Michael Francis Armstrong (December 14, 1932 – October 17, 2019) was an American lawyer, based in New York City. In 1991, ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' described him as "the consummate New York lawyer."William Glaberson (January 19, 1991)
"Feuding Lawyers Get a Hearing; Their Peers, an Earful"
''The New York Times''

Biography

Armstrong graduated from

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the w ...

with a B.A. in 1954, then served in the

US Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Sig ...

, and graduated from

Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (Harvard Law or HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States. Each c ...

in 1960. He first worked as a lawyer as an associate at Cahill Gordon. Armstrong was an

Assistant United States Attorney An assistant United States attorney (AUSA) is an official career civil service position in the U.S. Department of Justice composed of lawyers working under the U.S. Attorney of each U.S. federal judicial district. They represent the federal go ...

for the

Southern District of New York The United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (in case citations, S.D.N.Y.) is a federal trial court whose geographic jurisdiction encompasses eight counties of New York State. Two of these are in New York City: New ...

from 1962 to 1967, after which he returned to Cahill Gordon as a partner in 1968. From 1970 to 1972, he was chief counsel to the

Knapp Commission The Commission to Investigate Alleged Police Corruption (known informally as the Knapp Commission, after its chairman Whitman Knapp) was a five-member panel initially formed in April 1970 by Mayor John V. Lindsay to investigate corruption wit ...

on New York City police corruption. In 1973 he was the interim Queens District Attorney. Armstrong represented the children of Martha "Sunny" von Bulow in a civil suit against her husband, Claus von Bülow, over her estate. The suit settled when Claus von Bülow in 1987 agreed to give up his claim to the estate. Later, he was chairman of the review panel on the

Central Park jogger case The Central Park jogger case (events also referenced as the Central Park Five Case) was a criminal case over the aggravated assault and rape of a white woman in Central Park in Manhattan, New York, on April 19, 1989, occurring at the same time ...

. In 2002

New York City Police Commissioner The New York City Police Commissioner is the head of the New York City Police Department and presiding member of the Board of Commissioners. The commissioner is appointed by and serves at the pleasure of the mayor. The commissioner is respons ...

Raymond Kelly commissioned a panel of three lawyers, including him, to review the case.Robert D. McFadden (January 28, 2003)
"Boys' Guilt Likely in Rape of Jogger, Police Panel Says"
''The New York Times'' The panel issued a 43-page report in January 2003. The panel disputed the claim of one man, Matias Reyes, that he alone had raped the jogger. The report concluded that the five men who had been convicted, but whose convictions had been vacated, had "most likely" participated in the beating and rape of the jogger, and that the "most likely scenario" was that "both the defendants and Reyes assaulted her, perhaps successively." In June 2005

New York City Mayor The mayor of New York City, officially Mayor of the City of New York, is head of the executive branch of the government of New York City and the chief executive of New York City. The mayor's office administers all city services, public property ...

Michael Bloomberg Michael Rubens Bloomberg (born February 14, 1942) is an American businessman, politician, philanthropist, and author. He is the majority owner, co-founder and CEO of Bloomberg L.P. He was Mayor of New York City from 2002 to 2013, and was a c ...

appointed Armstrong chairman of The Commission to Combat Police Corruption. The panel was formed in 1995, and conducts audits and studies on the department's anticorruption strategies.William K. Rashbaum; John Sullivan (June 2, 2005)
"New York: Manhattan: New Anticorruption Chief"
''The New York Times''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Armstrong, Michael F. 1932 births 2019 deaths Lawyers from New York City Military personnel from New York City Harvard Law School alumni Yale University alumni Queens County (New York) District Attorneys 20th-century American lawyers