*Jeff * Lehman (middle front), Stuart Cable (second from right), Matthew Kerfoot (center back), Leifan Wang (second from right), Jeff Zhang (fourth from right) and some CBLA directors
 

The Opening ceremony was held on the evening of April 9, 2009 at the offices of Goodwin Procter in the New York Times Building. At the event, Professor Bill Allen from New York University School of Law gave the opening remarks and a strong panel shared with audience their perspectives on law, business, career and China. The panel consisted of Stuart Cable (Partner, Goodwin Procter), Joyce Xu (Senior Counsel, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett) and Matthew Kerfoot (Senior Vice President, HSBC USA).

Encouragingly, the event was significantly oversubscribed with a total of 122 attendees, including 81 U.S.-qualified lawyers. Of those lawyers, 68 registered as members of the CBLA on the spot.

Our members come from approximately 40 employers, including 9 of the top 10 law firms (based on Vault 2009 prestige ranking), and obtained their U.S. law degrees from 20 law schools, including 14 of the top 15 (based on US News 2008 ranking). Our members also reflect a wide diversity in terms of ethnicity, country of origin, non-law experience and seniority - their law school class years range over a quarter of a century, from 1982 to 2008.

At the directors' special invitation, a select group of non-lawyer professionals, from investment and commercial banks, private equity funds, hedge funds, rating agencies, government and academia, also attended the opening ceremony. Certain representatives of law students from the NYC-area law schools attended as well.

Cooperation With Peking University School Of Transnational Law

A distinguished guest, Jeff Lehman, met with CBLA directors and attended the reception of the CBLA opening ceremony. Mr. Lehman was the dean of Michigan Law School, where he largely succeeded in defending the law school's affirmative action admission policies, and then president of Cornell University.  Since 2007, Mr. Lehman has served as chancellor and founding dean of the Peking University School of Transnational Law (北京大学国际法学院 or “STL”) located in Shenzhen.  It is China's first American-style law school, where courses are taught in English using the Socratic method with a curriculum designed for a J.D. degree.  During he meeting with Mr. Lehman, we discussed the partnership between CBLA and STL.  The potential joint programs may include CBLA visiting attorneys’ seminars, hosting/mentoring programs for the STL students and establishment of a Center for Business Law Studies.

Messages From Our Directors

We would like to first thank Goodwin Procter for its generous sponsorship. Thanks also go to student volunteers from New York University School of Law, who made our registration smooth. Finally, we thank you all for coming, and we will continue to bring you quality events on a regular basis. Until next time!

 Professor Bill Allen gave opening remarks.

Panel Discussion