KU News Release

Columbia University scholar to launch KU comparative law lecture series Dec. 1

George A. Bermann

LAWRENCE — A leading authority in the field of comparative law will deliver the inaugural Robert C. Casad Comparative Law Lecture next month at the University of Kansas School of Law.

George A. Bermann will speak about “U.S. Class Actions and the ‘Global’ Class” at 3:45 p.m. Dec. 1 at the Stinson Morrison Hecker Lecture Hall in 104 Green Hall.

Bermann is the Jean Monnet Professor of European Union Law (a chair conferred by the Commission of the European Communities), as well as the Walter Gellhorn Professor of Law and director of the European Legal Studies Center at Columbia Law School in New York.

He has been a member of the Columbia Law School faculty since 1975. He holds a bachelor’s degree and law degree from Yale University and a master of laws from Columbia Law School. In addition to his position at Columbia, he serves on the law faculty at the University of Paris I and II and has been a visiting professor at New York University School of Law, Tulane Law School and several European law schools. Before entering academia, Bermann was an associate from 1970 to 1973 at Davis Polk & Wardwell in New York.

Bermann is president of the International Academy of Comparative Law, past president of the American Society of Comparative Law and co-editor in chief of the American Journal of Comparative Law. He has extensive experience as an international commercial arbitrator.

The lecture series is named in honor of Professor Emeritus Robert “Bob” Casad, who has been on the faculty at the KU School of Law since 1959 and is internationally known for his scholarship in comparative civil procedure. In 1997, he retired from classroom teaching but continues to conduct research and publish books and articles.

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