Lauren D. Rachlin (2010)

Segment Synopsis: Lauren Rachlin has one sister and a brother who died at 10 years old. His sister lives in Toronto, where he also have an office, so they see each other regularly. She is a "professional volunteer." who does psychological testing. His father was a lawyer and a graduate of UB's 1927 law school class. He was a classmate of Frank Wisbaum. Since there was no record of his class, the interviewee got involved in the oral history so that no information would be lost.
Lauren states his father was "ecstatic" when he became a lawyer. According to him, unlike most people he became a partner his first day out of law school, and seeing "Rachlin and Rachlin" outside his door was very exciting
Lauren said he always wanted to be a lawyer because he never knew anything about anything else. His father was a lawyer, but he didn't even set foot in his office until after law school. However, he was young when he started, graduating high school at 16, then college, and then started law school at 18.
Lauren went to Lafayette HS and Bennett HS in Buffalo. He's a Buffalo boy born and bred. He went to UB for undergraduate and Harvard for Law School. He was 19 when he graduated from UB and 22 when he graduated Law School.

Keywords: Father; Harvard University; Other Law Schools general; Role Models; Siblings; Undergraduate Education

Subjects: EDUCATION; FAMILY HISTORY; LAW

Partial Transcript: [inpoint 18:50] When my father passed away, the class of ‘27 here at UB Law School, a generation was lost, a real generation was lost because he connected to Carlos Alden. These are names probably don't mean anything to you but Carlos Alden was one of the early deans. Guy Moore was a great district attorney. You remember the fellow that shot McKinley or something? I think there was a connection there somewhere and he may have prosecuted, I'm not sure, but that whole generation that he could have told everybody all about was gone. It’s gone and I just and we had really great lawyers, Bill Mahoney, Walter his brother Harley Mcdonough, really what I consider giants in those days. Maybe they weren't but to me they were and they were really good people and I could see they'd be gone. Dean Hyman was was getting older. To me it was a real tragedy and my family felt the same way so that's why we went with the oral history project it was it was really to memorialize a great legal, well a great law school, because I think UB is, and to memorialize a great legal tradition which is the Western New York legal tradition. We've contested bar elections. Nobody has that. It's a great bar association. The lawyers are great people that's it. [outpoint 20:30]

Segment Synopsis: Lauren's practice is interesting and unique: It's a corporate international practice. It's primarily for Canada and the U.S, since he has an office near the border, and usually deals with Canadian companies; one company came in just (the day of the interview) with some real estate issues. He describes it as "U.S. law for Canadians" -- or Europeans, or anyone coming into the States, or the other way around. They don't actually practice in other countries, but they do know how to get the right legal contacts abroad.
The interviewer asks what sparked Lauren's interest in this field. He says it's a great story: He always had an interest in international law, like every kid in law school. When he was 10 years out of law school, he was chair of Human Rights Day for the Buffalo Council of International Affairs. He notes there's a U.N flag that flies over the peace bridge that he put there. In 1970s, while practicing law with his dad, he got the idea to do something internationally and asked a Congressman to appoint him to the Human Rights Commission to the U.N for two weeks. He'd be at the UN from Monday to Friday, come home to his family over the weekends and try to maintain his practice. From there he got involved with UNESCO and Tom Bergenthal (who became the U.S judge at the ICJ at the Hague), and realized that the problem with human rights is that it's hard to make a living off of it.

Thus, he shifted his interests to international commercial law, becoming involved with the Committee on International Transactions for the NY State Bar (he has been on that since the early 80s), met with Mitch Brock, who said he was too busy with other things to do a good job and offered Lauren the job, which he accepted. Lauren soon built it up to over 50 people. They also had an international law committee, to whom Lauren suggested creating a section. The International Law section is Lauren's "baby" and has grown to over 900 members all over the world, and is a good base for "doing things you'd like to do." He really liked heading it and was uncomfortable with being an "ex" leader of the organization, so he created a new division and made himself chair of it. The new division put chapters around the world and is the only bar association that has 60 of them. Lauren boasts "we have the best international conferences in the world." The conferences attract about 125 American lawyers and the same number of local lawyers, leading to excellent interactions, as the locals can set them up at palaces and other great local venues. Lauren lists the countries he's been in and will be in.
The interviewer asks if Lauren has a desire to lead, and he says he doesn't--he's just willing to do things when nobody else will. He can't stand not seeing things done well and efficiently. The interviewer then asks if this was one of the things that led him to the oral history project. Lauren says no. He says the real prompt to his involvement in the project was when his father passed away, a generation was lost because he connected everyone from his class of '27. There were great lawyers and good people from his father's generation, and Lauren realized they would be gone in a few years too. Thus, he joined the oral history project to memorialize a great law school and legal tradition of Western New York. It has contested bar elections and a great bar, in Lauren's view.

