Eric Del Pozo
Partner
Eric Del Pozo is a member of the firm’s Litigation and Appellate practices, helping clients across a broad spectrum of industries navigate their most pressing legal issues.
A deeply experienced advocate, Eric has argued close to fifty appeals in federal and state court and has briefed more than one hundred appeals overall. These appeals frequently have involved precedent-setting questions on topics such as federal jurisdiction and preemption, subpoena enforcement, agency power, telecommunications, healthcare reimbursement, insurer insolvency, coastal management, business and consumer fraud, free speech, religious rights, due process, and defamation per se. Eric has also prepared colleagues for oral argument in hundreds of cases, at every level of the federal and state judicial systems.
Before joining Shipman, Eric served for six years as an Assistant Solicitor General for New York State, litigating appeals on behalf of the State and its officers and agencies—with many of these matters at the forefront of law and public policy. For example, he defended New York’s concealed-carry licensing law in the U.S. Supreme Court in NYSRPA v. Bruen and was instrumental in crafting the defense of New York’s updated gun-safety statutes. Also in his capacity as Assistant Solicitor General, Eric successfully defended orders compelling the former President of the United States to sit for a civil investigative deposition, holding him in contempt of court for disobeying document requests, and appointing an independent monitor to oversee his business. In each of 2017 and 2022, Eric received the Louis J. Lefkowitz Award, given annually by New York’s Solicitor General, for outstanding individual performance.
In addition, Eric spent several years as an appellate prosecutor for the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office. There, he secured affirmances of numerous felony convictions, and he co‑wrote a memorandum recommending dismissal of a decades-old murder indictment, thus freeing the defendant from custody, based on questions raised about the underlying evidence.
Eric has considerable expertise analyzing the strength of legal claims and defenses. He draws on this experience when conducting internal investigations for the firm’s clients, and he regularly counsels trial attorneys about how to preserve arguments effectively for review. While in the public sector, Eric often participated in high-level decisions about whether to pursue specific causes of action or appeals. And in private practice, he has helped companies facing governmental inquiries to avoid or narrow contemplated enforcement action.
Eric continually looks for opportunities to help Shipman vindicate the broader public interest, including through pro bono work. In the past, he represented a leading civil rights organization as amicus curiae in support of a petition for certiorari, prompting a unanimous summary reversal by the U.S. Supreme Court of the lower court’s grant of qualified immunity. More recently, he led a team that filed an amicus brief in the Supreme Court on behalf of a nationwide organization of elected prosecutors, arguing that the Second Amendment permits disarming domestic abusers who are subject to judicially imposed restraining orders.
Eric graduated from Dartmouth College and then, summa cum laude and first in his class, from St. John’s University School of Law. After law school, he clerked for the Honorable Raymond J. Dearie of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York and the Honorable Reena Raggi of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
Credentials
Education
- St. John’s University School of Law, J.D., 2008, summa cum laude and Valedictorian
- Dartmouth College, B.A., 2001, Philosophy
Bar Admissions
- New York, 2009
- Connecticut, 2022
Court Admissions
- U.S. Supreme Court
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
- U.S. District Court, District of CT
- U.S. District Court, Southern District of NY
Distinctions
- Two-time recipient of Louis J. Lefkowitz Award given annually by New York’s Solicitor General for outstanding individual performance (2017 and 2022)
Professional Affiliations
- Connecticut Bar Association, Appellate Advocacy & Federal Practice Sections
- Oliver Ellsworth Inn of Court