Lawrence Pedowitz has been a partner at Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz since 1980. He focuses on complex civil and corporate litigation, and regulatory, white collar criminal and professional liability matters. He heads Wachtell Lipton's white collar and regulatory practice group, and often is involved in internal investigations and corporate governance and compliance reviews. His clients include securities firms, investment banks, defence contractors, pharmaceutical companies, law firms and corporate officers. He is regularly ranked as a leading lawyer by directories that evaluate law firms.

Before joining Wachtell Lipton, Lawrence was a law clerk to Second Circuit Court of Appeals Chief Judge Henry J. Friendly (1972-1973) and to United States Supreme Court Justice William J Brennan (1973-1974). He also served as Chief Appellate Attorney (1976-78) and as Chief of the Criminal Division (1982-1984) in the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York. He was also appointed by the Federal District Court to serve as the Monitor of the Mason Tenders Union (1995-2002).

Lawrence has lectured at many continuing education programmes. He also taught Trial Practice and is on the board of the Brennan Center at New York University Law School. He has served on several committees of the Bar of the City of New York, including: the Criminal Law, the Federal Legislation and the Federal Courts Committees. In addition, he served as a vice-chairman and director of the Legal Aid Society, and is a co-founder of New York Law Firms for the Homeless, which is the financial support organization for the New York Coalition for the Homeless.

He received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Union College (summa cum laude) in 1969. He serves as a trustee of Union College and is on its Executive Committee. He received a Juris Doctor, cum laude, from New York University in 1972, where he served as editor-in-chief of the New York University Law Review.