Robert Harry Mundheim (born February 24, 1933) is an American attorney and law professor. He is former Dean of the

University of Pennsylvania Law School The University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School (also known as Penn Law or Penn Carey Law) is the law school of the University of Pennsylvania, a private research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is among the most selective and olde ...

, General Counsel of the

U.S. Treasury Department The Department of the Treasury (USDT) is the national treasury and finance department of the federal government of the United States, where it serves as an executive department. The department oversees the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and th ...

, Co-Chairman of the law firm

Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP (known as Fried Frank), is an international law firm headquartered in New York City. The firm also has offices in Washington, D.C., London, Frankfurt, and Brussels, and has more than 500 attorneys wor ...

, General Counsel of Salomon, Inc., and Fred Carr Professor of Law and Financial Institutions at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. He was honored by the ''

Early life

Mundheim was born in

Hamburg, Germany (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

, to Alfred and Cecile (Cohn) Mundheim, and emigrated to the United States with his mother and brother in January 1939. He earned his BA ''magna cum laude'' from

Harvard College Harvard College is the undergraduate college of Harvard University, an Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636, Harvard College is the original school of Harvard University, the oldest institution of higher lea ...

in 1954, his LL.B. ''magna cum laude'' from

Harvard University Law School Harvard Law School (Harvard Law or HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States. Each class ...

in 1957, and his M.A. with honors from the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

in 1971. From 1961 to 1962 he was in the

US Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Signal ...

and served in Berlin.

Legal career

After admission to the New York bar in 1958, Mundheim practiced at the law firm

Shearman & Sterling Shearman & Sterling LLP is a multinational law firm headquartered in New York City, United States. The firm's lawyers come from some 80 countries, speak more than 60 languages and practice US, English, EU, French, Spanish, German, Hong Kong, OHAD ...

until 1961."Robert H. Mundheim,"
C.V., University of Arizona. From 1962-63, he was special counsel to the

Securities and Exchange Commission The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government, created in the aftermath of the Wall Street Crash of 1929. The primary purpose of the SEC is to enforce the law against market ...

. Mundheim then entered academia, with one stint of simultaneous government service. His first academic posts were brief: visiting professor at

Duke Law School Duke University School of Law (Duke Law School or Duke Law) is the law school of Duke University, a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. One of Duke's 10 schools and colleges, the School of Law is a constituent academic unit th ...

in 1964, professor of law at the University of Pennsylvania from 1965 to 1970, and visiting professor at Harvard Law School from 1968 to 1969. During his 1970-80 tenure as Fred Carr Professor of Law and Financial Institutions at the

, he became, in 1970, the youngest professor in the law school's history to be named an academic chair and served three of those years as general counsel of the

(1977–80). In 1980, the University of Pennsylvania Law School named him University Professor of Law and Finance, a position he occupied until 1992. From 1982 to 1989, he was also dean. Mundheim became co-chairman of the law firm

in 1992, but he soon left for Salomon, Inc., where he worked as general counsel from 1992 to 1997 and shifted to the same role for Salomon Smith Barney Holdings from 1997 to 1998. In 1999, he began work again at Shearman & Sterling, the law firm where he started his career. He is now Of Counsel there as well as a law professor at the

James E. Rogers College of Law University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law is the law school at the University of Arizona located in Tucson, Arizona and was the first law school founded in the State of Arizona, opening its doors in 1915. Also known as University of Ar ...

at the

University of Arizona The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it was the first university in the Arizona Territory. T ...

Service and honors

From 1994-2000, Mundheim remained connected to the University of Pennsylvania Law School through service as a board member and overseer. The law school has established an

endowed chair A financial endowment is a legal structure for managing, and in many cases indefinitely perpetuating, a pool of financial, real estate, or other investments for a specific purpose according to the will of its founders and donors. Endowments are of ...

in his honor, the Robert Mundheim Professor of Law, currently held by

Amy Wax Amy Laura Wax (born January 19, 1953) is an American lawyer, neurologist, and academic. She is the Robert Mundheim Professor of Law at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. Her work addresses issues in social welfare law and policy, as we ...

