Ted Wells

Theodore "Ted" Von Wells, Jr. (born April 28, 1950) is an American trial lawyer and defense attorney known for his practice in white-collar crime cases. He is a partner and the co-chairman of litigation at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison. He has been considered one of the most prominent litigators in the United States.¹²

After graduating from the College of the Holy Cross, Wells earned his JD from Harvard Law School and his MBA from Harvard Business School in 1976. He is known for his representation of prominent financial and political figures, including Scooter Libby, Raymond Donovan, Mike Espy, Michael Milken, Frank Quattrone, and governors Eliot Spitzer and David Paterson.³

In 2010, Wells became one of twelve fellows of the Harvard Corporation, the primary governing board of Harvard University.⁴ He was previously a chairman of the NAACP.⁵ In 2020, Wells was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Wells was born in Washington, D.C., on April 28, 1950, and grew up in a rowhouse.⁶ He has a younger sister, Toni, and several half-brothers and half-sisters on his father's side.⁷ His mother, Phyllis Wells, was a mail clerk at the U.S. Department of the Navy from Virginia.⁸ His father, Theodore V. Wells Sr.,⁶ was a taxi-driver.⁷ After his parents separated during his childhood, Wells was raised by his mother.⁷

Wells attended Calvin Coolidge High School in Washington, D.C., where he played center for the school's football team.⁷ In his junior year of high school, he received multiple athletic scholarships to play football in college, including at the University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania State University, Boston University, and North Carolina A&T State University.⁹ After graduating in 1968,⁶ he initially committed to play football at Pittsburgh, but withdrew to attend the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts, for its economics program instead, enrolling there on a scholarship provided by Tom Boisture.¹⁰

As an undergraduate at Holy Cross, Wells was classmates with U.S. Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas, poet Edward P. Jones, and roommates with running-back Ed Jenkins.¹¹ He played football for the Holy Cross Crusaders but withdrew after his freshman year to focus on classes.⁷ He co-founded the college's Black Student Union (BSU) and became its head after his sophomore year.⁶ With Clarence Thomas, he attended student demonstrations at Clark University in 1969 and participated in a walkout based on their beliefs of unfair racially motivated practices.¹²¹³ In his senior year, Wells was named the Fenwick Scholar, the highest academic honor of Holy Cross.¹⁴ He graduated from Holy Cross with a Bachelor of Arts in economics in 1972.¹⁵

After graduating from Holy Cross, Wells won a full scholarship to pursue graduate studies at Harvard University, where he simultaneously enrolled in both Harvard Law School and Harvard Business School, earning his Juris Doctor (JD) and his Master of Business Administration (MBA), respectively, in 1976.¹⁶ In law school, he studied under law professors Derrick Bell, Morton Horwitz, and Phillip Areeda, and was classmates with Kenneth Chenault, Franklin Raines, and Charles Ogletree. He was also elected an editor of the Harvard Civil Rights–Civil Liberties Law Review and worked as a summer associate at PwC, Arnold & Porter, and Alston & Bird.¹⁷ He was one of only 43 black students at Harvard Law School at the time.⁶

From August 1976 to August 1977, Wells was a law clerk for Judge John Joseph Gibbons of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. He was Gibbons' second black clerk—the first being Arthur Martin, a fellow classmate at Holy Cross. Gibbons had met Wells when Wells was an undergraduate in 1969, and Gibbons became his close friend and mentor.¹⁸ During his time as a clerk, Wells met Samuel Alito, then a clerk for Judge Leonard I. Garth. Wells described Alito as "one of the smartest lawyers I’ve ever met."¹⁹

After clerking at the Third Circuit, Wells moved to California to join the law firm of Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker in Los Angeles, where he stayed briefly for ten days.¹⁹ He decided to leave the West Coast shortly afterwards and joined Lowenstein Sandler in Roseland, New Jersey.²⁰ In addition to becoming well known in New Jersey, Wells' representation of U.S. Secretary of Labor Raymond Donovan while at Lowenstein Sandler gave him national attention as a prominent defense attorney.¹⁹ He stayed at the firm for over 20 years before moving to the white-shoe firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison.²¹

Wells was selected by the National Law Journal as one of America's best white-collar defense attorneys.²² He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2020 and serves as a fellow at the Harvard Corporation.²³

In 2019, Wells represented ExxonMobil in People of the State of New York v. Exxon Mobil Corp., a suit alleging that the company misled the company's investors about management of risks posed by climate change.²⁴

Wells represented Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Jr.,²² who was convicted on March 6, 2007, in the CIA leak grand jury investigation for perjury, obstruction of justice, and lying to the FBI. Wells filed an appeal of Libby's convictions,²⁵ but dropped the appeal in December 2007 after President Bush commuted Libby's 30-month prison sentence.²⁶

Some of Wells' more notable clients include Michael Espy, Senator Robert Torricelli,²² and Congressman Floyd Flake.²⁷ He represented former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer against allegations stemming from his alleged involvement in a prostitution ring.²⁸

In 2008 Wells won a $364.2 million verdict for Citigroup in a trial against Parmalat. Parmalat had been asking for $2 billion in damages. The jury found that Citi was not liable, and gave Citi the highest verdict award permissible.²⁹

Wells also has represented several major corporations during class action lawsuits including Merck, Philip Morris, and Johnson and Johnson.

In November 2013, the National Football League hired Wells to prepare a report on a bullying incident with the Miami Dolphins involving Richie Incognito.³⁰ The report, released on February 14, 2014, made headlines for its finding of "a pattern of harassment".³¹

Wells also served as the national Treasurer to Democrat Bill Bradley's presidential campaign.

In 2015, Ted Wells was again hired by the NFL, this time to investigate the New England Patriots' alleged "Deflategate" infractions. His report concluded that it was "more probable than not" that Tom Brady was "generally aware" of tampering with NFL game footballs during the 2015 AFC Championship Game. Ted Wells's independence and impartiality has been called into question in the wake of the report because of his extensive prior business relations with the NFL, his use of a scientific consultancy with a reputation for questionable client-serving results,³² and because of his track-record of success exculpating high-profile clients and corporations during public scandals.³³ Eventually, Judge Richard Berman overturned Tom Brady's suspension in the Deflategate saga that had been based on Wells's report; however the Second Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated it in 2016.

Wells married his high school girlfriend, Nina Mitchell, in 1971.³⁴ He and his wife reside in Livingston, New Jersey.³⁵³⁶ He has two children: Teresa and Philip.