Lester S. Hyman is an American attorney and writer who was a founding partner of law firm Swidler Berlin. Hyman lives in Washington, D.C. and has a home on the Caribbean island of Tortola, where he is a member of the board of

H. Lavity Stoutt Community College The H. Lavity Stoutt Community College (often referred to locally as HLSCC) is a community college in the British Virgin Islands ) , anthem = "God Save the King" , song_type = Territorial song , song = " Oh, Beautiful Virgin Islands" , ...

and the National Parks Trust in the British Virgin Islands. He also acted as a United States legal counsel for the BVI.

Education

Hyman graduated from

Brown University Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...

in 1952 with a Bachelor of Arts degree and from Columbia University School of Law in 1955 with a Bachelor of Laws.

Career

Clinton administration

For the

Clinton administration Bill Clinton's tenure as the 42nd president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 1993, and ended on January 20, 2001. Clinton, a Democrat from Arkansas, took office following a decisive election victory over Re ...

, Hyman vetted candidates for Vice President, Attorney General, Secretary of the Treasury, Director of the CIA, and the U.S. Supreme Court, including preparation for senatorial confirmation hearings. In 1994, President Clinton appointed him to the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial Commission, which oversaw the construction of the

FDR Memorial The Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial is a presidential memorial in Washington D.C., dedicated to the memory of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the 32nd President of the United States, and to the era he represents. The memorial is the second of two ...

in Washington. President Clinton appointed Hyman to the Presidential Delegation representing the United States at the Peace Accord signing in Guatemala in 1996 that ended a 36-year civil war.

Author

Hyman's book, ''United States Policy Towards Liberia'', was published by the Africana Homestead Legacy Publishers in 2003. It is based on his time as legal counsel to Liberia from 1997 to 1999 and talks about the humanitarian crisis.

Federal and state government

In the federal government, Hyman served as an attorney with the Corporation Finance Division of the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission, and later as senior consultant to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. On the state level, he was chief assistant to the governor, then secretary of commerce and development, and later chairman of the Massachusetts Democratic Party. As a member of the International Observer Team in 1990 headed by former President Jimmy Carter, he monitored the first democratic election in the history of Haiti. Additionally, he has been involved in peace resolution efforts in Africa, as well as legal and governmental issues in Japan, France, Korea, Germany, England, Lebanon, Russia, and the Caribbean.

Non-profit board

Hyman served on the board of trustees of the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena, California, from 1996 to 1997. From 2004 to 2007, he was a trustee of the

University of the District of Columbia The University of the District of Columbia (UDC) is a public historically black land-grant university in Washington, D.C. It was established in 1851 and is the only public university in the city. UDC is a member school of the Thurgood Marshall ...

(UDC) and a member of the board of the UDC Foundation. While a member of the board of the

International Intellectual Property Institute The International Intellectual Property Institute (IIPI) is a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) corporation founded in 1999 and located in Washington, DC. An international advocacy organization and think tank, IIPI is dedicated to increasing awareness and ...

(IIPI) in 2004, he served as project director for an 18-nation IIPI conference on the creation of the Caribbean Court of Justice. He is a member of the board and chair of the Legal Advisory Committee of the not-for-profit

Center for Advanced Defense Studies The Center for Advanced Defense Studies is a 501(c)(3) A 501(c)(3) organization is a United States corporation, trust, unincorporated association or other type of organization exempt from federal income tax under section 501(c)(3) of Title 26 o ...

(CADS), and has taught a course in "Decision-Making in Politics" at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. He is also a founding member of the board of directors of the Center for National Policy.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hyman, Lester Living people Massachusetts Democratic Party chairs Brown University alumni Columbia Law School alumni University of the District of Columbia trustees Year of birth missing (living people)