SearchLAC Board of Directors
Daniel K. Mayers, Chairman | Elizabeth Bartholet,Vice Chair
Stephanie Avakian | Eric D. Balber | Stephen C. Bell | Suzanne B. Cusack | Stephen M. Cutler | Edward J. Davis | Jason Flom | Mary Beth Forshaw | Robert E. Fullilove | Beth L. Golden | Tino Hernandez | Brad S. Karp | Doug Liman | Elaine H. Mandelbaum | Michael Meltsner | Mark C. Morril | Mary E. Mulligan | William C. Paley | Dallas Pell | Ed Shaw | Jane Velez | B. Diane Williams
Arthur Liman, Founding Chairman
Daniel K. Mayers, Esq., Chairman: Mr. Mayers joined the Legal Action Center Board in October, 1978, was elected Chairman of the Board in 1998 and re-elected in 2001. Daniel Mayers is a recently retired senior partner in the Washington, D.C. law firm of Wilmer, Cutler and Pickering, which he joined in 1962 as an Associate. He became a partner in 1967, after spending two years serving as Assistant to Undersecretary of State George Ball. While actively practicing, Mr. Mayers had a broad antitrust litigation and negotiation practice, representing numerous clients in private antitrust litigation and in FTC and DOJ actions and investigations. He has represented Harvard University in a federal investigation and consent decree involving Ivy League financial aid, Intuit in negotiations with the Justice Department involving its acquisition by Microsoft, and the University of Utah in a federal investigation and consent decree involving health care issues. He currently chairs a joint program on election reform law being carried out at Harvard and American University Law Schools. He has served as Chairman of the Board of Directors of the National Symphony Orchestra, the Washington Educational Television Association, the Visiting Committee of the Board of Overseers of Harvard Law School, and the Sidwell Friends School. He currently serves on the boards of directors of Americans for Peace Now, the Federal City Council, the Community Foundation for the National Capital Area, and the Washington Tennis Foundation.
Professor Elizabeth Bartholet, Vice Chair: Professor Bartholet joined the Legal Action Center Board in October 1977 and was elected Vice Chair of the Board in 1998. Elizabeth Bartholet has been Morris Wasserstein Public Interest Professor of Law at Harvard Law School since 1996, where she has taught since 1977. Professor Bartholet was the Legal Action Center’s founding director and president until joining the Harvard faculty. She is the author of a large number of publications as well as a member of a number of committees and boards. Her areas of research interest include adoption, child welfare, and reproductive technology.
Stephanie Avakian: Ms. Avakian is a vice chair of WilmerHale's Securities Department, and a member of the Securities Litigation and Enforcement Practice Group. She joined the firm in 2000.
She is resident in WilmerHale's New York office, where she focuses on securities enforcement and regulatory matters, including internal corporate investigations and securities regulatory investigations, examinations and actions. She represents major investment banks, public companies and individuals before the US Securities and Exchange Commission, the Department of Justice, securities self-regulatory organizations and state authorities.
Ms. Avakian has conducted and overseen internal corporate investigations of potential violations of the federal securities laws and has advised on a variety of regulatory compliance issues. She has represented corporations, financial institutions and individuals in a wide variety of government investigations and examinations, including into matters such as IPO-allocation practices, broker sales practices, mutual fund market timing, financial fraud, insider trading, bank fraud, executive compensation disclosure and trading practices.
Prior to joining the firm, Ms. Avakian worked in various capacities at the SEC from 1995 through 1999. From 1998 to 1999, she served as counsel to Commissioner Paul R. Carey, and from 1995 to 1998, she was an attorney in the Division of Enforcement, serving as Branch Chief from 1997 to 1998.
Eric D. Balber, Esq.: Eric Balber was elected to the Legal Action Center Board in June of 1981. Mr. Balber is a former staff attorney at the Legal Action Center and is currently a partner at Balber & Marshall.
Suzanne B. Cusack: Ms. Cusack was elected to the Legal Action Center Board in September 1996. She serves on the Board Development Committee. Suzanne Cusack, along with her husband Jim, is the owner and director of Veritas Villa, a free-standing inpatient rehabilitation center for alcohol and drug dependence, and is responsible for many of its administrative functions, as well as conducting educational lectures and acting as liaison between management and staff. Ms. Cusack is particularly interested in the issue of women’s substance abuse problems and the difficulties faced by women in recovery, and is the author of two books on the subject. Ms. Cusack has played a significant role in several organizations which focus on the issue of women and treatment, and was a founding member and past president of the New York Women’s Coalition on Chemical Dependency.
Stephen M. Cutler: Stephen M. Cutler is Executive Vice President and General Counsel of JPMorgan Chase and a member of the firm's Executive Committee and Operating Committee. Cutler joined the company in February 2007. Previously, he was a partner at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP and co-chair of the firm's Securities Department. From to 2001 to 2005, Cutler served as Director of the Securities and Exchange Commission's Division of Enforcement, where he oversaw the Commission’s investigations of Enron and WorldCom, as well as those involving NYSE specialists, research analyst conflicts and mutual fund market timing and revenue sharing. Before joining the SEC as Deputy Director of Enforcement in 1999, Cutler was a partner at Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering. Cutler is a 1985 graduate of Yale Law School, where he served as an editor of the Yale Law Journal, and a 1982 graduate (summa cum laude) of Yale University.
Edward J. Davis, Esq.: Mr. Davis was elected to the Legal Action Center Board in May 1998. He is Chair of the Board Development Committee. Mr. Davis worked as a staff attorney at the Legal Action Center from 1988 to 1993. He is now a Partner in the New York office of Davis Wright Tremaine LLP, where he specializes in First Amendment and intellectual property issues, complex business litigation and arbitration, and international human rights. Mr. Davis represented a national coalition of prominent museums and other cultural institutions in the First Amendment litigation over the City of New York's efforts to punish the Brooklyn Museum of Art for a controversial exhibit. Mr. Davis has chaired the Independent Judicial Screening Panel for the New York State Supreme Court and currently serves as Vice-Chair of the American Bar Association Committee on Media Law and Defamation Torts and Chair of the Committee on Copyright and Literary Property for the Association of the Bar of the City of New York.