Keywords: Bar Association; Choice of Law; Father; Practice

Subjects: CAREER: LEGAL; PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Segment Synopsis: The interviewer asks what Lauren would want to be known as his legacy. He laughs and says there's no chance of that. He doesn't care if he's known or not. Even so, he would like his legacy to be something that's not his alone, but the knowledge that one person can make a difference, and the law is a great platform for doing that. He gives three examples out of many of how he's exemplified them: His time at the U.N. Human Rights Commission in 1970, where he found two redewells on his desk that were the year's human rights complaints. He was told there was no mandate to do anything about them. The interview is interrupted by noise from outside.
Lauren asks what the interviewer does at the law school, and she notes she works for Kaleida Health as a Director of Medical Affairs. She doesn't work with Bonnie Rogers, nor does she know Lauren's friend Marilyn.
Lauren was discussing how he was told there was no mandate for dealing with human rights issues while working with the U.N. He continues with the discussion, saying there was a proposal for a human rights complaint procedure. The Russians and others were opposed to it while he and the Americans were in favor of it. It was a lobbying effort, and he didn't know much about international lobbying but was good at local lobbying and won by one vote, passing the procedure. The procedure had to go from the Human Rights commission to the economic and social council. He tells the story of how he personally helped the procedure pass.

He tells another story--right now, he's on a committee of customs and trade policy in the U.S, where the private sector gets to advise the government on trade measures. He's not allowed to discuss what goes on due to security, but he says he does have an opportunity to have some influence on economics and trade as part of that committee. Lauren describes some of the other committees related to it. Lauren essentially took control of the committee involving AMerica's northern border because he was so senior, and suggested they hold meetings in Buffalo so they could actually see the bridges. It was a great meeting, and he got a group together from Western NY representing Canadians and Americans who came up with several recommendations of what they needed to do to improve the border. At least ten of those recommendations became part of President Obama and PM Harper's border action plan. Lauren believes he and his colleagues really made a difference. Still, he says he's just a practicing lawyer, working in Hodgson's big law firm past the retirement age. He encourages the interviewer and the listeners, saying "You don't have to be anything special. You just have to do it."
The interviewer asks if Lauren's children are attorneys. He says no, they didn't want to work that hard. He thinks they worker "harder" because they have kids themselves. His eldest daughter is an architect, his middle daughter is a banker with JP Morgan and Chase in charge of hedge funds, and his youngest son is also in capital markets with Ferris Bank in Chicago.
Lauren says his father would be very happy about the project. He never really understood why Lauren did the stuff he did, but he'd be happy nonetheless.

Keywords: Career / Professional Experience; Children / Grandchildren; Family; Greatest Achievement; Practice

Subjects: CAREER: LEGAL; LAW; PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Segment Synopsis: Lauren discusses how his career evolved. It started with just him and his father, but built up to 7 lawyers, then 25 years later merged with Arnold Gardner's firm, spent 25 more years with them, then spent most of his time in Buffalo following the NAFTA trade agreements in 1999.
The interviewer asks who Lauren would interview if he could talk with anyone in the world. Lauren notes that's a tough question, then, after thinking about it for a moment, says it would be fascinating to start with Obama, though there are so many interesting people in the world that it's a hard choice. He mentions meeting Marshal McLuhan's daughter in Toronto, who was a fascinating lady who made an equally fascinating website on her father's writings/
The interviewer asks if Lauren has any involvement with the UB law school besides the Oral History project. He enthusiastically responds that he has. Through the NY state bar, he started an outbound legal internship in the International Law section. They put people in Prague, Vienna, and Guatemala and had a great time, especially the man who went to Guatemala. He tells a funny story about him being chauffeured by a woman living their and meeting with an influential ambassador. Lauren states that because that program was so successful, this year they opened it up to other law schools. Many schools, like Fordham and NYU, have their own programs, but UB and other schools in the area don't. Lauren has had 25 applicants and was able to put 11 into international internships for 4-5 weeks in a variety of cities. Six of those interns were from UB.

He also works with Dave Westbrook on the international program. Lauren wants to help them come into the "real world," or, he notes would be more accurate, the business/commercial side of transnational law.
The interviewer asks if there's anything Lauren could change if he looked back on his life. Lauren jokes that he would have liked to be born rich. People asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up, and he would tell them "The beneficiary of a large trust." That obviously didn't happen, so he had to make his own way in the world. He says that seriously, though, he's had an "unbelievable" career and the project he's working on with the bar association is incredibly interesting.

