Conversation with Legal Scholar Dr. Laurence Tribe

Solving the Riddle:

Transferring Russia’s Assets to Ukraine

Without Cutting Funds to Defend Israel

with

Acclaimed Legal Scholar Dr. Laurence Tribe

moderated by

Harvard-trained Lawyer and CEO Richard Salomon

Thursday, October 26th,  5:00 pm - 5:45 pm ET On Zoom

As Ukraine and Israel, rare outposts of democracy in difficult regions of the world, simultaneously face existential crises caused by fierce and bloody incursions, the U.S. finds itself paralyzed with a rudderless Congress, some of whose members, instead of seeking ways to fund the defense of both these allies, pit one against the other. 

Our ability to act to help these nations at a time of dire need should not require accepting the false choice of supporting Ukraine over Israel, or Israel over Ukraine. 

Happily, a legal path exists to aid both without burdening American taxpayers any more than meeting our obligations to Israel alone would entail: Seize the frozen $325 billion in Russian bank assets and transfer them to Ukraine.


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About Our Speakers

Dr. Laurence H. Tribe is the Carl M. Loeb University Professor of Constitutional Law Emeritus at Harvard University. The title “University Professor” is Harvard’s highest academic honor, awarded to fewer than 75 professors in the University’s history. Tribe taught at Harvard Law School since 1968; received tenure at 30; and was voted the best professor by the graduating class of 2000.

Born in China to Russian Jewish parents, Tribe entered Harvard at 16; graduated magna cum laude with a summa cum laude in Mathematics (1962) and magna cum laude in Law (1966); clerked for the California and U.S. Supreme Courts(1966-68); was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1979 and to the American Philosophical Society in 2010; helped write the constitutions of South Africa, the Czech Republic, and the Marshall Islands; has received eleven honorary degrees, most recently a degree honoris causa from the Government of Mexico in 2011 that was never before awarded to an American and D, Litt. degree from Columbia University in 2013; has prevailed in three-fifths of the many appellate cases he has argued (including 35 in the U.S. Supreme Court); was appointed in 2010 by President Barack Obama to serve as the first Senior Counselor for Access to Justice and in 2021 by President Joseph R. Biden to serve on the Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court of the United States; and has written 115 books and articles, including his treatise, American Constitutional Law, cited more than any other legal text since 1950.  

Former Solicitor General Erwin Griswold wrote: “[N]o book, and no lawyer not on the [Supreme] Court, has ever had a greater influence on the development of American constitutional law,” and former U.S. Court of Appeals Judge J. Michael Luttig tweeted in January 2023, “Laurence H. Tribe has been the Nation’s preeminent constitutional scholar for the past half-century.”

Richard A. Salomon is a graduate of Carleton College and Harvard Law School and the founder and CEO of Vantage Point Consultants. Vantage Point advises corporations on ways to optimize the expenditure of legal dollars and has worked with over 400 of the Fortune 500 throughout the world. Mr. Salomon is a frequent keynote speaker to groups, including the GC100 (the Chief Legal Officers of the FTSE 100 in London) and the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, as well as an occasional lecturer at Harvard Law School. Mr. Salomon is a member of the Advisory Board of the Corporate Counsel’s Guide to Law Department Management and Corporate Counsel’s Guide to Litigation Management. Mr. Salomon is also a co-author of Managing the Corporate Legal Function (2nd ed. 1995, Matthew Bender). 

Mr. Salomon is involved in numerous philanthropic and social service-related activities. He is a co-founder, member of the Executive Committee and the Board of Directors of the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center; and a member of the Advisory Board for the Visas for Life Foundation (relating to Consul General Chiune Sugihara, who rescued his father and uncle during the Holocaust). In addition, Mr. Salomon is on the Board of New York University’s Of Many Institute as well as on the President's Council of the Interfaith Youth Core, and the President’s Global Forum of the Auburn Theological Seminary. Mr. Salomon is a frequent public speaker at the 92nd Street Y, Temple Emanu-El, and other venues.

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