Jason Flom: Mr. Flom was elected to the Legal Action Center Board in October 1999. Jason Flom has been the President of Lava Records since its founding in March 1995 and is a Senior Vice President at Atlantic Records. During his more than twenty years in the record industry, Mr. Flom has been responsible for signing a long list of hugely successful artists in a wide variety of rock genres. Mr. Flom is also a member of the Board of Directors of Families Against Mandatory Minimums, an organization which aims to abolish mandatory drug sentencing. On July 12, 1999, Mr. Flom was awarded the ACLU Foundation of Southern California’s Torch of Liberty Award, which is given to “individuals from the arts and entertainment industry and the media whose work affirms the democratic principles that underlie the promise of ‘liberty and justice for all.”
Mary Beth Forshaw: Mary Beth Forshaw is a Partner at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP where she is a member of the Firm's Litigation Department. She represents and advises clients in a broad range of commercial disputes, including matters involving insurance coverage, reinsurance, bankruptcy, lender liability, securities fraud, and product liability.
Ms. Forshaw has represented third party liability insurers and first party insurers in myriad litigations and arbitrations involving asbestos and pollution including, most recently, ACandS vs. Travelers Casualty & Surety Company (2004 WL 2075117), in which an arbitration panel found that her client had no obligation to provide non-products coverage to an insulation installer. She has also represented ceding insurers in several significant lawsuits involving reinsurance issues, including Cigna Re (52 F.2d 1994) and Unigard (79 N.Y.2d 576; 4 F.3d 1049). She has also represented insurers' interests in various asbestos-related Chapter 11 proceedings, including In re ACandS (297 B.R. 395), in which her client defeated confirmation of a Plan of Reorganization. Ms. Forshaw also has conducted investigations of managing general agents, their binding of personal accident covers, and potential participation in spirals. She has acted as counsel to various banks and financial institutions in actions involving allegations of fraudulent conveyance and securities fraud. See, e.g., In Re Best Products, 168 B.R. 35; Ceres v. Shearson Lehman, 642 N.Y.S.2d 264. She is a contributor to General Practice in New York (West Publishing, Spring 1998), Law and Practice of Insurance Coverage Litigation (West Publishing 2000) and Modern Reinsurance Law and Practice (Glasser LegalWorks 1995).
Ms. Forshaw received her B.A. magna cum laude in 1984 from Barnard College where she was elected Phi Beta Kappa. She received her J.D. in 1989 from Yale Law School where she was a member of the Yale Law & Policy Review and was Director of the Jerome N. Frank Legal Services Project. Ms. Forshaw is admitted to practice in New York and its various district courts, Connecticut and the U. S. Courts of Appeals for the Second, Third, Seventh, Tenth and District of Columbia Circuits. She is a member of the American Bar Association, the New York State Bar Association and the Bar Association of the City of New York.
Robert E. Fullilove, III, Ed.D.: Professor Fullilove is the Associate Dean for Community and Minority Affairs and Associate Professor of Clinical Public Health in Sociomedical Sciences at the Joseph L. Mailman School of Public Health of Columbia University. He received his BA from Colgate University, a masters in Instructional Technology from Syracuse University, and an EdD from Teachers College, Columbia University.
He currently directs the masters program in Health Promotion and Disease Prevention in the Division of Sociomedical Sciences at Columbia and is the co-director of the Community Research Group. His research has focused on the impact of drug treatment programs on the lives of men and women addicted to crack cocaine and other drugs. He has authored numerous articles on HIV/AIDS, minority health, substance abuse, and mathematics and science education. In 1998 he was named a visiting Falk Fellow (alongwith his wife, Mindy T. Fullilove, MD) at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health.
In 1995 Dr. Fullilove was appointed to the Board on Health Promotion and Disease Prevention at the Institute of Medicine and in 1998 was appointed to the Advisory Committee on HIV and STD Prevention at the Centers for Disease Control. He also serves on the editorial board of the journal Sexually Transmitted Diseases.
Beth L. Golden: Ms. Golden, a partner in K&L Gates’ New York office, concentrates in corporate internal investigations, white collar defense, securities enforcement, and other matters of state and federal regulation. She advises companies, boards, audit committees, special committees, and individual officers and directors on issues of corporate governance, compliance, and risk management.
Experienced in both state and federal prosecution, Ms. Golden served as an Associate Independent Counsel in the Whitewater investigation, Assistant United States Attorney, and a Deputy New York Attorney General. She has conducted close to a dozen jury trials and briefed and argued several federal appellate cases. She clerked for the Honorable Thomas Penfield Jackson (D.D.C.), and prior to joining K&L Gates, Ms. Golden was the Global Head of Compliance at a major New York financial services firm.
Ms. Golden has lectured on topics of corporate governance and compliance for Institutes of Corporate Directors and financial services professionals throughout the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada.
Tino Hernandez:Mr. Hernandez began his appointment as President and Chief Executive Officer of Samaritan Village, Inc. on December 18, 2008. In this capacity, Mr. Hernandez is responsible for the administration of one of the largest providers of non-profit, community-based, substance abuse treatment services in New York State. He oversees operation of the Agency’s 10 facilities which include drug-free residential, methadone-to-abstinence and out-patient modalities, as well as, homeless and senior services. He also provides leadership to deliver quality services to underserved populations, such as addicted veterans with Post Traumatic Stress Disorders, addicted individuals with Co-Occurring Mental Health Disorders, offenders, the homeless and seniors. Mr. Hernandez is also responsible for ensuring that Samaritan programs adhere to federal, state and local regulations. In addition, Mr. Hernandez manages an annual operating budget of $27 million and supervises 360 employees.
