Lewis A. Kaplan
Appointed by President William J. Clinton in 1994 and confirmed by voice vote, Lewis A. Kaplan is a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. He earned a law degree from Harvard Law School in 1969. Rulings & record ↓ Sources ↓
- Born
- 1944 · age 82
- Appointed by
- William J. Clinton, 1994
- Confirmed
- by voice vote
- Education
- University of Rochester 1966 · Harvard Law School 1969
- Succeeded
- Gerard Louis Goettel
- Succeeded by
- Ronnie Abrams
Federal judicial service
| Year | Court | Appointed by | Vote |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1994 | Southern District of New York succeeded Gerard Louis Goettel | Clinton (D) | Voice vote |
Party letters show the appointing president’s party, not the judge’s own. A voice vote means the chamber approved aloud. No senator-by-senator tally is recorded.
Confirmation vote
Voice vote
The Senate approved this confirmation aloud, with no senator-by-senator tally recorded. Recorded roll-call votes begin in 1989.
Education
| University of Rochester | A.B. | 1966 |
| Harvard Law School | J.D. | 1969 |
Judicial Record
Caseload & case types
In our data, Kaplan was assigned 7,521 district-court cases (1971–2026). Median time from filing to termination: 291 days across 7,323 closed cases.
Case assignment is from CourtListener’s PACER-derived docket records: a partial sample, not a complete caseload, reflecting the judge last assigned each case. How we count.
On appeal
Of 275 of Kaplan’s decisions reviewed on the merits by the U.S. courts of appeals in our data, 216 were affirmed, 28 reversed or vacated, and 31 affirmed in part and reversed in part. This is a historical count of appellate outcomes for cases we could match, not a judgment of the judge, and not a complete record. How we count.
In our data, Kaplan authored 703 published opinions for the court (1994–2011). Most cited: In Re Rezulin Products Liability Litigation (191 citations).
A selective record from published opinions in the CourtListener corpus, not every ruling; most unpublished district orders are not included. Counts and rankings are objective and recomputable: how we count. We describe the record, not the judge.
Recent & notable rulings
| Year | Case | Citation | Cited |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2004 | In Re Rezulin Products Liability Litigation | 309 F. Supp. 2d 531 | 191 |
| 2005 | In Re Parmalat Securities Litigation | 375 F. Supp. 2d 278 | 107 |
| 2005 | In Re BISYS Securities Litigation | 397 F. Supp. 2d 430 | 83 |
| 2005 | In Re Parmalat Securities Litigation | 376 F. Supp. 2d 472 | 76 |
| 1997 | ICD Holdings S.A. v. Frankel | 976 F. Supp. 234 | 71 |
| 2011 | In Re Lehman Bros. Securities and Erisa Litigation | 799 F. Supp. 2d 258 | 66 |
| 1997 | Playboy Enterprises, Inc. v. Dumas | 960 F. Supp. 710 | 66 |
| 2002 | Velez v. Vassallo | 203 F. Supp. 2d 312 | 65 |
| 2007 | Fraternity Fund Ltd. v. Beacon Hill Asset Management, LLC | 479 F. Supp. 2d 349 | 62 |
| 2001 | In Re Rezulin Products Liability Litigation | 133 F. Supp. 2d 272 | 61 |
| 1998 | PICCOLI A/S v. Calvin Klein Jeanswear Co. | 19 F. Supp. 2d 157 | 60 |
| 2006 | International Equity Investments, Inc. v. Opportunity Equity Partners, Ltd. | 427 F. Supp. 2d 491 | 57 |
| 2000 | Ramos v. Walker | 88 F. Supp. 2d 233 | 56 |
| 1997 | Nycal Corp. v. INOCO PLC | 988 F. Supp. 296 | 54 |
| 2009 | Di Giovanna v. Beth Israel Medical Center | 651 F. Supp. 2d 193 | 52 |
Showing the 15 most-cited of 703 authored opinions in our data. “Cited” is inbound citations across the CourtListener corpus. Case links open the ruling’s full text (CourtListener) or its page here; read the methodology and verify against the primary source.
Questions & answers
- Who appointed Lewis A. Kaplan?
- President William J. Clinton appointed Lewis A. Kaplan to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York in 1994.
- Was Lewis A. Kaplan appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?
- Lewis A. Kaplan was appointed by President William J. Clinton, a Democrat. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
- What was Lewis A. Kaplan's confirmation vote?
- Lewis A. Kaplan was confirmed by voice vote on August 9, 1994. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.
- Which court is Lewis A. Kaplan on?
- Lewis A. Kaplan is a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
Sources
Each fact on this page traces to a primary public record.
- FJC Biographical Directory
- CourtListener bulk data (Free Law Project): authored opinions & citation counts
How we source & reconcile data → Data & Sources
See something wrong? Report an error. Fixes are logged in the corrections log.
32 years on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. Data as of 2026-08-10. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).