The Committee For Modern Courts
Officers and Board of Directors

The Committee for Modern Courts, the lobbying and advocacy affiliate of the Fund for Modern Courts, is a private, nonpartisan nonprofit organization organized under § 501(c)(4) of the Internal Revenue Code. The Committee lobbies for legislation designed to improve the administration of justice in New York. Contributions to the Committee for Modern Courts are not tax-deductible.

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

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.

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).

Hon. John R. Dunne
Partner, Whiteman Osterman & Hanna, specializing in Insurance Law; Environmental Law; Civil Rights; Appellate Law. Member: Nassau County (President, 1967), New York State (Member, House of Delegates, 1972-1977), and American (Member, House of Delegates, 1973-1976) Bar Associations; District of Columbia Bar. Phi Delta Phi; Alpha Sigma Nu. New York State Senator, 1966-1989. Deputy Majority Leader, 1987-1988. Assistant Attorney General, U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, 1990-1993. Chair, New York State Capital Defender Office, 1997-1999. Member, New York State Judicial Screening Committee. President, Nassau County Legal Aid Society.

SECRETARY

Catherine J. Douglass
Executive Director, InMotion

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*

Laura C. Altschuler League of Women Voters of New York City Lenore H. Banks League of Women Voters of New York State John P. Bracken Bracken & Margolin Gary S. Brown Commissioner, Westchester Department of Consumer Affairs Sol Neil Corbin Taylor, Colicchio, & Silverman Peter A. Cross Jacob Medinger & Finnegan Matthew T. Crosson The Long Island Association Haliburton Fales Kevin J. Farrelly Law Offices of Kevin J. Farrelly Robert L. Haig Kelley Drye & Warren Elizabeth B. Hubbard   *Affiliations for identification purposes only.

Hon. Franz S. Leichter Former NYS Senator Hon. Howard A. Levine Whiteman Osterman & Hanna Richard B. Long Coughlin & Gerhart Hon. E. Leo Milonas Pillsbury Winthrop Arthur B. Newman The Blackstone Group Joan T. Photiadis League of Women Voters of New York State Bettina B. Plevan Proskauer Rose Hon. John T. Racanelli Helga A. Schroeter Samuel Whitney Seymour Sullivan & Cromwell Donald Shack Blank Rome LLP Shirley Adelson Siegel Evelyn M. Stock League of Women Voters of New York State Justin L. Vigdor Boylan, Brown, Code, Vigdor & Wilson Hon. Ruth Jane Zuckerman Fordham University School of Law