MEDIA CONTACT: Pat Vaughan Tremmel at 847-491-4892 or p-tremmel@northwestern.edu

August 24, 2005

Feinberg to Discuss 9/11 Victims Compensation

CHICAGO --- Kenneth R. Feinberg, the man given the staggering task of calculating what the lives of September 11 victims are worth, will share his historic role in administering the nearly $7 billion fund for survivors in a keynote speech at Northwestern University School of Law. 

Part of the School of Law's Pope & John Lecture Series on Professionalism, the lecture, titled “The 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund: Private Pain and Public Compensation,” will take place at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 13, at the School of Law, 357 E. Chicago Ave. The lecture is free and open to the public.

Feinberg drew upon his skills as a leader in mediation and alternative dispute resolution to perform his duties as the special master of the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund established by the government. As a stunned nation started to cope with the enormity of the tragedy, he faced the grief of victims’ families in the impossible task of determining how much compensation they would receive for victims’ lost wages, pain and suffering and other monetary damages.   

The controversial fund, part of legislation passed by Congress to compensate the loved ones of individuals killed or hurt as a result of the terrorist acts of September 11, 2001, just ended its operations in June. Feinberg developed and promulgated the regulations governing the administration of the fund and administered all aspects of the program.

Managing partner and founder of The Feinberg Group, LLP, he has been mediator and arbitrator in thousands of disputes. They involve such issues as mass torts, breach of contract, antitrust and civil RICO violations, civil fraud, product liability, insurance coverage as well as various commercial and environmental matters.

Feinberg was also one of three arbitrators selected to determine the fair market value of the original Zapruder film of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination and was one of two arbitrators selected to determine the allocation of legal fees in Holocaust slave labor litigation.

He was listed in “Profiles in Power: The 100 Most Influential Lawyers in America” (National Law Journal, April 4, 1994, and June 12, 2000) and was named “Lawyer of the Year” by the National Law Journal in 2004. He holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Massachusetts and a juris doctor degree from New York University School of Law.

Established by the Chicago firm of Pope & John Ltd. in 1991, the annual Pope & John Lecture on Professionalism focuses on the many dimensions of a lawyer’s professional responsibility, including legal ethics, public service, professional civility, pro bono representation and standards of conduct. The lecture series is part of the law school’s Program on Advocacy and Professionalism, which is directed by Professor Steven Lubet.