Bernard to Deliver C.V. Starr Lecture on "Nation Building and Exporting the Rule of Law: Lessons Learned from Russia and Egypt"

New York, October 29, 2004 -- Richard P. Bernard, executive vice president and general counsel of the New York Stock Exchange, will deliver a C.V. Starr Lecture on Wednesday, November 3, at 4:30 p.m. in the Wellington Conference Center at New York Law School. The lecture is sponsored by the Law School’s Center for International Law.

Bernard will extract from his “midlife crisis” in Russia and more recent advisory work in Egypt “lessons learned” about inculcating the rule of law in countries where “getting a dial tone can be a triumph of will.”

In October 1992, less than a year after the Soviet Union imploded, Bernard left Wall Street “forever” and opened the office of Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy in Moscow. At the end of 1994, he resigned his Milbank partnership to start a two-year hitch assisting the newly-formed Russian Securities and Exchange Commission to create securities markets in Russia. By Thanksgiving 1995, he had been fired.

Providing insight relevant to our efforts in Iraq today, Bernard will show how historical and cultural differences and American arrogance make for a dangerous combination. He will show the difficulty in separating what is idiosyncratic to the American experience from what is universal. Bernard will suggest that American advisers have written too many laws whose principal utility is to separate bookends. He will argue that the most we can do is to teach and empower.

About the Center for International Law

Founded with funding from the C.V. Starr Foundation, the Center for International Law supports teaching and research in a broad range of areas of international law. The Center derives much of its strength from interaction with New York City's business, financial, and legal communities. The director of the Center for International Law is Sydney M. Cone, III, C.V. Starr Professor of Law.

About New York Law School

Founded in 1891, New York Law School is the second-oldest independent law school in the United States. Drawing on its location near the centers of law, government, and finance in New York City, its faculty of noted and prolific scholars has built the school’s curricular strength in the areas of tax law, labor and employment law, civil and human rights law, media and information law, urban legal studies, international and comparative law, and interdisciplinary fields such as legal history and legal ethics. New York Law School has more than 11,000 graduates and enrolls some 1,500 students in its full- and part-time J.D. program. It is one of only two law schools in the metropolitan area to offer the Master of Laws (LL.M.) in Taxation.     

Contact: Edie Sachs, Director of Communications, Office of Public Affairs, 212.431.2187, esachs@nyls.edu.