A.A. Sommer, Jr. annual lecture on corporate securities & financial law: Post-Enron America: An SEC perspective, The

Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law, 2003 by Goldschmid, Harvey

WELCOMING REMARKS

DEAN TREANOR: Good evening, everyone. My name is Bill Treanor. I am the Dean of Fordham Law School, and I would like to welcome you.

This is, as you know, the Third Annual A.A. Sommer, Jr. Corporate Securities & Financial Law Lecture.

I can tell you, as the Dean of the Law School for four months, I am very aware of what a busy place this is and that this lecture hall is in use virtually every night. But tonight's event stands out. Tonight's event is a moment of great distinction, and I, like the rest of you, am very excited to be here tonight.

Our lecturer is, of course, Harvey Goldschmid, Commissioner of the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"), and it is a real privilege to have Commissioner Goldschmid speak to us tonight. He is a giant in legal academia. He is an award-winning law professor. At the SEC he is at the very heart of the securities world, and it is a privilege for us to have him here tonight.

I would like to acknowledge the law firm of Morgan, Lewis & Bockius ("Morgan Lewis") for its role in tonight's events. The firm has been extraordinarily helpful to the Law School. Through its support, we have started a Corporate Securities and Financial Law Center that is now really taking off under the directorship of Professor Jill Fisch. It is one of the most exciting developments at the Law School in my tenure as a faculty member and now as Dean, and I am grateful to the firm for its support, and I am particularly grateful for its generosity in supporting the lecture.

This again is our third annual A.A. Sommer, Jr. Lecture. It has become in a very short period of time one of the most central contributions to the academic world that the Law School makes. It is a tribute to A.A. Sommer, Jr., who was a giant in the field of securities law. As Commissioner Goldschmid was saying to me earlier tonight, this lecture series is really a very fitting tribute to him.

Tonight we are joined by Mr. Sommer's widow, Starr Sommer, and his daughter, Susie Futter. We are delighted that you are here tonight, and we are delighted that we could pay tribute to A.A. Sommer, Jr.

I am now going to turn matters over to one of our most distinguished alumni, John F.X. Peloso, Fordham class of 1960 and also one of the great resources of our Corporate Center. Through his energy and commitment, it has really taken off, and he is also one of the great stars of our adjunct faculty. We appreciate here at the Law School his loyalty, his commitment, and his vision. The Corporate Center, I think, is going to become a major player in the world of corporate law and the world of securities law. It is going to be and has become a real brain trust. So thank you, John, for helping make it possible.

John is currently Senior Counsel in the New York office of Morgan Lewis. He is a renowned trial lawyer whose career has been dedicated to the many aspects of securities litigation. Following graduation from our Law School, where he was managing editor of the Fordham Law Review, he served as law clerk to Judge McGowan of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. From 1961 to 1965 he served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of New York, and from 1970 to 1975 he was chief trial counsel for the New York Regional Office of the Securities and Exchange Commission.

He has been a leader of the organized bar, holding important positions in the Business Law and Litigation Sections of the American Bar Association. He is presently on the panel of arbitrators for the New York Stock Exchange, the National Association of Securities Dealers, and is a distinguished neutral of the CPR Institute for Dispute Resolution.

As I said, John Peloso is currently Senior Counsel at Morgan Lewis, and he was originally brought to the firm by A.A. Sommer, Jr. So it is very appropriate that I now turn matters over to him.

PROFESSOR PELOSO: Thank you, Dean Treanor. With that introduction, I feel obliged to give a speech.

Actually, my role is very brief here this evening, which is simply, on behalf of Morgan Lewis, to welcome you to the Third Annual A.A. Sommer, Jr. Lecture.

As many of you out there know, this lecture was established three years ago by Morgan Lewis as a way of interacting with Fordham Law School to encourage interest in securities and financial law and as a stimulus for the creation of the Center for Corporate Securities and Financial Law here at the school, which has now really gotten off the ground.

We thought that a good way to do that was to have this lecture in honor of the partner of Morgan Lewis who was really most associated with the securities world and who was really the father of the security practice at Morgan Lewis.

Al Sommer was a partner of Morgan Lewis for many years when he retired in 1994. He was a practicing securities business lawyer really all of his career, with time out to serve as a distinguished member of the Securities and Exchange Commission. But he was involved in so much more. He was active in many associations, notably the American Bar Association, where he chaired many of the important committees through the years, and in connection with the accounting industry where, among other things, he was chairman of the Public Oversight Board. He also was an adjunct professor at a number of law schools, a prolific author and commentator, and really a giant of the bar.