From Watergate to the 9/11 Commission, Richard Ben-Veniste has pursued truth, justice, and accountability from the U.S. government. The famed Washington, D.C. trial attorney will visit Penn State Law to speak on ethics in government on Oct. 19. The public is welcome to attend.
“Richard Ben-Veniste has played a unique role in our nation's recent political history,” said Penn State Law professor Lance Cole, who co-directs the Center for Government Law and Public Policy Studies. “No one is better qualified to provide an insider's analysis of the greatest government ethics issues of our times.”
Ben-Veniste first achieved national prominence during the mid-1970s, when he served as Chief of the Watergate Special Prosecutor’s Watergate Task Force. He played a lead role in exposing and investigating the infamous "18 1/2 Minute Gap" in the Nixon White House tapes, devising the legal strategy to name President Nixon an “unindicted co-conspirator” in the Watergate prosecution, and prosecuting the criminal cases against Nixon’s top White House advisers.
Since that time Ben-Veniste has been a key figure in some of the nation’s most significant governmental activities at the intersection of law and politics, including the Senate Whitewater Committee investigation of Bill and Hillary Clinton and the 9/11 Commission investigation. In 2009, he served on a task force created by the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security to assess the national alert system and make recommendations for improvement. Ben-Veniste is the author of "The Emperor’s New Clothes: Exposing the Truth from Watergate to 9/11" (Thomas Dunne, 2009). He is a partner at Mayer Brown, where he focuses on complex civil litigation and white collar criminal cases.
Ben-Veniste is a graduate of Muhlenberg College and holds an bachelor of laws degree from Columbia Law School as well as a master of laws degree from Northwestern University School of Law.
Ben-Veniste’s presentation is scheduled to begin at 5 p.m. in Lewis Katz Hall at 333 W. South Street in Carlisle and will be simulcast to the Greg Sutliff Auditorium in the Lewis Katz Building in University Park, Pa.