New York, May 16, 2007—David Boies, one of the nation’s top litigators, will address the graduates at New York Law School’s 115th Commencement on Sunday, May 20, 2007, at Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center, at 3 p.m. Boies, whose high-profile clients include George Steinbrenner and the New York Yankees, Mike Wallace and CBS, Ernst & Young, and American Express, will receive an honorary Doctor of Laws degree. Boies will be introduced by Maurice R. Greenberg ’50, Chairman and CEO of the global investment firm C.V. Starr & Co., Inc.

 

The School will graduate 383 students: 370 candidates for the Juris Doctor (J.D.) and 13 candidates for the Master of Laws (LL.M.).

 

The President’s Medal of Honor will be awarded to its first-ever female recipient, Sybil Shainwald ’76, a leading advocate for safe and effective healthcare for women. The award is given to New York Law School’s most outstanding and accomplished alumni and its most generous benefactors, and acknowledges those who have made the most significant contributions to the history of the Law School by their exemplary professional lives and their generosity.

 

David Boies is Chairman of the law firm of Boies, Schiller & Flexner LLP with offices in New York, Washington, D.C., California, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, and New Jersey. He has been named “Lawyer of the Year” by The National Law Journal, runner-up “Person of the Year,” by Time magazine, and “Commercial Litigator of the Year” by Who’s Who. Boies served as Chief Counsel and Staff Director of the United States Senate Antitrust Subcommittee in 1978 and Chief Counsel and Staff Director of the United States Senate Judiciary Committee in 1979. He is the author of numerous publications, including Courting Justice, published by Miramax in 2004, and Public Control of Business, published by Little Brown in 1977. He is a member of Phi Beta Kappa, a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, and a fellow of the International Academy of Trial Lawyers.

 

Sybil Shainwald ’76 is President of the Law Offices of Sybil Shainwald in Manhattan, specializing in women’s health law. Throughout her career, she has litigated thousands of cases involving drugs and medical devices that have injured women and their children. She pioneered diethylstilbestrol (DES) litigation and was co-counsel in the nation’s first “DES daughter” victory, Bichler v. Lilly. In addition, Shainwald was one of the lawyers representing 2,000 women in the class action suit against the Dalkon Shield. She was the co-founder of U.S. Health Action International and served as Chair of the National Women’s Health Network.

 

Shainwald currently serves on the Board of Trustees of New York Law School. She established the Sidney Shainwald Public Interest Lecture at the School in 2002 as a tribute to her late husband, Sidney Shainwald. The lecture series honors Mr. Shainwald’s life and work by bringing public interest and consumer advocates together, and is intended to encourage students to consider public interest work as a viable and exciting career choice.

 

About New York Law School
Founded in 1891, New York Law School is an independent law school located in lower Manhattan near the city’s centers of law, government, and finance. New York Law School’s renowned faculty of prolific scholars has built the School’s strength in such areas as constitutional law, civil and human rights, labor and employment law, media and information law, urban legal studies, international and comparative law, and a number of interdisciplinary fields. The School is noted for its seven academic centers: Center for International Law, Center for New York City Law, Center for Professional Values and Practice, Center for Real Estate Studies, Center on Business Law and Policy, Institute for Information Law and Policy, and Justice Action Center. New York Law School has more than 13,000 graduates and enrolls some 1,500 students in its full- and part-time J.D. program and its Master of Laws (LL.M.) in Taxation program. www.nyls.edu