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Gov. Cuomo Nominates Maria Vullo as Superintendent of NYDFS

Maria Vullo

Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today nominated Maria T. Vullo to serve as the Superintendent of the New York State Department of Financial Services. Ms. Vullo is an experienced senior litigator and manager, with more than 25 years of practice in business litigation and investigations. She is of counsel at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP, where she was a partner for 20 years. She previously oversaw the Economic Justice Division in the Office of the New York State Attorney General, with a staff of approximately 200.

The Department of Financial Services is charged with protecting consumers and markets in New York State from fraud and financial crises, as well as reforming the regulation of financial services to keep pace with dynamic changes within the industry. DFS was created in 2011 by the merger of the state’s Banking and Insurance Departments.

“Maria Vullo is a dedicated, tough and fair litigator with the right combination of public and private sector experience needed to lead the Department of Financial Services,” said Governor Cuomo. “Maria has shown an immovable commitment to upholding the law and protecting consumers, and I am confident that she would be a strong and tireless advocate for the people of New York as Superintendent.”

Maria T. Vullo said: “It is an honor and a privilege to be nominated to serve as Superintendent of the Department of Financial Services. I thank Governor Cuomo for this tremendous opportunity, and am excited to serve the people of the State of New York once again. I look forward to working with the talented men and women at DFS to strengthen our markets and protect investors and consumers from unlawful business practices.”

Over the course of her career, Ms. Vullo’s legal experience has included matters involving securities and other fraud, real estate, health care, insurance, tax, consumer protection, bankruptcy, antitrust, constitutional and environmental law. She was selected twice by the New York State Commission on Judicial Nomination as a candidate for Associate Judge on the Court of Appeals, and has argued before the U.S. Supreme Court, the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Second, Ninth, and Tenth Circuits, and the New York State Appellate Division.

In 2010 she served as Executive Deputy Attorney General for Economic Justice under then New York State Attorney General Cuomo. There she oversaw the Bureaus of Investor Protection, Antitrust, Real Estate Finance, Consumer Frauds and Internet. In that role she handled numerous consumer protection, investor protection and antitrust matters, including:

  • actions relating to Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme;
  • investigations and settlements with numerous retailers;
  • an investigation and action against Ernst & Young related to the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers;
  • an investigation of the life insurance industry regarding payouts to military families;
  • settlements with insurance companies for improper surcharges regarding workers’ compensation.

She represented women raped by soldiers during the 1992-1995 Bosnian War – a case in which she secured a $745 million jury verdict for the plaintiffs. Her pro bono work also includes representing abortion providers whose lives had been threatened via an online “hit list”; in that case she secured a $100 million jury verdict for the plaintiffs. She is a member of the Boards of Directors of the National Organization of Italian-American Women, the Women’s Equality Coalition and the ERA Coalition, Inc.; and is a member of the New York Women’s Bar Association and the Women Trial Lawyers Caucus.

She recently received the Humanitarian of the Year Award from the Interfaith Nutrition Network, as well as the Distinguished Corporate Citizen Award from A Better Balance, among many other awards and professional recognitions.

Ms. Vullo holds a J.D. from New York University School of Law, 1987, an M.P.A., New York University, Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, 2012, and a B.A. summa cum laude, College of Mount Saint Vincent, 1984.