Mr. Hernandez was appointed Chairman of the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) on March 28, 2001. Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg re-appointed him to that post on January 1, 2002. NYCHA is the largest public housing authority in North America, providing decent and affordable housing to over 408,850 low and moderate income New Yorkers within the five boroughs. The Authority’s Conventional Public Housing Program comprises 343 developments encompassing over 2,600 residential buildings and 178,000 apartments. NYCHA also administers a citywide Section 8 Leased Housing Program, which provides vouchers for nearly 89,000 families with apartments in the private rental market. The program has over 29,000 participating landlords. To enhance the quality of life of NYCHA residents, the Authority also provides a multitude of community, educational and recreational programs, as well as, employment and training initiatives.
Mr. Hernandez also served in a variety of other government positions. He was a member of the Mayor’s Commission on Construction Opportunity, which explores strategies to ensure that all New Yorkers, particularly minorities, women, returning veterans and new high school graduates gain access to permanent jobs in the construction industry. He was a member of the Panel on Educational Policy, the governance structure responsible for advising the Chancellor on policy matters affecting the New York City school system and its students. Mr. Hernandez also served as a member of the Department of Youth and Community Development’s Youth Council, helping to strengthen education, youth development and training programs throughout the city to better prepare young people for future jobs and civic life.
Prior to NYCHA, Mr. Hernandez held several executive positions within city government. He served as Commissioner of the New York City Department of Juvenile Justice. As Commissioner, he oversaw the renovation of the Bridges Juvenile Center, a model comprehensive intake and assessment facility for detained juveniles. Mr. Hernandez also served as Chief of Staff to the Deputy Mayor for Education and Human Services, overseeing several City agencies including the Human Resources Administration, the Department of Homeless Services, the Department for the Aging, the Department of Youth and Community Development, NYCHA and the Mayor’s Offices for AIDS Policy Coordination and People with Disabilities.
Mr. Hernandez also served as Deputy Commissioner for Adult Services at the New York City Department of Homeless Services. There, he was responsible for the formation of homeless shelter policy, and led the City’s efforts to privatize and convert city shelters to programmatic shelters that addressed underlying problems of homelessness, such as mental health, substance abuse, and unemployment. Prior to that, he served as Assistant Commissioner for the Division of HIV Program Services at the New York City Department of Health where he oversaw HIV health care and HIV prevention initiatives.
Before entering government, Mr. Hernandez was Vice President for Clinical Services at Samaritan Village, Inc., a major substance abuse treatment provider in the New York City metropolitan area.
Mr. Hernandez obtained a Bachelor of Science degree from Adelphi University in 1986. A licensed social worker (CSW), he graduated in 1988 from the State University of New York at Albany, Nelson A. Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy with a Masters in Social Work with a concentration in management.
Mr. Hernandez currently resides in Manhattan and is the father of two children.
Brad S. Karp, Esq.: Mr. Karp was elected to the Legal Action Center Board in July 1998. He is a member of the Development Committee. Brad Karp is a partner in the Litigation Department and Chair-elect of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, and co-chair of the firm's Securities, Futures and Derivatives Group. His practice has been widely diversified, with concentration in the areas of intellectual property, complex securities and business matters, and white collar criminal defense. Mr. Karp is a frequent lecturer on business litigation and securities and intellectual property issues. For more than fifteen years, he has written a monthly column for the New York Law Journal, entitled "Second Circuit Review," which discusses significant decisions and analyzes developments in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. In addition, Mr. Karp has authored numerous articles on business litigation issues. Mr. Karp is a member of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, where he has served on several committees, and a member of the Institute of Judicial Administration. He also sits on the board of directors of Practicing Attorneys for Law Students Program, Inc.
Doug Liman: Mr. Liman was elected to the Legal Action Center Board in May 1998. Doug Liman, son of the Legal Action Center’s Founding Chairman, Arthur Liman, is the Director and Cinematographer of two successful recent films, Swingers (1996) and Go (1999) and director and co-producer of Universal Pictures' 2002 hit film The Bourne Identity starring Matt Damon. He was involved in the creation of Propaganda Independent, through which he directed cutting edge commercials for Levi's and Sony. He was also the founder of Nibblebox and is the Vice Chairman of Hypnotic. In 1997, he received an MTV Movie Award for Best New Filmmaker.
Elaine H. Mandelbaum: Elaine Mandelbaum is a Managing Director and Deputy General Counsel of Citigroup Markets & Banking. She is the Head of the Regulatory Enforcement Group, which handles regulatory inquiries and related investigations, sweeps and enforcement proceedings, and works on a broad range of matters initiated by the SEC, Department of Justice, SRO's and other federal and state securities regulators. She was previously Deputy Head of Litigation, concentrating on litigation and regulatory investigations arising from Citigroup's investment banking, corporate banking and institutional sales and trading businesses. Prior to starting at Citigroup in 1997, Ms. Mandelbaum was a litigation attorney at the New York office of Jones, Day, Reavis & Pogue, and previously at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind Wharton & Garrison. She is a member NYSE Task Force on Electronic Communications and the SIFMA e-records subcommittee. She is a frequent speaker on topics relating to internal and regulatory investigations, document retention and electronic discovery. Ms. Mandelbaum is a graduate of Yale College and of Harvard Law School.
