Whether in or out of the courtroom, Maria Vullo is always at the top of her game.  In 1999, Vullo was named one of New York’s “40 Under 40 Rising Stars,” in Crain’s New York Business, and Mirabella magazine named her one of the “25 Smartest Women in America.” In 2001, Vullo was named one of the top 10 female litigators in the nation by The National Law Journal, and a year later the journal honored her as one of the “40 Under 40 Young Advocates Making Their Mark.” 

Surprisingly these and other kudos reflect not Vullo’s position as a partner in her New York law firm, but her pro bono work.  She won international recognition for her work in Kadic vs. Karadzic, a case in which she represented Bosnian Muslim and Croat women who alleged that former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic was personally liable for genocidal sexual massacres during the civil war in Bosnia.

In another highly publicized case, Vullo’s work helped to establish that posters and websites that threaten violence are not protected under the First Amendment. Vullo won an injunction and a more than $100 million verdict against a group of extreme activists who published “Wanted” posters of doctors, their families, and people who worked in women’s reproductive health care facilities.

Not surprisingly, Vullo’s life outside these cases is also full of accomplishment. She graduated from Mount Saint Vincent in 1984, received her J.D. from the New York University School of Law in 1987, and was made a partner in the law firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, LLP, in 1996, just eight years after she began working there.

Currently, Vullo runs her firm's Public Matters Committee and speaks frequently at legal events. Vullo is a member of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York and the American Bar Association.