Recipient of the New York Law Journal’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

Judge Robinson’s unique 35-year legal career includes three overlapping chapters.

First, Stephen started his public sector career as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of New York where he was awarded the Department of Justice’s Director’s Award for Superior Service, and the Lumbard Award. Later, he served as the Principal Deputy General Counsel and Special Assistant to the Director of the FBI where he was appointed to the FBI’s Senior Executive Service. While at the Bureau Stephen investigated espionage and terrorism matters including the first World Trade Center and Oklahoma City bombings.

U.S. Presidents from both political parties have nominated Stephen for positions requiring Senate confirmation. In 1998, President Clinton nominated him to serve as the U.S. Attorney for the District of Connecticut. In 2003, President George W. Bush nominated him for a seat on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

While Stephen was the U.S. Attorney for Connecticut his wife passed away after battles with breast cancer and leukemia. During that period, he became a girl dad, raising his 11-year-old daughter, Victoria. Victoria has gone on to graduate from Stanford University and Duke Medical School. She currently works as a pediatric cardiac intensive care doctor.

Second, Stephen’s private sector career included stints as an associate in two boutique New York City law firms, and as an international private investigator and managing director at Kroll Associates. At Kroll he performed an investigation of war crimes by the Iraqi army during their occupation of Kuwait. Additionally, the Brazilian Congress hired him to investigate President Collor de Mello, who resigned his office after that investigation. Stephen’s private sector career continued with stints as the Chief Compliance Officer at Aetna U.S. Healthcare, where he was awarded the Chairman’s Award, and as CEO of Empower New Haven. For over a decade Stephen was a partner in the litigation, and the government enforcement and white-collar crime groups at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher and Flom in New York City.

The third chapter of Judge Robinson’s career is as a citizen-lawyer. He currently serves on the boards of Cornell University, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, The New York Community Trust, Weill Cornell Medicine, FTI Consulting and Dycom Industries. In 2023, after six years, Judge Robinson concluded his service as the Civilian Representative overseeing the New York City Police Department’s terrorism investigations.

Judge Robinson was born and raised in the Marcy Projects in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn. He is a graduate of Cornell University and Cornell Law School. He has taught a seminar, and a trial practice course at Yale Law School, and an appellate advocacy course at Cardozo Law School. He currently resides in New York City.