Professor Michael Meltsner: Professor Meltsner is the longest serving current member of the Legal Action Center Board, having been elected in October of 1975. Michael Meltsner is the George J. and Kathleen Waters Matthews distinguished University Professor at Northeastern University Law School where he has taught since 1984. He has been a visiting professor and the director of the Harvard Law School's First Year Lawyering program and a professor at Columbia Law school where he co-founded the School's first poverty law clinic. His teaching specialties include Constitutional Litigation, Criminal Law and Procedure, Clinical Education, Mediation and Negotiation. He previously served as dean of the law school from 1979 until 1984 and was the first assistant counsel to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund in the 1960s. Among his writings are five books: The Making of a Civil Rights Lawyer; Cruel and Unusual: The Supreme Court and Capital Punishment; Public Interest Advocacy; Toward Simulation in Legal Education: An Experimental Course in Pretrial Litigation; and Short Takes, a novel. He also cooauthered Reflections on Clinical Legal Education (with Philip Schrag ). He has also published numerous articles on legal topics. In 2000, Professor Meltsner was named a fellow of the American Academy in Berlin, and conducted research into German constitutional law.
Mark C. Morril, Esq.: Mr. Morril was elected to the Legal Action Center Board in March 1981. He is a member of the Development Committee. Mr. Morril formerly worked as a staff attorney at the Legal Action Center. He is currently the Vice President and Deputy General Counsel of Viacom Inc . He has been at Viacom since moving there in November of 1998 from the company's publishing subsidy, Simon & Schuster, where he had been General Counsel since July 1989. Mr. Morril has extensive experience in legal and policy matters including litigation, acquisitions, divestitures and corporate development, rights acquisition and management, electronic rights issues, Internet and on-line development, joint ventures and co-publishing ventures, labor and employment, copyright, trademark, antitrust, and regulatory and government affairs matters.
Mary Mulligan: Ms. Mulligan joined the Legal Action Center Board in February 2008. She is currently a partner at Friedman Kaplan Seiler & Adelman LLP and a member of the New York State Bar Association's Committee on White Collar Criminal Litigation. From 1997 to 2002, she served as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York and directed investigations and prosecutions of fraud, narcotics, public corruption and organized crime. During that time, she also led the government's largest Foreign Corrupt Practices Act investigation to date. Ms. Mulligan served as the Senior Director, Business and Legal Affairs, of Universal Music Group, handling corporate compliance matters, internal investigations, privacy issues and supervised litigation. She has represented individuals and corporations in cases involving allegations of insider trading, stock option backdating, internet fraud, and Medicaid fraud, and her intellectual property practice has included defending breach of contract and trade secrets claims and representing a major consumer electronics manufacturer in putative nationwide class actions.Ms. Mulligan graduated magna cum laude from Vanderbilt University in 1983. She received her law degree cum laude in 1989 from New York University School of Law, where she was a member of the Order of the Coif, held a Libel Defense Resource Center Fellowship, and received the American Jurisprudence Award in Administrative Law and the Moot Court Advocacy Award.
Dallas Pell was elected to the Board of Directors of the Legal Action Center in September 2005. Ms. Pell has a Masters of Arts in Education from Long Island University and a Bachelors of Arts in English Literature from Boston University. She has served on the Board of Directors for the Tony Award winning Trinity Repertory Company in Providence and is Vice-Chairman of Cliff Walk Commission. Ms. Pell has worked as Director for Pell Grants for Public Safety and as the Development Director for the National Museum of American Illustration. Ms. Pell is a passionate supporter of expanding educational opportunities for all, including people with criminal histories. She has volunteered her services to the Learning Leaders of New York City, where she worked with children of all ages to help them develop confidence and success in education. Her background also includes media work as producer, feature writer, literary agent, production Coordinator and staff writer for various companies, including In-flight Videos, Gulf Shore Life Magazine, John Brockman Association, September Productions and the Washington Gazette.
Ed Shaw: J. Edward Shaw joined the Board of the Legal Action Center in October, 2003. Mr. Shaw is a powerful and active member of the HIV/AIDS community. Having been diagnosed with HIV in 1988, Mr. Shaw has demonstrated through his activities the possibilities and dynamics of empowerment and how that assists in the management of HIV/AIDS. He has participated in hundreds of HIV/AIDS symposia, conferences, and workshops at both community and government levels. His leadership and voice is a constant in New York but also he has been heard at national forums. Most recently he was a keynote speaker at the US Conference on AIDS in California (2002). Over the past decade he has served in multiple leadership capacities including Community Co-Chair of the HIV Health and Human Services Planning Council of New York. During that same period he has been appointed to many community and government mandated groups. These groups include the New York City and New York State Prevention Planning Groups.
In addition to recently joining the Board of Directors of the Legal Action Center, Mr. Shaw currently serves as a member to the National Association on HIV Over 50, Vice Chair of the New York Association on HIV over 50. Mr. Shaw is also the Community Co-Chair of the NYS HIV Prevention Planning Group and serves as the Co-Chair to the Program Services Advisory Group at GMHC (Gay Men's Health Crisis).
Mr. Shaw also has valued affiliations in an advisory capacity with numerous local AIDS service organizations, including the Harlem Director's Group, ACRIA (AIDS Community Research Initiative of America).
Recently, much of his time had been involved with being a member of the Host Committee for the 2004 PWA Summit. This HIV/AIDS event is being held for the first time in New York City, the epicenter of the pandemic. His volunteer efforts at local hospitals, when time permits, have not gone unnoticed. Recently he was recognized for his 5000+ hours of volunteerism over the last several years.
Ed's education experience includes attendance at Cornell/Pace University with an emphasis on social activism. Prior to being diagnosed with HIV he worked with multiple city agencies in social work case management.
