Former Pennsylvania governor/U.S. attorney general to lecture Feb. 18 at SU

Friday, February 13, 2009, By News Staff

Former Pennsylvania governor/U.S. attorney general to lecture Feb. 18 at SUFebruary 13, 2009Jaclyn D. Grossojgrosso@law.syr.edu

As part of its Law Success Program, the Syracuse University College of Law will host Richard Thornburgh, former governor of Pennsylvania and distinguished public servant, on Wednesday, Feb. 18, at 11:45 a.m. in Hendricks Chapel. Public parking is available in the Irving Garage.

Thornburgh served as governor of Pennsylvania, U.S. attorney general under Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush, and under-secretary general of the United Nations during a public career that spanned more than 25 years. He is currently counsel to the international law firm of K&L Gates LLP in its Washington, D.C., office.

Elected governor in 1978 and re-elected in 1982, Thornburgh was the first Republican ever to serve two successive terms in that office. Following the unprecedented Three Mile Island nuclear accident in 1979, he was described by observers as “one of the few authentic heroes of that episode as a calm voice against panic.”

He was director of the Institute of Politics at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government from 1987-88.

After his unanimous confirmation by the U.S. Senate, Thornburgh served three years as U.S. attorney general (1988-1991) in the cabinets of Presidents Reagan and Bush. He mounted a vigorous attack on white-collar crime as the Department of Justice obtained a record number of convictions of savings and loan and securities officials, defense contractors and corrupt public officials.

A native of Pittsburgh, Thornburgh was educated at Yale University, where he obtained an engineering degree, and at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, where he served as an editor of the Law Review. He has been awarded honorary degrees by 32 colleges and universities.

Thornburgh has lectured on more than 125 campuses, including Moscow State University, and he has debated at the Oxford Union and appeared frequently as a guest commentator on network news and talk shows.

The Feb. 18 event is sponsored by the SU College of Law, the Institute for National Security and Counterterrorism, the Federalist Society and the Burton Blatt Institute. For more information, contact assistant visiting professor William Snyder at (315) 443-6655.