Kenneth R. Feinberg to Speak at ASL on March 18, 2013

Nationally Known Administrator of the Gulf Coast Claims Facility, Kenneth R. Feinberg,

to Speak at ASL on March 18, 2013

Kenneth R. Feinberg, a nationally recognized attorney and leader in arbitration, mediation, and other alternative dispute resolution processes will speak with ASL students, faculty, and staff about the important roles he has played in resolving claims in very high-profile situations.  ASL invites the public to attend.    He will speak, by video-conference, in the Booth Center Classroom, 2d Floor, from 4:30 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.  For more information, contact Professor Paula Marie Young at pyoung@asl.edu. 

From 2010 to 2013, Feinberg served as the Administrator of the Gulf Coast Claims Facility, handling hundreds of thousands of claims for damages arising from the blowout of the BP oil well located in the Gulf of Mexico.  He handled claims for lost jobs, lost wages, reduced business income, and other hard-to-prove costs resulting from oil contamination of the waters and surrounding lands.

Earlier, he served as the Special Master for TARP Executive Compensation responsible for determining annual compensation packages for senior corporate officials at companies that received the most taxpayer financial assistance following the 2008 market collapse.  

As Special Master of the Federal September 11th Victim Compensation Fund of 2001, he engaged in a precedent setting effort to compensation victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks through an arbitration process that avoided the cost and delays of traditional tort litigation.  Nearly all the families affected by that tragedy opted to use the process.   

More closely to home, he served as the Fund Administrator responsible for the Hokie Spirit Memorial Fund following the tragic shootings at Virginia Tech University in 2007.  In that role, similar to the one he played for the victims of the 9/11 terrorism attack, he allocated the funds donated from many sources to compensate the families affected by the deaths of their loved ones. 

 

He has also had unique opportunities to serve as:

·         One of three arbitrators selected to determine the fair market value of the original Zapruder film of the Kennedy assassination.

• One of two arbitrators selected to determine the allocation of legal fees in the Holocaust slave labor litigation.


• A member of the Presidential Advisory Commission on Human Radiation Experiments from 1994 to 1998.


• A member of the Presidential Commission on Catastrophic Nuclear Accidents from 1989 to 1990. 

His peers have recognized his contribution to the field by designating him “Lawyer of the Year” in the National Law Journal (December, 2004) and listing him in “Profiles in Power:  The 100 Most Influential Lawyers in America” (National Law Journal,  May 2, 1988; March 25, 1991; April 4, 1994; June 12, 2000; June 19, 2006). 

He has authored two books:  What is Life Worth? The Unprecedented Effort to Compensate the Victims of 9/11 (Public Affairs 2005) and Who Gets What: Fair Compensation after Tragedy and Financial Upheaval (2012).

Mr. Feinberg is the managing partner of Feinberg Rozen, LLP.  He  received his B.A. cum laude from the University of Massachusetts in 1967 and his J.D. from New York University School of Law in 1970.  He clerked for Chief Judge Stanley H. Fuld, New York State Court of Appeals from 1970 to 1972; served as Assistant United States Attorney, Southern District of New York from 1972 to 1975; served as Special Counsel, United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary from 1975 to 1980; and acted as Administrative Assistant to Senator Edward M. Kennedy from 1977 to 1979.