. Mundheim is on the board of trustees for both the

Curtis Institute of Music The Curtis Institute of Music is a private conservatory in Philadelphia. It offers a performance diploma, Bachelor of Music, Master of Music in opera, and a Professional Studies Certificate in opera. All students attend on full scholarship. Hi ...

and the American College of Governance Counsel, an American honorary association of lawyers widely recognized for their achievements in the field of

governance Governance is the process of interactions through the laws, social norm, norms, power (social and political), power or language of an organized society over a social system (family, tribe, formal organization, formal or informal organization, a ...

. He has served as a director of

Commerce Clearing House CCH, formerly Commerce Clearing House, is a provider of software and information services for tax, accounting and audit workers. Since 1995 it has been a subsidiary of Wolters Kluwer. History CCH has been publishing materials on U.S. tax la ...

, Inc. (1980-1996),

First Pennsylvania Bank First Pennsylvania Bank was a bank based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1782, it was for centuries the oldest bank in the United States until it was acquired by CoreStates Financial Corporation in 1989. In the 1970s, First Pennsylvania o ...

(1980-1990), CoreStates Bank N.A. (1990-1992), Benjamin Moore & Co. (1997-2001),

eCollege Pearson eCollege is an on-demand, or software as a service (SaaS), provider of eLearning software and services to secondary and post-secondary learning institutions and is owned by Pearson PLC Pearson plc is a British multinational publis ...

, Inc. (2000-2007), and

Hypo Real Estate The Hypo Real Estate Holding AG is a holding company based in Munich, Germany which comprises a number of real estate financing banks. The company's activities span three sectors of the real estate market: commercial property, infrastructure and ...

. Other institutions where he has had a prominent role include the

Salzburg Seminar Salzburg Global Seminar is a non-profit organization that challenges current and future leaders to shape a better world. It convenes programs on health care, education, culture, finance, technology, public policy, media, human rights, corporate g ...

(board of directors, 1999-2002 and now), the

American Academy in Berlin The American Academy in Berlin is a private, independent, nonpartisan research and cultural institution in Berlin dedicated to sustaining and enhancing the long-term intellectual, cultural, and political ties between the United States and Germany ...

(president, 2000-2006), and the

National Association of Securities Dealers The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) is a private American corporation that acts as a self-regulatory organization (SRO) that regulates member brokerage firms and exchange markets. FINRA is the successor to the National Associati ...

(vice-chairman, governor-at-large, and member of the executive committee, 1988-1991). Mundheim was awarded the Officer’s Cross of the

Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany The Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (german: Verdienstorden der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, or , BVO) is the only federal decoration of Germany. It is awarded for special achievements in political, economic, cultural, intellect ...

in 2007. In 2014, in ''The Monetary System: Analysis and New Approaches to Regulation,'' authors Jean-François Serval and Jean-Pascal Tranié noted: "This year, Robert Mundheim was honored by the ''

American Lawyer ''The American Lawyer'' is a monthly legal magazine and website published by ALM Media. The periodical and its parent company, ALM (then American Lawyer Media), were founded in 1979 by Steven Brill.Doctor of Humane Letters The degree of Doctor of Humane Letters (; DHumLitt; DHL; or LHD) is an honorary degree awarded to those who have distinguished themselves through humanitarian and philanthropic contributions to society. The criteria for awarding the degree differ ...

degree from

The New School The New School is a private research university in New York City. It was founded in 1919 as The New School for Social Research with an original mission dedicated to academic freedom and intellectual inquiry and a home for progressive thinkers. ...

in 2019."Robert H. Mundheim, New York Patron Fellow, Receives Honorary Degree from The New School"
May 31, 2019.

References

External links

"Robert Mundheim – former law school dean, firm cochair and US Treasury Department counsel,"
Chambers *Arlin M. Adams
"Dedication: Dean Robert Mundheim,"
138 ''

University of Pennsylvania Law Review The ''University of Pennsylvania Law Review'' is a law review published by an organization of second and third year J.D. students at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. It is the oldest law journal in the United States, having been publishe ...

'', No. 1 (November 1989), pp. 1–3 {{DEFAULTSORT:Mundheim, Robert 1933 births Living people German emigrants to the United States University of Pennsylvania Law School faculty University of Pennsylvania alumni Deans of law schools in the United States Harvard College alumni University of Arizona faculty United States Air Force airmen Finance law scholars Harvard Law School alumni United States Department of the Treasury officials Deans of University of Pennsylvania Law School Officers Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany