Faith Gay

Faith Gay is a founding partner at Selendy Gay.

In a nationally recognized career spanning four decades, Faith has been lead counsel in dozens of high-stakes jury trials and has successfully navigated bet-the-company crises and investigations for scores of Fortune 500 companies, C-suite executives, and government agencies and officials. Before founding Selendy Gay, Faith co-chaired the trial practice at one of the nation’s top litigation firms and was a highly respected federal prosecutor. Raised in rural Georgia and a resident of New York City, Faith is comfortable in courtrooms everywhere.

Chambers ranks Faith as one of the country’s top litigators, citing “significant praise for her work in high-stakes litigation covering commercial claims, white-collar issues and matters of constitutional law.” Clients have touted her "extraordinary feel for litigation,” saying: "I've never met a lawyer like her; she combines so many talents in a single human body. She's incredibly responsive, unbelievably insightful, and her advice is always sound." Law360 described Faith as “a great litigator” with “a kind of magnetic charisma, a likeability and intelligence that allow her to present complicated cases in a way that disarms tough judges, hostile witnesses, and skeptical jury members.”

Faith was recently named a Litigation Trailblazer by the National Law Journal and a Lawdragon Legend. In 2025, the Fund for Modern Courts recognized Faith with its Robert M. Kaufman Memorial Award, and the Office of the Appellate Defender has presented Faith with the Gould Award for Outstanding Appellate Advocacy. Faith has long held a place on “best in class” elite litigator lists including Chambers, Forbes, Crain’s, Legal 500, Lawdragon, Benchmark, the Daily Journal, and scores of others.

Faith is a former supervisor in the Civil Rights and Special Prosecutions Units of the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York. She twice received the Department of Justice Directors’ Award for excellence in trial litigation. 

In her commercial practice, Faith focuses on complex contractual and financial disputes, securities, crypto and bankruptcy matters, intellectual property disputes, and consumer class actions. She has extensive experience in Board and Special Committee assignments, as well as representation of C-suite executives and high-net-worth individuals in corporate and family law matters. Her long roster of high-profile clients that she has served as national or lead trial counsel includes the American Federation of Teachers, Bausch, Bridgewater, Coca-Cola, Colgate, Domtar, E-Trade, Home Depot, MacAndrews & Forbes, McKinsey, Novartis, Nuance, Pfizer, Regeneron, Revlon, Sandoz, and Schwab.

In her white-collar and crisis management practice, Faith has represented corporations and high-profile individuals in investigations by the SEC, FINRA, DOJ, FDA, IRS, EPA, DOD, and numerous state attorneys general. She has led internal investigations at the request of corporations, boards of directors, and special committees. No individual or corporation that Faith has represented while under investigation has been indicted, pleaded guilty, or been forced to accept deferred prosecution.

Faith has also led trial teams in pathbreaking constitutional and public impact litigation. She currently represents New York Governor Kathy Hochul in a variety of matters, and represented New York Governor David Patterson in a victory the New York Times called “stunning” in upholding the appointment of Richard Ravitch as Lieutenant Governor. Faith also represented a class of public service workers in obtaining unprecedented relief with respect to the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program. Faith also obtained a complete reversal of a woman’s conviction and mandatory 20-year sentence for firing a warning shot at her serially abusive spouse. 

Representative Matters

• McKinsey, in defending against RICO and bankruptcy fraud claims in the Southern District of New York, the Southern District of Texas, the Eastern District of Virginia, the District of Delaware, and the Northern District of Illinois. All but one case was dismissed prior to the commencement of discovery.
• Eargo, a California-based medical device company, in a criminal investigation which DOJ closed without bringing charges.
• Warburg Pincus, in obtaining a total dismissal of all claims in a securities and breach of contract case in federal district court in Delaware.
• Two C-suite executives (CEO and Chief Legal Officer), in securing complete dismissals/acquittals on all federal criminal charges including multiple felony counts alleging financial and securities fraud as well as violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
• E-Trade, in obtaining the dismissal of two separate putative class actions related to purportedly improper steering of trades—one alleging federal securities fraud claims, and the other alleging breach of fiduciary duties under state law.
• Regeneron, in obtaining a complete dismissal in a complex patent infringement suit, which sought over $500 million in damages.
• A C-suite executive, in obtaining a sweeping victory after a three-week trial in a high-net-worth divorce case.   
• Pfizer, Bausch, Novartis, and Sandoz, in successfully defending bellwether products liability and securities cases.
• New York Governor Kathy Hochul, in multi-district litigation in the Northern District of California against social media companies relating to negative impacts on teen mental health. The Governor obtained precedent-setting pretrial rulings relating to statewide discovery; the case is on-going.
• Public service workers and members of the American Federation of Teachers, in a pathbreaking settlement of a nationwide class action lawsuit against Navient, one of the nation’s largest student loan servicers, challenging its practices with respect to advising federal student loan borrowers on their eligibility for Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF).

Education, Affiliations & Community Involvement

Faith was an A.B. Duke Scholar at Duke University, and earned her J.D. from the Northwestern University School of Law, where she now serves on the Law Board Executive Committee. She is a Trustee of the Public Theater, a member of the American Law Institute, and serves on the boards of Bassett Medical Center, the Campaign Legal Center and the Clark Foundation. She is a board member emeritus of the American Constitution Society and Union Theological Seminary. In 2019, Faith received an M.Div from Yale Divinity School, and is an ordained Presbyterian minister.