Cy Vance, a graduate of Yale University and Georgetown University Law School, is a former prosecutor and veteran trial lawyer who has served for over a quarter century in the courts, in his community, and in government.
Born and raised in Manhattan in a family dedicated to public service, Cy returned to New York City after law school to become a prosecutor under Robert Morgenthau during the high-crime era of the 1980s. In the Manhattan District Attorney’s office, he handled cases involving murder, organized crime, career criminals, political corruption, and white-collar crime. In one of his most memorable cases, Cy prosecuted the 1986 killing of Susana Jimenez, a Smith Barney employee who was stalked and killed by her ex-fiancé at her workplace. This case sparked Cy’s passion for preventative crime measures, in particular in the field of domestic and intimate partner violence, the only category of crime that has increased in the past 15 years.
As the only candidate with experience in the D.A.’s Office’s legendary Rackets Bureau, which investigates corruption and criminal enterprises, Cy has spent considerable time building and prosecuting cases of white-collar crime. White-collar crime hurts everyone – small business owners, retirees, workers, consumers, colleges, and not-for-profits that help those most in need, and as a prosecutor and trial lawyer who has specialized in white-collar crime for 25 years, Cy has the expertise to build these difficult cases and win convictions.
After leaving the District Attorney’s office, Cy went on to co-found McNaul Ebel Nawrot Helgren & Vance, PLLC, which under his joint leadership became one of the pre-eminent litigation firms in the Northwest. The firm is well known for Cy’s successful class-action suit against the Boeing Corporation on behalf of 29,000 female employees for discriminatory practices towards women.
Recently, Cy served on Governor Paterson’s Commission on Sentencing Reform, which delivered the first serious reform of the outdated Rockefeller Drug Laws which have decimated families and communities all over the state. Cy also serves as a member of the Criminal Justice Council of the New York City Bar Association, the Federal Bar Council, and the New York Council of Defense Lawyers. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Fund for Modern Courts, the Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law, and the Alzheimer's Drug Discovery Foundation.
Cy and his wife of 25 years, Peggy McDonnell, a printer and photographer, live on the Upper West Side with their two children, both of whom attended school in New York City. Cy is now a principal at Morvillo, Abramowitz, Grand, Iason, Anello & Bohrer, P.C., one of the nation’s leading litigation firms.