Jane Velez: Ms. Velez was elected to the Legal Action Center Board in May 1990. Jane Velez is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Palladia, Inc., formerly Project Return Foundation, Inc., where she has worked in various capacities since 1977. Ms. Velez has complete responsibility for administration and management of Palladia, Inc, one of the largest not-for-profit, multi-service agencies in the country. The organization aims to help individuals and families whose problems stem from substance abuse, homelessness, HIV disease, mental illness, criminality and/or domestic violence. Palladia offers its wide range of services along a continuum of care, from outreach, prevention and treatment through supportive, permanent housing. These services are designed to promote independence and responsible living. Palladia, Inc. pursues its mission by working in partnership with government, communities, academic institutions and the private sector. Ms. Velez is a member of a large number of organizations, dealing with a wide variety of social concerns, including domestic violence, homelessness, substance abuse, and AIDS.
B. Diane Williams:Ms. Williams was named President and Chief Executive Officer of Safer Foundation in February 1996. The Safer Foundation is one of the nation’s largest not-for-profit providers of employment placement and job readiness training exclusively targeting people with criminal records. Other educational and social services are provided in support of its employment programs. Under her leadership the Safer Foundation has incorporated the “What Works” principles adopting evidence-based program designs and evaluations. Under contract with the Illinois Department of Corrections, Safer manages two large adult transition centers with a total of 550 beds. University research acknowledges the success of these programs through low recidivism rates—Safer’s employment program boasts a 25.8-percentage point differential when compared with the same year Illinois State prison releases.
Ms. Williams has an undergraduate degree in Education and a Masters Degree in Business Administration from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. She has over 20 years of management experience in the telecommunications industry. Since her appointment to the Safer Foundation, Ms. Williams has served in consulting roles for the U.S. Department of Labor, Department of Justice, Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Council of State Governments Reentry Initiative and the National Treatment Plan Criminal Justice Workgroup of the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment. She is a member of the National H.I.R.E. Network Advisory Board, the American Correctional Association Delegate Assembly, and the Illinois Workforce Investment Board. She has served on the National Institute of Corrections Advisory Board and the Governor’s Statewide Task Force on Reentry. She is frequently called upon by the Urban Institute and other agencies to lead and participate in reentry programs and planning.
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Arthur L. Liman (1932-1997) chaired the Legal Action Center from its founding in 1972 until 1997. Inspired by Arthur’s legacy, the Legal Action Center continues to fight discrimination at every level of society, to pursue enlightened social policy, and to help people reclaim their lives and maintain their dignity. Arthur L. Liman received his B.A. from Harvard University in 1954, graduating Phi Beta Kappa, and received his law degree at the top of his class from Yale Law School in 1957. Immediately upon graduation from law school, he joined Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, eventually becoming a partner of the New York-based firm.
In addition to his trial work, Mr. Liman developed a long record of public service. In 1972, he was chief counsel of the New York State Commission on the Attica Prison uprising. In 1987, he served as chief counsel to the Senate Select Committee on Secret Military Assistance to Iran and Nicaraguan Opposition (the Iran-Contra Committee). From 1983 to 1985, he was a member of the New York State Executive Advisory Committee on Sentencing, appointed by then Governor Cuomo to recommend revisions of the state’s system for sentencing offenders. He was Chairman of the Appointments Committee of Mayor Dinkins and was the chairman of a panel appointed by Mayor Koch to investigate the conduct of the Medical Examiner’s office. Mr. Liman also served, at the appointment of the Chief Judge of New York, as chairman of the Capital Defender Office, which has the responsibility of organizing and providing the defense for indigents in capital cases. He began his government service as an Assistant United States Attorney to Robert M. Morgenthau from 1961-1963. Mr. Liman was a member of the Board of Overseers at Harvard from 1988-1994, as well as the eighteenth president of the Legal Aid Society from 1983 to 1985.
rtholet,Vice Chair
Stephanie Avakian | Eric D. Balber | Stephen C. Bell | Sandra Ruiz Butter | Suzanne B. Cusack | Stephen M. Cutler | Edward J. Davis | Jason Flom | Mary Beth Forshaw | Robert E. Fullilove | Beth L. Golden | Tino Hernandez | Brad S. Karp | Doug Liman | Elaine H. Mandelbaum | Michael Meltsner | Mark C. Morril | Mary E. Mulligan | William C. Paley | Dallas Pell | Ed Shaw | Jane Velez | B. Diane Williams
Arthur Liman, Founding Chairman
Daniel K. Mayers, Esq., Chairman: Mr. Mayers joined the Legal Action Center Board in October, 1978, was elected Chairman of the Board in 1998 and re-elected in 2001. Daniel Mayers is a recently retired senior partner in the Washington, D.C. law firm of Wilmer, Cutler and Pickering, which he joined in 1962 as an Associate. He became a partner in 1967, after spending two years serving as Assistant to Undersecretary of State George Ball. While actively practicing, Mr. Mayers had a broad antitrust litigation and negotiation practice, representing numerous clients in private antitrust litigation and in FTC and DOJ actions and investigations. He has represented Harvard University in a federal investigation and consent decree involving Ivy League financial aid, Intuit in negotiations with the Justice Department involving its acquisition by Microsoft, and the University of Utah in a federal investigation and consent decree involving health care issues. He currently chairs a joint program on election reform law being carried out at Harvard and American University Law Schools. He has served as Chairman of the Board of Directors of the National Symphony Orchestra, the Washington Educational Television Association, the Visiting Committee of the Board of Overseers of Harvard Law School, and the Sidwell Friends School. He currently serves on the boards of directors of Americans for Peace Now, the Federal City Council, the Community Foundation for the National Capital Area, and the Washington Tennis Foundation.
Professor Elizabeth Bartholet, Vice Chair: Professor Bartholet joined the Legal Action Center Board in October 1977 and was elected Vice Chair of the Board in 1998. Elizabeth Bartholet has been Morris Wasserstein Public Interest Professor of Law at Harvard Law School since 1996, where she has taught since 1977. Professor Bartholet was the Legal Action Center’s founding director and president until joining the Harvard faculty. She is the author of a large number of publications as well as a member of a number of committees and boards. Her areas of research interest include adoption, child welfare, and reproductive technology.
