Paul Martin Wolff concentrates in civil and criminal litigation of all types. He has been lead or joint-lead counsel in over three-dozen trials in state and federal courts throughout the United States. He has also argued numerous appeals in various United States circuit courts and state supreme courts and has participated in dozens of other trials and appellate matters.
Mr. Wolff has litigated a myriad of civil and criminal cases in diverse areas, including white collar crime; civil and criminal antitrust; various Title 18 criminal offenses; contracts, Uniform Commercial Code, and commercial litigation; products liability (both plaintiff- and defense-side); medical malpractice (both plaintiff- and defense-side); unfair competition; ERISA; trademarks and trade secrets; patents; intentional torts; airplane crash litigation; race discrimination; tender offers and proxy fights; officer and director liability and fiduciary duties; banking matters; energy related matters (both civil and criminal); and partnership and corporate dissolutions.
Mr. Wolff's practice has focused most recently on complex commercial matters. This has included both client advisory work as well as the oversight of major litigation. Principal among his cases has been a five-month trial, involving multiple transactions in a large, closely held corporation. Representing the plaintiffs, he and local counsel obtained verdicts valued in excess of $1 billion.
He has also devoted major time to counseling audit and other committees of major, publicly traded corporations in dealing with officer irregularities and accounting restatements.
Approximately 10-15% of his time is spent advising owners/major shareholders in the sale of closely held businesses.
Lastly, for almost 20 years Mr. Wolff has counseled and overseen libel and related litigation for newspaper and magazine owners as well as for a libel insurance underwriter.
Mr. Wolff was a member of the Firm's Executive Committee from 1979-1982 and 1988-1995 and was a trustee of the Firm's Pension Plan from its inception through 1999.
He was a co-founder of the Washington Council of Lawyers and has been a member of the board of the Washington, D.C. Lawyers Committee, the Stuart Stiller Memorial Foundation, and the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless. He taught Evidence at Catholic Law School and is a Fellow of both the American Bar Foundation and the American Law Institute.
Mr. Wolff currently serves or has served as a member of the board of the Emeritus Foundation, the Economic Club of Washington, the D.C. Committee on Public Education, and the D.C. Sports and Entertainment Commission. He is a trustee and member of the executive committee of the Federal City Council. Mr. Wolff served on the board of visitors of the Kogod College of Business at American University as well as on the board of trustees of the University. He was vice chairman of the D.C. Public Charter School Resource Center, and an overseer of the Corcoran Gallery of Art. Mr. Wolff also served on the executive committee of the Washington Performing Arts Society, as president of the National Music Center and Museum and a member of its board of directors. He is a member of the Wilson Council of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. He is currently the acting chairman of the District of Columbia Public School Modernization Advisory Board. In 2004, he received the Learned Hand Award from the American Jewish Committee for his excellence in the practice of law and devotion to the community and its needs.
Mr. Wolff was the co-founder of the movement which brought major league baseball back to Washington.