Officers & Board of Directors

CHAIR

Victor A. Kovner
Partner, Davis, Wright, Tremaine, LLP, specializing in Communications Law and Civil Litigation. Recipient of the Jerome Michael Award and the E.B. Converse Prize. Current Member, New York State Commission on Public Access; past Member, New York City Mayor's Committee on the Judiciary; past Member and Chair, New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct; Former Corporation Counsel, City of New York, 1990-1991.

PAST CHAIRS

Fern Schair
Senior Vice President, the American Arbitration Association;
President, Board of Directors of Legal Services of New York City. Currently Vice Chair, Committee on Women and The Courts and President of the Children's Law Center; and Member of the Board, American Judicature Society. Has served as Executive Secretary and Chief Administrative Officer of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, and as Program Development Officer for the Soros Foundation-Open Society Institute.

Michael A. Cardozo
Corporation Counsel, City of New York; formerly Partner, Proskauer Rose LLP; past President of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York; former Chair, New York State Committee on Judicial Administration; former Chair, New York State Appellate Division Task Force.

Edwin F. Chinlund (1890-1960)
Vice President and Treasurer of R.H. Macy & Co.; President of Postal Telegraph; Partner, Arthur Andersen.  Chair of the Finance Committee of the Board of the National Urban League; a Trustee of Citizens Budget Commission; Member of the Executive Committee of Citizens Union.

John D. Feerick
Professor and former Dean, Fordham University School of Law; former Chair, Board of Directors, American Arbitration Association; past President, Association of the Bar of the City of New York; former Chair, New York State Commission on Government Integrity; past President, Board of Directors, Citizens Union Foundation.

Robert M. Kaufman
Partner, Proskauer Rose LLP; United States Chairman of the Board of the Pirelli Group; past President, American Judicature Society; past President, Association of the Bar of the City of New York; member, judicial selection committee of Senator Daniel P. Moynihan; former legislative assistant to Senator Jacob K. Javits.

Robert MacCrate
Senior Counsel, Sullivan & Cromwell; past President, American Bar Foundation; past President, American Bar Association; past President, American Judicature Society; past President, New York State Bar Association and the New York Bar Foundation; former Counsel to Governor Nelson Rockefeller.

John J. McCloy (1895 - 1989)
International banker, lawyer and diplomat who was an advisor to U.S. Presidents from Franklin D. Roosevelt to Ronald Reagan.  President of the World Bank.  Chair of the Board of Chase Manhattan Bank.  Member, Milbank, Tweed, Hope, Hadley & McCloy, and also Member, Cravath, DeGersdorff, Swaine & Wood.  Chair of the Boards of the Ford Foundation, the Council on Foreign Relations, and International House. 

Cyrus R. Vance (1917 - 2002)
Secretary of State from 1977 to 1980.  Deputy of Defense under Robert McNamara, and international negotiator deployed by President Lyndon B. Johnson to Panama, Cyprus, and South Korea.  Member of Simpson Thatcher & Bartlett.  Chair of the Board of the Rockefeller Foundation, Vice Chair of the Council on Foreign Relations, and member of the United Nations Association and Trilateral Commission.

VICE CHAIRS

Milton L. Williams, Jr., Chair of Executive Committee
Associate General Counsel/Litigation Counsel at Time Inc., former Assistant United States Attorney at the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York and Assistant District Attorney at the New York County District Attorney's Office, Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of Sponsors for Educational Opportunity (SEO).

Peter A. Cross
Managing Partner, Jacob Medinger and Finnegan.  Leader of the general litigation group and member of the entertainment practice group.  Board Member and Treasurer, Alliance of Resident Theatres/New York; Board Member - Brooklyn Legal Services, Corportation 'A'; Mediator, U.S. District Court, SDNY; Former Senior Litigation Counsel, ITT.   

SECRETARY

Daniel R. Alonso
Partner, Kaye Scholer, LLP; former Chief of the Criminal Division in the US Attorney's Office for the Eastern District; adjunct professor at Brooklyn Law School; former Assistant District Attorney in New York County; Recipient Henry L. Stimson Medal awarded by the Association of the Bar of the City of New York; Member, Hispanic National Bar Association, New York City Bar Association, Advisory Group to the New York State- Federal Judicial Conference

TREASURER

Jay G. Safer
Partner, Lord Bissell & Brook LLP. Member, NYS Bar Association; Chair, Association of the Bar of The City of New York’s Task Force on Restructuring of the New York Court System; former Chair, New York State Bar Association’s Commercial and Federal Litigation Section.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS*

Joseph P. Armao Linklaters Preeta Bansal Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom Nina Beattie Brune & Richard LLP Sheila L. Birnbaum Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom Barry Bohrer Morvillo, Abramowitz, Grand, Iason, Anello & Bohrer Vernon Broderick Weil, Gotshal & Manges Andrew Ceresney Debevoise & Plimpton Dean Mary C. Daly St. John's University School of Law Catherine J. Douglass InMotion Jeremy G. Epstein Shearman & Sterling Paul G. Gardephe Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler Richard Girgenti Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler   Howard A. Glickstein Touro College, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center   Dean Thomas F. Guernsey Albany Law School Robert Haig Kelley Drye & Warren LLP Caitlin Halligan Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP Jeh Charles Johnson Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison   David Kelley Cahill Gordon & Reindel Alfreida B. Kenny, Esq. John J. Kirby Jr. Latham & Watkins Glenn Lau-Kee Koo Larrabee Lau-Kee & Lane Harlan Levy Boies, Schiller & Flexner, LLP

Vincent A. Maffeo ITT Corporation Douglass B. Maynard Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld Thomas McC Souther Sidley Austin LLP E. Leo Milonas Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Whitman Hon. Milton Mollen Herrick Feinstein Daniel R. Murdock Patton Boggs Muriel Neufeld Nassau County Court Monitors Arthur B. Newman The Blackstone Group Robert C. Newman Legal Aid Society Alan I. Raylesberg Chadbourne & Parke Roy L. Reardon Simpson Thacher & Bartlett Jeffrey Rosenthal Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton Catherine Samuels Sharon Schneier Davis Wright Tremaine LLP Donald D. Shack Blank Rome Margaret L. Shaw ADR Associates/JAMS John Siegal Proskauer Rose LLP Richard H. Silberberg Dorsey & Whitney Amelia Starr Davis Polk & Wardwell Michael J.D. Sweeney Law Office of Dan Getman Cyrus R. Vance, Jr. Morvillo, Abramowitz, Grand, Iason, Anello & Bohrer Michael Weinstein Ark Restaurants Cynthia Weissblum Rivera Edwin Gould Foundation *Affiliations for identification purposes only.