Election of Council Members Set for
Monday, May 18
When Gerhard Casper, Chair of the Nominating Committee, reports to the members at the Annual Meeting Opening Session on Monday, May 18, he will move before the assembly the Council’s nominations for election to the Council. After careful consideration over two meetings, the Nominating Committee recommended the addition of seven new Council members and the reelection of six current Council members. The Council recently nominated all 13 candidates recommended by the Committee.
The proposed new Council members include three judges (one of whom is also an academic), three lawyers practicing in large firms, and one lawyer working as general counsel for a public educational system. The seven candidates range in age from 47 to 61, with an average age of just under 55. The new nominees are:
- John H. Beisner, Washington, D.C. Mr. Beisner, a partner at O’Melveny & Myers, chairs the firm’s class actions, mass torts, and aggregated litigation practice. He is as an Adviser on the ALI’s Aggregate Litigation project. Mr. Beisner’s J.D. is from the University of Michigan, and his B.A. is from the University of Kansas.
- Mary B. Cranston, San Francisco, CA. Ms. Cranston is immediate past chair of her firm, Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, where her specialties include litigation and counseling in complex class actions, antitrust, regulated industries, and securities. Her J.D. and A.B. are from Stanford; she also holds an M.A. from UCLA.
- Derek P. Langhauser, South Portland, ME. Mr. Langhauser is General Counsel of the Maine Community College System; he also serves part-time as Special Counsel to Maine Senator Olympia Snowe. His J.D. is from the University of Maine, his B.A. from Bates College.
- Gerard E. Lynch, New York, NY. Judge Lynch, who has been serving on the U.S. District Court in Manhattan since 2000, is also a law professor at Columbia University. He was recently nominated to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit by President Obama. Judge Lynch is an Adviser to the ALI’s sentencing project and served on the ALI ad hoc committee on the death penalty. His J.D. and B.A. are both from Columbia.
- M. Margaret McKeown, San Diego, CA. Judge McKeown has been serving on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit since 1998. Before that, she was a partner at Perkins Coie in Seattle, where she specialized in intellectual property and complex litigation. She served as an Adviser on the ALI’s recently completed project on international intellectual property. Judge McKeown, a graduate of the University of Wyoming, has a J.D. from Georgetown.
- David W. Rivkin, New York, NY. Mr. Rivkin, a partner at Debevoise & Plimpton, practices primarily in the areas of international litigation and arbitration, and currently heads the firm’s international disputes resolution group. He was an Adviser on the ALI’s Principles of Transnational Civil Procedure project. Both his undergraduate and law degrees are from Yale.
- Elizabeth S. Stong, Brooklyn, NY. Judge Stong has served on the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Brooklyn since 2003. Before that she was a partner at Willkie Farr & Gallagher in New York, where she handled complex federal and state litigation in areas including securities, corporate, employment, and ERISA; she has also served as a mediator and arbitrator. Judge Stong serves as an Adviser for the ALI’s Transnational Insolvency: Principles of Cooperation project, and holds undergraduate and law degrees from Harvard.
The Council has nominated each of the following current Council members for reelection to the Council:
- William M. Burke, Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton, Costa Mesa, CA
- Elizabeth J. Cabraser, Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein,
San Francisco, CA - Christine M. Durham, Supreme Court of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT
- Geoffrey C. Hazard, Jr., University of California, Hastings College of the Law, San Francisco, CA; University of Pennsylvania Law School, Philadelphia, PA
- Carolyn B. Lamm, White & Case, Washington, DC
- Margaret H. Marshall, Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts,
Boston, MA
The new ALI governance structure that became effective last May provides that new Council terms are for five years with a three-term limit. The new structure also provides “transition rules” for rotating off the Council those who were on the Council at the time the new structure went into effect. Thus, each year through 2022, several long-serving Council members will transition to emeritus status. Judges Louis H. Pollak, Patricia M. Wald, and William H. Webster will move into that esteemed class this May, and at the end of 2009 Judge Michael Boudin plans to join them (by his request about five months earlier than he would otherwise transition). Council emeriti may attend Council meetings and events but are not Council members and may not vote.
If the 13 candidates recommended by the Nominating Committee are elected by the membership at the Opening Session on May 18, then at the end of 2009 (assuming that no other relevant changes occur during the calendar year), Council membership will then stand at 57, with 18 Council emeriti. ALI’s Bylaws provide that the Council must have 42 to 65 members; there is no limit on the number of emeriti.
The Nominating Committee thanks those ALI members who recommended names for consideration for the Council. All such recommendations have been carefully considered, and some remain on an active list of potential future candidates. For information on how to suggest names to the Committee, please visit www.ali.org, click on “About ALI,” then “Committees,” then “Nominating.”