The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation (LMDC), the joint State-City corporation formed to oversee the revitalization and rebuilding of Lower Manhattan, announced today that attorney Ira M. Millstein will serve, pro bono, as Counsel to the Board of LMDC.
The announcement was made by John C. Whitehead, Chairman of the LMDC Board of Directors.
Commenting on the announcement, Mr. Whitehead said, "I am delighted that an attorney of Ira's national and international standing has accepted my invitation to become Counsel to the Board and that he asked to serve pro bono. The LMDC is only one of many pro bono and philanthropic organizations that Ira has served during his 51-year career with the law firm of Weil, Gotshal & Manges. Our Board has been appointed by the Governor and the Mayor to lead the rebuilding and revitalizing efforts for lower Manhattan and Ira's wise counsel will be of great benefit to the Board in the many tasks involved in this major undertaking."
Mr. Millstein added, "Serving the LMDC enables me to continue to repay this great city where my wife and I and my parents were born and raised, and where my career flourished." Mr. Millstein was educated at P.S. 165, the Bronx High School of Science, Columbia College and Columbia Law School.
Background:
Ira Millstein's legal career in government regulation, commercial relations, and corporate governance spans five decades, during which he advised clients such as General Motors, General Electric, Olympia & York, Macy's, and Empire Blue Cross, among others.
He has also worked pro bono for numerous philanthropic and educational organizations, including: Life Trustee & former Chairman (1991-2000) of the Central Park Conservancy; Chairman of Parks 2001 (2001-), a city-wide coalition advocating attention to all New York parks; Counsel to the New York City Holocaust Memorial Commission, which created the Museum of Jewish Heritage; Chairman of the New York City Partnership Policy Center (1997-), which led to the establishment of the Structural Biology Center, a center on the City College campus in which New York City's major medical institutions
joined together to conduct pioneering medical research.
Mr. Millstein served as Special Advisor & Counsel to the New York City
Administration during the fiscal crisis of the 1970's, and chaired the
Special Commission which investigated the cause of the 1977 blackout in New York City. He also served as Chairman of the New York State's Pension Investment Task Force, which helped generate pension fund activism in corporate governance.
His educational activities since the 1970's include chairing the Executive
Committee of the Board of Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and as pro bono Counsel to it and its parent, Yeshiva University. Yeshiva University awarded him an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters. Mr. Millstein has taught at New York University, Columbia University, Harvard University, and is currently the Eugene F. Williams Jr. Visiting Professor in Competitive Enterprise & Strategy at Yale University's School of Management. He is an Elected Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Mr. Millstein was appointed to serve on special U.S. Commissions by
President Nixon and Carter and served as Chairman of American and New York State Bar Association sections. He currently serves on a number of educational and not-for-profit boards.
Mr. Millstein retired from the management of Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP in 1999 and does not participate as a percentage partner in the firm's net income. He has remained with the firm to practice with certain established clients and to continue his many philanthropic and educational activities.
He will not seek any fees for his services to LMDC.
