Oral history interview with Lawrence Lederman, 2014

Biographical Note

After detailing his early life in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, Lawrence Lederman narrates his process of becoming a lawyer. He tells of his experience clerking for Chief Justice Roger Traynor of the California Supreme Court, and then entering as an associate lawyer at Cravath, Swaine and Moore, LLP. He describes the origins of Phoenix House's relationship with Cravath, moving on to the extrication of Phoenix House from New York City's Addiction Services Agency. He discusses his own move to Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen and Katz, LLP, in the context of the merger wave in corporate America. He explains the establishment of the Phoenix House Development Corporation, which handled private donations so that they would be separate from budgets submitted to the City. He discusses the nature and stature of the board among New York's elite, and the role of public service in the upper reaches of the law profession

Scope and Contents

After detailing his early life in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, Lederman narrates his process of becoming a lawyer. He tells of his experience clerking for Chief Justice Roger Traynor of the California Supreme Court, and then entering as an associate lawyer at Cravath, Swaine and Moore, LLP. He describes the origins of Phoenix House's relationship with Cravath, moving on to the extrication of Phoenix House from New York City's Addiction Services Agency. He discusses his own move to Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen and Katz, LLP, in the context of the merger wave in corporate America. He explains the establishment of the Phoenix House Development Corporation, which handled private donations so that they would be separate from budgets submitted to the City. He discusses the nature and stature of the board among New York's elite, and the role of public service in the upper reaches of the law profession

Subjects

• Consolidation and merger of corporations.
• Cravath, Swaine & Moore.
• Crown Heights (New York, N.Y.)
• Drug addicts--Rehabilitation--United States.
• Interviews.
• Lawyers--Interviews.
• Lederman, Lawrence--Interviews.
• New York (N.Y.). Addiction Services Agency.
• Oral histories (literary works)
• Phoenix House (Organization)
• Public interest law.
• Substance abuse--Treatment.
• Therapeutic communities.
• Thurner, Lance, interviewer.
• Traynor, Roger J.
• Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz.

Access Conditions

Copyright by the Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York, 2014