When he was in Latin America for a meeting, he and his colleagues were addressed by top government officials, and the chief judge said "we know we have a corruption problem, but we need help to beat it." Lauren and his friends agreed to lend a hand, and a few years later in Panama, suggested the formation of a Latin American council. He had lunch with the interested parties, they agreed, and a lawyer from Argentina said he'd try to get it started. Then, the past October in Lisbon, he got an email from the guy asking what was happening with the council, and Lauren told him it was supposed to be his council! Lauren says, "If someone's willing but doesn't have the time or drive, get a co-chair so they can inspire each other." Lauren found a great woman from Guatemala who agreed to do it, and now they're going to have an inaugural meeting in Guatemala this June.

In addition to the NY State Bar Association, Lauren also chairs the International Business Law Committee of the Ontario Bar Association. He was able to bring in people from Ontario who speak spanish and with Canadian and NY support, created a broad-based organization for the rule of law in Latin America. Lauren describes how the organization would work and how it would fight corruption in Latin America.

Keywords: Bar Association; Career / Professional Experience; Practice; Relationship with UB Law

Subjects: CAREER: LEGAL; LAW; PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Segment Synopsis: The interviewer asks what advice Lauren would give to lawyers right out of law school who wants to do what he does. Lauren laughs and says "that's probably not possible" because his life has been unique. He says it's best to just "get involved." He loves working with young lawyers, so it's not the first time he's heard this question, although it's usually phrased differently. Lauren states there are a lot of "vehicles" out there for involvement in international law. The International law sections are great for this.

The interviewer asks if he has any advice for lawyers entering practice. Lauren says to "Learn your craft. Be good at what you do, because everything else doesn't mean anything if you're not a competent lawyer." He says a problem for kids, especially, is that they don't have clients (like they did when he was growing up) but "deals," i.e they're more separated from the client side of the business than they used to be. Lawyers need to recognize their clients for those clients to get them places, since law is fundamentally a service job.
Lauren thinks there is no "better or worse." He thinks people always think that things were "better" in the past, but they weren't better or worse, just different. He notes that things are contingent on technology and tells a story about how fax machines and typewriters were a "godsend" and made things much easier for lawyers, but were also much more expensive when they first came out. He says there are tools and opportunities they never had before, and people simply have to adapt. He encourages the listener not to be afraid of failure, because without failure there is no success. Lauren offers one more maxim: Never let your greed interfere with your judgement. Lauren says that's some good advice from the class of '27.
Lauren mentions he wrote a chapter of a book. published around two weeks before the day of the interview. It's called "How would you ever turn down this." He was called by a large publisher--then the interview is interrupted by noise from outside, and he makes a joke about his "rambling." He also mentions teaching a course at UB and discusses the difficulties of teaching and how he does better in the real world. He also mentions doing another legal summit before going outside to check if the people are gone.

The interview then cuts to a short time afterwards, and he continues where he left off. Lauren got a call from Execsense, a large ebook publisher, to see if he would publish a chapter in "Lessons in International Law for CEOs from Leading International Lawyers." He asked "would you turn that down?" and the answer was of course no. He tried to write something useful, they liked it, so they published it as a standalone as well as a chapter. It was entitled, "You're not in Kansas Anymore: Whatever your CEO needs to know about doing business and contracting internationally." One part of it recognizes that lawyers don't know how to network, which is necessary especially internationally. If you have a good international network, according to Lauren, doing business in other countries will be much easier. He gives a few real-life examples from Prague and Japan.
The interviewer asks if Lauren has ever thought of teaching at the law school. Lauren says it would be too much work--"if you're gonna teach at a law course, you're not just telling stories, you have to do a lot of preparation." Teachers have to do research and make lesson plans, and he just doesn't have time for that. He does give lectures for friends' classes occasionally, though.
The interviewer asks if Lauren would like to transition from law to something else at some point in the future. Lauren jokes that he plans to transition "from the law to a box." He really can't imagine anything else being more fun. He does what he wants to do, interacts with people younger than him, and doesn't really relate to people his own age. He says, "As long as the good lord lets me keep going," and mentions how his father and family friends practiced law until very advanced ages, and notes he'd like to do the same. He ends the interview by saying it's been a pleasure.

Keywords: Advice; Teaching Law

Subjects: CAREER: LEGAL; LAW; PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE; UB LAW FACULTY; UB LAW MISCELLANEOUS