Jamie A. Levitt

Jamie LevittJamie Levitt is co-chair of the Commercial Litigation and Trial Group and former head of the New York Litigation Department at Morrison & Foerster. Her practice involves all aspects of complex commercial litigation and arbitration, with an emphasis on securities litigation. She has represented public companies and their officers and directors in securities fraud actions, shareholder derivative suits and SEC and other regulatory investigations. She also has experience conducting and defending corporate internal investigations and advising board committees and individuals with respect to investigations. 

Jamie is a trial lawyer with extensive experience representing companies in the courtroom in a broad range of commercial disputes, including real estate financing disputes, bankruptcy contested proceedings, accounting claims, and intellectual property cases involving trademark, trade secret, and unfair competition claims. Her clients include companies, officers, and directors in a wide array of industries, including financial services, life sciences, technology, and real estate. 

Jamie serves on numerous boards and committees of public interest groups, including having served on the Board of the Federal Bar Council and as past Chair of its Public Service Committee; Executive Vice President and Past Chair of the Board of Advocates for Children of New York, Inc.; Chair of the Board of New York Lawyers for the Public Interest; and member of the Boards of the Center for Reproductive Rights and VisionSpring. In addition, Jamie serves on the Board of Directors of Morrison & Foerster and as Chair of The Morrison & Foerster Foundation, and was formerly Chair of Morrison & Foerster’s Pro Bono Committee. 

Jamie received her BA, magna cum laude, from the University of Pennsylvania, and her JD from Columbia University School of Law, where she was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar and an Articles Editor of the Columbia Journal of Law and Social Problems. After graduation, she served as a law clerk to the Hon. Nathaniel M. Gorton, U.S. District Court, District of Massachusetts. 

Jamie is married to Geoffrey W. Smith, currently the Managing Partner of Digitalis Ventures. Digitalis invests in solutions to complex problems in health. Together they have two children in college.

Role: Trustee

Elected to the Board: September 2020

Class Term: 2024

Term Limit: 2028

  • Founded by inventor, industrialist and philanthropist Peter Cooper in 1859, The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art offers education in art, architecture and engineering, as well as courses in the humanities and social sciences.

  • “My feelings, my desires, my hopes, embrace humanity throughout the world,” Peter Cooper proclaimed in a speech in 1853. He looked forward to a time when, “knowledge shall cover the earth as waters cover the great deep.”

  • From its beginnings, Cooper Union was a unique institution, dedicated to founder Peter Cooper's proposition that education is the key not only to personal prosperity but to civic virtue and harmony.

  • Peter Cooper wanted his graduates to acquire the technical mastery and entrepreneurial skills, enrich their intellects and spark their creativity, and develop a sense of social justice that would translate into action.