Jerome J. Shestack

Jerome J. Shestack "is a partner and head of the Litigation Department of the Philadelphia law firm of Wolf, Block, Schorr and Solis-Cohen. He served as President of the American Bar Association during 1997-1998.

"A nationally recognized trial and appellate lawyer, he is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, and a Fellow of the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers. He has been regularly listed by the National Law Journal as one of America's 100 Most Influential Lawyers. He has represented clients such as Westinghouse, NBC, CBS, ABC, Advanta, Hertz, Comcast and GAF in major complex trial and appellate litigation.

"Mr. Shestack graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and received his L.L.B. from Harvard Law School where he was editor-in-chief of the Harvard Law Record and an Ames Moot Court Finalist. He served on the faculties of Northwestern University Law School, L.S.U. Law School and the University of Pennsylvania Law School before entering private practice.

"Mr. Shestack has held numerous leadership positions in the ABA. He was a member of the ABA's Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary, served on the ABA's Board of Governors, and chaired the Board's Program and Planning Committee.

"He was also a founding member and Chair of the Section of Individual Rights and Responsibilities, Chair of the Commission on Mental and Physical Disability Law, and Chair of the Standing Committee on Legal Aid and Indigent Defendants. In the last-named post, he was a founder of the ABA's Pro Bono Center. He also initiated the first Women's Rights Committee in the ABA, the first ABA committee to support the Federal Legal Services program, and was an organizing member of the National Legal Services program and helped start the Legal Services Corporation. He was a founding member of the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law in 1963 and continues as a Director. In 1977 he founded the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights and served as its first Chairman.

"In addition to serving as President of the ABA, he is President of ALI-ABA and a director and life fellow of the American Bar Foundation and a director of the American Bar Endowment.

"Under President Carter, Mr. Shestack was the U.S. Ambassador for Human Rights to the United Nations Human Rights Commission, and launched the U.N. Working Group to investigate disappearances under repressive regimes. He was the U.S. Alternative Representative to the U.N. General Assembly and to ECOSOC. During President Bush's Administration, he served on the U.S. delegation to the Moscow Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe and as a Commissioner of the Presidential-Congressional Commission to Improve the Effectiveness of the United Nations.

"Mr. Shestack also chaired the International Bar Association Standing Committee on Human Rights and founded its Human Rights Action program. He served on the Executive Council of the American Society of International Law and is currently Counselor to the Society. He chaired the International League for Human Rights since 1981 and is currently its Honorary President. He was recently elected to the prestigious Executive Committee of the International Commission of Jurists. He led the ABA delegation to the Rome Conference on the International Criminal Court and also established the first agreement with the All-China Lawyers Association to promote rule of law understanding.

"Mr. Shestack has served as Chairman of the University of Pennsylvania Press, President of the Jewish Publication Society, Chairman of the American Poetry Society, trustee of the Free Library of Philadelphia, and member of the Board of Governors of Tel Aviv University. He is a board member of the Cure Autism Now Foundation, dedicated to medical research on autism. Mr. Shestack has an autistic grandchild.

"Mr. Shestack has written more than 50 articles for law reviews and journals, numerous historical and literary monographs, and more than 150 op-ed articles. He is a member of the Order of the Coif, and a life member of The American Law Institute. He is an honorary Fellow of the University of Pennsylvania Law School and Columbia University Law School and has honorary degrees as doctor of laws, from Stetson University School of Law, Whittier Law School, and Dickinson School of Law.

"Shestack died in 2011. Mr. Shestack was married to Marciarose Shestack, a TV journalist. She was the first woman anchor person in prime time in a major media market. The Shestacks have two children, Jennifer is a cosmetics executive at Bergdorf Goodman in New York, Jonathan is a movie producer in Los Angeles and President of Artisans, Inc."

Affiliations

 * Human Rights First – founder
 * Director, Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute
 * Commissioner, International Commission of Jurists
 * Member Committee on Conscience, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
 * National Advisory Board, Raoul Wallenberg Committee of the United States