Eric D. Balber, Esq.: Eric Balber was elected to the Legal Action Center Board in June of 1981. Mr. Balber is a former staff attorney at the Legal Action Center and is currently a partner at Balber & Marshall.
Sandra Ruiz Butter: Ms. Ruiz Butter joined the Board of the Legal Action Center in October, 2003. Since 1992, Ms. Butter has been the President of VIP Community Services, a non-profit community based organization. During Ms. Ruiz Butter’s tenure, VIP has expanded its service programs to include HIV prevention, medical services, and supportive housing, in addition to maintaining its substance abuse treatment mission. During this period, VIP’s budget and staff have doubled. Prior to joining VIP, Ms. Ruiz Butter was a consultant on housing development assistance to profit and non-profit organizations; Vice President for Real Estate Development at Phipps Houses, one of the oldest non-profit real estate developers in the country; Vice President for Physical Development and previously, Director of Development at the South Bronx Development Organization; Vice President at the Starrett Development Corporation; Project Associate for the New York State Urban Development Corporation; and Special Assistant to the New York City Commissioner of Housing Development. Ms. Ruiz Butter is a member of the Advisory Board of WNET/Channel 13 and of the Enterprise Foundation’s New York Office; a Board Member of the New York State Association of Substance Abuse Providers (ASAP) and of the Latino Commission on AIDS. She has also served as Board Member and Secretary of the Legal Aid Society; the Chair and Board Member of the Puerto Rican Legal Defense & Education Fund; and a Board Member of both the Community Service Society and the New York State Board of Social Welfare.
Suzanne B. Cusack: Ms. Cusack was elected to the Legal Action Center Board in September 1996. She serves on the Board Development Committee. Suzanne Cusack, along with her husband Jim, is the owner and director of Veritas Villa, a free-standing inpatient rehabilitation center for alcohol and drug dependence, and is responsible for many of its administrative functions, as well as conducting educational lectures and acting as liaison between management and staff. Ms. Cusack is particularly interested in the issue of women’s substance abuse problems and the difficulties faced by women in recovery, and is the author of two books on the subject. Ms. Cusack has played a significant role in several organizations which focus on the issue of women and treatment, and was a founding member and past president of the New York Women’s Coalition on Chemical Dependency.
Stephen M. Cutler: Stephen M. Cutler is Executive Vice President and General Counsel of JPMorgan Chase and a member of the firm's Executive Committee and Operating Committee. Cutler joined the company in February 2007. Previously, he was a partner at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP and co-chair of the firm's Securities Department. From to 2001 to 2005, Cutler served as Director of the Securities and Exchange Commission's Division of Enforcement, where he oversaw the Commission’s investigations of Enron and WorldCom, as well as those involving NYSE specialists, research analyst conflicts and mutual fund market timing and revenue sharing. Before joining the SEC as Deputy Director of Enforcement in 1999, Cutler was a partner at Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering. Cutler is a 1985 graduate of Yale Law School, where he served as an editor of the Yale Law Journal, and a 1982 graduate (summa cum laude) of Yale University.
Edward J. Davis, Esq.: Mr. Davis was elected to the Legal Action Center Board in May 1998. He is Chair of the Board Development Committee. Mr. Davis worked as a staff attorney at the Legal Action Center from 1988 to 1993. He is now a Partner in the New York office of Davis Wright Tremaine LLP, where he specializes in First Amendment and intellectual property issues, complex business litigation and arbitration, and international human rights. Mr. Davis represented a national coalition of prominent museums and other cultural institutions in the First Amendment litigation over the City of New York's efforts to punish the Brooklyn Museum of Art for a controversial exhibit. Mr. Davis has chaired the Independent Judicial Screening Panel for the New York State Supreme Court and currently serves as Vice-Chair of the American Bar Association Committee on Media Law and Defamation Torts and Chair of the Committee on Copyright and Literary Property for the Association of the Bar of the City of New York.
Jason Flom: Mr. Flom was elected to the Legal Action Center Board in October 1999. Jason Flom has been the President of Lava Records since its founding in March 1995 and is a Senior Vice President at Atlantic Records. During his more than twenty years in the record industry, Mr. Flom has been responsible for signing a long list of hugely successful artists in a wide variety of rock genres. Mr. Flom is also a member of the Board of Directors of Families Against Mandatory Minimums, an organization which aims to abolish mandatory drug sentencing. On July 12, 1999, Mr. Flom was awarded the ACLU Foundation of Southern California’s Torch of Liberty Award, which is given to “individuals from the arts and entertainment industry and the media whose work affirms the democratic principles that underlie the promise of ‘liberty and justice for all.”
Mary Beth Forshaw: Mary Beth Forshaw is a Partner at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP where she is a member of the Firm's Litigation Department. She represents and advises clients in a broad range of commercial disputes, including matters involving insurance coverage, reinsurance, bankruptcy, lender liability, securities fraud, and product liability.
Ms. Forshaw has represented third party liability insurers and first party insurers in myriad litigations and arbitrations involving asbestos and pollution including, most recently, ACandS vs. Travelers Casualty & Surety Company (2004 WL 2075117), in which an arbitration panel found that her client had no obligation to provide non-products coverage to an insulation installer. She has also represented ceding insurers in several significant lawsuits involving reinsurance issues, including Cigna Re (52 F.2d 1994) and Unigard (79 N.Y.2d 576; 4 F.3d 1049). She has also represented insurers' interests in various asbestos-related Chapter 11 proceedings, including In re ACandS (297 B.R. 395), in which her client defeated confirmation of a Plan of Reorganization. Ms. Forshaw also has conducted investigations of managing general agents, their binding of personal accident covers, and potential participation in spirals. She has acted as counsel to various banks and financial institutions in actions involving allegations of fraudulent conveyance and securities fraud. See, e.g., In Re Best Products, 168 B.R. 35; Ceres v. Shearson Lehman, 642 N.Y.S.2d 264. She is a contributor to General Practice in New York (West Publishing, Spring 1998), Law and Practice of Insurance Coverage Litigation (West Publishing 2000) and Modern Reinsurance Law and Practice (Glasser LegalWorks 1995).
Ms. Forshaw received her B.A. magna cum laude in 1984 from Barnard College where she was elected Phi Beta Kappa. She received her J.D. in 1989 from Yale Law School where she was a member of the Yale Law & Policy Review and was Director of the Jerome N. Frank Legal Services Project. Ms. Forshaw is admitted to practice in New York and its various district courts, Connecticut and the U. S. Courts of Appeals for the Second, Third, Seventh, Tenth and District of Columbia Circuits. She is a member of the American Bar Association, the New York State Bar Association and the Bar Association of the City of New York.
Brad S. Karp, Esq.: Mr. Karp was elected to the Legal Action Center Board in July 1998. He is a member of the Development Committee. Brad Karp is a partner in the Litigation Department and Chair-elect of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, and co-chair of the firm's Securities, Futures and Derivatives Group. His practice has been widely diversified, with concentration in the areas of intellectual property, complex securities and business matters, and white collar criminal defense. Mr. Karp is a frequent lecturer on business litigation and securities and intellectual property issues. For more than fifteen years, he has written a monthly column for the New York Law Journal, entitled "Second Circuit Review," which discusses significant decisions and analyzes developments in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. In addition, Mr. Karp has authored numerous articles on business litigation issues. Mr. Karp is a member of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, where he has served on several committees, and a member of the Institute of Judicial Administration. He also sits on the board of directors of Practicing Attorneys for Law Students Program, Inc.
Doug Liman: Mr. Liman was elected to the Legal Action Center Board in May 1998. Doug Liman, son of the Legal Action Center’s Founding Chairman, Arthur Liman, is the Director and Cinematographer of two successful recent films, Swingers (1996) and Go (1999) and director and co-producer of Universal Pictures' 2002 hit film The Bourne Identity starring Matt Damon. He was involved in the creation of Propaganda Independent, through which he directed cutting edge commercials for Levi's and Sony. He was also the founder of Nibblebox and is the Vice Chairman of Hypnotic. In 1997, he received an MTV Movie Award for Best New Filmmaker.
Elaine H. Mandelbaum: Elaine Mandelbaum is a Managing Director and Deputy General Counsel of Citigroup Markets & Banking. She is the Head of the Regulatory Enforcement Group, which handles regulatory inquiries and related investigations, sweeps and enforcement proceedings, and works on a broad range of matters initiated by the SEC, Department of Justice, SRO's and other federal and state securities regulators. She was previously Deputy Head of Litigation, concentrating on litigation and regulatory investigations arising from Citigroup's investment banking, corporate banking and institutional sales and trading businesses. Prior to starting at Citigroup in 1997, Ms. Mandelbaum was a litigation attorney at the New York office of Jones, Day, Reavis & Pogue, and previously at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind Wharton & Garrison. She is a member NYSE Task Force on Electronic Communications and the SIFMA e-records subcommittee. She is a frequent speaker on topics relating to internal and regulatory investigations, document retention and electronic discovery. Ms. Mandelbaum is a graduate of Yale College and of Harvard Law School.
Professor Michael Meltsner: Professor Meltsner is the longest serving current member of the Legal Action Center Board, having been elected in October of 1975. Michael Meltsner is the George J. and Kathleen Waters Matthews distinguished University Professor at Northeastern University Law School where he has taught since 1984. He has been a visiting professor and the director of the Harvard Law School's First Year Lawyering program and a professor at Columbia Law school where he co-founded the School's first poverty law clinic. His teaching specialties include Constitutional Litigation, Criminal Law and Procedure, Clinical Education, Mediation and Negotiation. He previously served as dean of the law school from 1979 until 1984 and was the first assistant counsel to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund in the 1960s. Among his writings are five books: The Making of a Civil Rights Lawyer; Cruel and Unusual: The Supreme Court and Capital Punishment; Public Interest Advocacy; Toward Simulation in Legal Education: An Experimental Course in Pretrial Litigation; and Short Takes, a novel. He also cooauthered Reflections on Clinical Legal Education (with Philip Schrag ). He has also published numerous articles on legal topics. In 2000, Professor Meltsner was named a fellow of the American Academy in Berlin, and conducted research into German constitutional law.
Mark C. Morril, Esq.: Mr. Morril was elected to the Legal Action Center Board in March 1981. He is a member of the Development Committee. Mr. Morril formerly worked as a staff attorney at the Legal Action Center. He is currently the Vice President and Deputy General Counsel of Viacom Inc . He has been at Viacom since moving there in November of 1998 from the company's publishing subsidy, Simon & Schuster, where he had been General Counsel since July 1989. Mr. Morril has extensive experience in legal and policy matters including litigation, acquisitions, divestitures and corporate development, rights acquisition and management, electronic rights issues, Internet and on-line development, joint ventures and co-publishing ventures, labor and employment, copyright, trademark, antitrust, and regulatory and government affairs matters.
Mary Mulligan: Ms. Mulligan joined the Legal Action Center Board in February 2008. She is currently a partner at Friedman Kaplan Seiler & Adelman LLP and a member of the New York State Bar Association's Committee on White Collar Criminal Litigation. From 1997 to 2002, she served as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York and directed investigations and prosecutions of fraud, narcotics, public corruption and organized crime. During that time, she also led the government's largest Foreign Corrupt Practices Act investigation to date. Ms. Mulligan served as the Senior Director, Business and Legal Affairs, of Universal Music Group, handling corporate compliance matters, internal investigations, privacy issues and supervised litigation. She has represented individuals and corporations in cases involving allegations of insider trading, stock option backdating, internet fraud, and Medicaid fraud, and her intellectual property practice has included defending breach of contract and trade secrets claims and representing a major consumer electronics manufacturer in putative nationwide class actions.Ms. Mulligan graduated magna cum laude from Vanderbilt University in 1983. She received her law degree cum laude in 1989 from New York University School of Law, where she was a member of the Order of the Coif, held a Libel Defense Resource Center Fellowship, and received the American Jurisprudence Award in Administrative Law and the Moot Court Advocacy Award.
Dallas Pell was elected to the Board of Directors of the Legal Action Center in September 2005. Ms. Pell has a Masters of Arts in Education from Long Island University and a Bachelors of Arts in English Literature from Boston University. She has served on the Board of Directors for the Tony Award winning Trinity Repertory Company in Providence and is Vice-Chairman of Cliff Walk Commission. Ms. Pell has worked as Director for Pell Grants for Public Safety and as the Development Director for the National Museum of American Illustration. Ms. Pell is a passionate supporter of expanding educational opportunities for all, including people with criminal histories. She has volunteered her services to the Learning Leaders of New York City, where she worked with children of all ages to help them develop confidence and success in education. Her background also includes media work as producer, feature writer, literary agent, production Coordinator and staff writer for various companies, including In-flight Videos, Gulf Shore Life Magazine, John Brockman Association, September Productions and the Washington Gazette.
Ed Shaw: J. Edward Shaw joined the Board of the Legal Action Center in October, 2003. Mr. Shaw is a powerful and active member of the HIV/AIDS community. Having been diagnosed with HIV in 1988, Mr. Shaw has demonstrated through his activities the possibilities and dynamics of empowerment and how that assists in the management of HIV/AIDS. He has participated in hundreds of HIV/AIDS symposia, conferences, and workshops at both community and government levels. His leadership and voice is a constant in New York but also he has been heard at national forums. Most recently he was a keynote speaker at the US Conference on AIDS in California (2002). Over the past decade he has served in multiple leadership capacities including Community Co-Chair of the HIV Health and Human Services Planning Council of New York. During that same period he has been appointed to many community and government mandated groups. These groups include the New York City and New York State Prevention Planning Groups.
In addition to recently joining the Board of Directors of the Legal Action Center, Mr. Shaw currently serves as a member to the National Association on HIV Over 50, Vice Chair of the New York Association on HIV over 50. Mr. Shaw is also the Community Co-Chair of the NYS HIV Prevention Planning Group and serves as the Co-Chair to the Program Services Advisory Group at GMHC (Gay Men's Health Crisis).
Mr. Shaw also has valued affiliations in an advisory capacity with numerous local AIDS service organizations, including the Harlem Director's Group, ACRIA (AIDS Community Research Initiative of America).
Recently, much of his time had been involved with being a member of the Host Committee for the 2004 PWA Summit. This HIV/AIDS event is being held for the first time in New York City, the epicenter of the pandemic. His volunteer efforts at local hospitals, when time permits, have not gone unnoticed. Recently he was recognized for his 5000+ hours of volunteerism over the last several years.
Ed's education experience includes attendance at Cornell/Pace University with an emphasis on social activism. Prior to being diagnosed with HIV he worked with multiple city agencies in social work case management.
Jane Velez: Ms. Velez was elected to the Legal Action Center Board in May 1990. Jane Velez is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Palladia, Inc., formerly Project Return Foundation, Inc., where she has worked in various capacities since 1977. Ms. Velez has complete responsibility for administration and management of Palladia, Inc, one of the largest not-for-profit, multi-service agencies in the country. The organization aims to help individuals and families whose problems stem from substance abuse, homelessness, HIV disease, mental illness, criminality and/or domestic violence. Palladia offers its wide range of services along a continuum of care, from outreach, prevention and treatment through supportive, permanent housing. These services are designed to promote independence and responsible living. Palladia, Inc. pursues its mission by working in partnership with government, communities, academic institutions and the private sector. Ms. Velez is a member of a large number of organizations, dealing with a wide variety of social concerns, including domestic violence, homelessness, substance abuse, and AIDS.
B. Diane Williams:Ms. Williams was named President and Chief Executive Officer of Safer Foundation in February 1996. The Safer Foundation is one of the nation’s largest not-for-profit providers of employment placement and job readiness training exclusively targeting people with criminal records. Other educational and social services are provided in support of its employment programs. Under her leadership the Safer Foundation has incorporated the “What Works” principles adopting evidence-based program designs and evaluations. Under contract with the Illinois Department of Corrections, Safer manages two large adult transition centers with a total of 550 beds. University research acknowledges the success of these programs through low recidivism rates—Safer’s employment program boasts a 25.8-percentage point differential when compared with the same year Illinois State prison releases.
Ms. Williams has an undergraduate degree in Education and a Masters Degree in Business Administration from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. She has over 20 years of management experience in the telecommunications industry. Since her appointment to the Safer Foundation, Ms. Williams has served in consulting roles for the U.S. Department of Labor, Department of Justice, Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Council of State Governments Reentry Initiative and the National Treatment Plan Criminal Justice Workgroup of the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment. She is a member of the National H.I.R.E. Network Advisory Board, the American Correctional Association Delegate Assembly, and the Illinois Workforce Investment Board. She has served on the National Institute of Corrections Advisory Board and the Governor’s Statewide Task Force on Reentry. She is frequently called upon by the Urban Institute and other agencies to lead and participate in reentry programs and planning.
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Arthur L. Liman (1932-1997) chaired the Legal Action Center from its founding in 1972 until 1997. Inspired by Arthur’s legacy, the Legal Action Center