Carl J. Mayer (born April 23, 1959 in Brookline, Massachusetts) is an American lawyer, politician, author, public speaker and consumer advocate.
He is the founder of the law firm Mayer Law Group LLC, as well as a former elected member of the Township Committee in Princeton, New Jersey.
Mayer is best known for taking on political corruption and corporate lobbyists and was profiled by the CBS news program 60 Minutes for those efforts.
Working with the news program, Mayer went undercover and exposed illegal payments between corporate lobbyists and politicians. As a result of the exposé, dozens of politicians and lobbyists were indicted and convicted.
Mayer's law firm has litigated and prevailed against some of the largest corporations in the world on behalf of consumers, workers, senior citizens and taxpayers. His firm has recovered tens of millions of dollars for thousands of class members defrauded by unlawful or deceptive corporate practices. Mayer's firm has successfully sued Verizon (the world's 40th largest corporation) on behalf of consumers overcharged on their phone bills and successfully sued the world's largest water utility – GDF Suez, a French multinational corporation—for selling phony warranties to minorities and inner city residents in America. Mayer represents senior citizens in lawsuits against Assisted-Living facilities that overbill customers.
Long before the Supreme Court decided Citizens United in 2010, Mayer wrote the first law review article calling for the elimination of corporate rights under the United States constitution which nowhere mentions corporations.
A former law professor, Mayer also served as special counsel to the United States Senate Special Committee on Investigations and as special counsel to the New York State Attorney General, where he helped bring a litigation against the gun companies for negligently marketing their products.
Additionally, in June 2017, before NJ Transit's "summer of hell" Mayer wrote an op-ed, "NJ Transit riders of the world, unite!" calling for a passenger sit-in as an act of protest over the terrible conditions New Jersey commuters are being submitted to.
Early life and education
Carl J. Mayer is the son of Dayton-Stockton Professor Emeritus Arno J. Mayer, who taught European history at Princeton University and Nancy Grant Mayer, a magazine writer from New York whose profiles frequently appeared on the cover of New York magazine.
Mayer's paternal grandparents were Frank J. Mayer and Ida (Lieben) Mayer. Frank Mayer was the first Consul General representing the State of Israel in his native Luxembourg.
Mayer's maternal grandparents were Arnold Monroe Grant and Frances S. Grant. Arnold Grant was an entertainment lawyer whose clients included Johnny Carson, Orson Welles, Salvador Dalí, Bing Crosby and Gary Cooper.
Grant was also an adviser to many prominent politicians including Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, John and Bobby Kennedy and Adlai Stevenson. Active in Jewish affairs, he received the American Jewish Committee’s Human Relations Award.
Mayer graduated magna cum laude from Princeton University, majoring in the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.
He received his J.D. degree from the University of Chicago – where he was on the Law Review and was President of the student body. He also holds an LL.M degree from Harvard Law School.
Mayer clerked for United States Federal District Court Judge Caleb M. Wright.
Mayer is married to the former Karen Stephanie Zemble of Narberth, Pennsylvania. Karen Mayer is an environmental and business lawyer. They have two children together.
60 Minutes Profile of Carl Mayer
In 1996, while serving as the first Independent elected to the Township Committee in Princeton, New Jersey, Mayer went undercover for the CBS program 60 Minutes. Working with the news program, he uncovered corruption and bribery among state officials and corporate lobbyists.
The segment originated when Mayer wrote an article for The New York Times on the topic in 1995 describing the intersection of state politics and corporate lobbyists. In particular, he singled out two events: the annual New Jersey State League of Municipalities convention for elected officials in Atlantic City as well as an event sponsored by the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce in which the organization would charter an Amtrak train to transport over 1,000 politicians, businessmen and lobbyists from New Jersey to Washington for its annual Congressional reception.