro

Alexander Benjamin Spiro (born December 12, 1982) is an American trial lawyer. He is currently a partner at the New York Office of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan.

Early life and education[]

Spiro was born in New York and grew up in Boston. His father suffered from multiple sclerosis.

Spiro studied Biopsychology at Tufts University.^[1] While in college, he considered a career in psychiatry and worked on an adolescent psychiatry unit at McLean Hospital. ^[2][3]

Spiro attended Harvard Law School. During law school, Spiro was one of the Boston-area law students who received an ethical lawyering award from the Northeast chapter of the Association of Corporate Counsel. In 2008, Spiro received his J.D. from Harvard Law School.

Career[]

Prosecution[]

Spiro worked at the Manhattan District Attorney's Office as an Assistant District Attorney until 2013. He prosecuted Rodney Alcala, known as “The Dating Game Killer," for two New York murders in the 1970s.^[4]

Notable cases & Clients[]

Jay Z & Roc Nation - Spiro has represented Jay Z and his record label Roc Nation in numerous legal matters in addition to a number of civil rights and philanthropic matters. In June 2021 Spiro was able to obtain a temporary restraining order against co-founder Damon Dash in Manhattan federal court blocking a planned non-fungible token (NFT) auction of his copyright interest in Jay-Z’s debut album “Reasonable Doubt”.

Elon Musk - In 2019, Spiro defended Elon Musk in a publicized defamation case raised by Vernon Unsworth from statements made relating to their involvement in the Tham Luang cave rescue. The jury ultimately found Musk not liable. Spiro has represented Mr. Musk in several other matters including a suit brought by shareholders over Tesla acquiring SolarCity.

Along with William A. Burck and Jeffrey Goldberger, Spiro is part of the legal "dream team" assembled by Robert Kraft defending misdemeanor charges of solicitation.^[5] The defense team in the Kraft case successfully argued that video evidence was obtained improperly and the Judge in the case ultimately ruled that the evidence was inadmissible and was thrown out.

Spiro led investigations and litigation involving Robert Durst, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and L'Wren Scott (Mick Jagger's girlfriend), and in 2021 the Family of Don Lewis hired Sprio to investigate his 1997 disappearance which gained renewed interest after the airing of the Netflix series Tiger King.

Spiro has represented other artists including Mick Jagger, Bobby Shmurda, as well as athletes such as Thabo Sefolosha, Charles Oakley, Julian Edelman, and in 2019 succeeded in getting a dismissal of a breach of contract and unjust enrichment claim brought by a former trainer of tennis star Naomi Osaka.^[6]

Civil Rights Cases[]

Spiro is part of several civil rights causes and cases. He is the chair of the Fair Punishment Project, of the Criminal Justice Institute at Harvard Law School.

Spiro and a coalition of hip-hop greats including Killer Mike, Meek Mill, Yo Gotti, and Chance the Rapper sent a brief to the United States Supreme Court, detailing the ways rap music is stigmatized and stereotyped by the legal system. The brief was filed by trial lawyer Alex Spiro, a partner at New York City-based Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, LLP. “We were simply trying to illustrate that hip-hop has been the greatest music movement of the 21st century and has inspired a lot of people,” Spiro says. “The lyrics could be exactly the same in a rock song as in a rap song, but it can be interpreted differently and criminalized.” ^[7]

Alex Spiro took over the case of Pedro Hernandez, a teenager who was arrested in connection with a September 2015 shooting. According to a private investigator the family hired, there was evidence that proved investigators in the 42nd Precinct and a Bronx prosecutor coerced young men to sign false complaints against Hernandez.^[8]

In 2016, Spiro filed a lawsuit against the University of Oregon on behalf of two basketball players who were expelled after being accused of sexually assaulting a freshman at an off-campus party in 2014. Investigators concluded the rape allegation was false and the intercourse was consensual, but the University, nevertheless, proceeded with an expulsion hearing. The lawsuit alleged that Oregon investigators were biased against the expelled students and asked for damages in the amount of $10 million for each player.^[9]

In 2017, Spiro won a lawsuit against New York City, which agreed to pay $4 million to Thabo Sefolosha, a forward with the N.B.A.’s Atlanta Hawks. In the federal lawsuit, he accused five police officers of false arrest and using excessive force during an encounter outside a Manhattan nightclub.^[10]

In February 2019, Spiro was asked by Jay-Z and Roc Nation^[11] to help with the Immigration Arrest of rapper/songwriter 21 Savage, resulting in the rapper's release from federal custody.^[12]

In May 2020, Roc Nation attorney Alex Spiro filed a new lawsuit against the health care providers for inmates at Mississippi prisons. This lawsuit comes after Jay-Z's Roc Nation filed their own lawsuit on behalf of a group of inmates. Spiro's client saw the footage of 40 inmates dying in prison that leaked onto the Internet. The shareholder's basis for his lawsuit is a belief that Centurion's poor healthcare standards for the inmates may make the company vulnerable to lawsuits and open the possibility of its stock losing value. The shareholder called out the poor treatment of inmates from their mental health to getting tested for the illness. The lawsuit accuses them of an "entire breakdown in [Mississippi prisons'] healthcare system."^[13]

Trial verdicts[]

Spiro secured acquittals in a number of cases including Elon Musk being found not liable in a defamation case, Thabo Sefolosha's^[14] obstruction and resisting arrest charges, and several Wall Street traders.^[15] Spiro represented Aaron Hernandez in a case in which he was acquitted.^[16]

Business ventures[]

Spiro is a board member of Glassbridge Enterprises, an American Holding company that focuses on investment, asset management, and enterprise data storage. He was named Director and Board Member of Evine, which is a multi-platform interactive digital company.

Spiro also sits on the Board of Directors for Arrive, a private equity joint venture with Glassbridge Enterprises, and was launched in 2017 in collaboration with Primary Venture Partners and Roc Nation.

References[]