During his senior year at Yale College, J. Frederick Berg, Jr. ’69, had serious concerns about whether to attend Columbia Law School, where he’d received some financial aid, and another prominent law school that had offered him a full scholarship. A native of Kansas City, Missouri, he knew that his parents’ resources were limited and that his father was nearing retirement age so he was reluctant to ask his parents to make further financial sacrifices for his education.
“My parents and I discussed this decision at great length and ultimately we chose Columbia”, he says, “because of its national reputation and our belief that a law degree from Columbia would provide greater opportunities for a successful career.” Berg, who is now the managing partner of Russin, Vecchi, Berg & Bernstein LLP in New York, acknowledges that that was “the right decision”.
In his practice, Berg still applies “the principles of contract law that Professor Harry Jones drilled into us in class.” Contract law, in fact, is an important part of his practice, which includes domestic and international business transactions, commercial real estate, construction contracts, and other legal matters affecting corporations and other business entities.
With classmates Douglas D. Broadwater, John A. Golden, and Ronald S. Rolfe, Berg serves as co-chair of his reunion committee. Much has changed since he and his classmates attended Columbia Law School in the late 1960s, Berg notes.
“Back then the building and facilities had some serious shortcomings. The escalators often broke down and were used as stairways. In addition, the vending machines frequently dispensed coffee, cream, and cup—in that order,”
“Today I encourage classmates and other Columbia graduates to return to Morningside Heights to see how the Law School has changed for the better” says Berg, referring to the renovations made in Jerome L. Greene Hall including additional elevators (which function properly), the Lenfest Café, and specially designed areas for individual and group study and for faculty-student conferences.
Those attending this year’s reunions will have the opportunity to tour the renovated building and see for themselves how much more “student friendly” the Law School has become.
A member of the Law School’s Board of Visitors, Berg notes that some aspects of Columbia Law School haven’t changed. For example, the school still emphasizes both scholarly research and practical skills, a mix which he experienced first hand in Professor Walter Werner’s seminar on securities law and business organizations. Werner was both a scholar and an experienced lawyer who’d served as director of the Office of Policy Planning at the Securities and Exchange Commission.
“He taught us how to sharpen our legal skills to address complex issues in the real world,” says Berg, who notes that Werner’s seminar emphasized the same practical, lawyerly skills that today’s students learn in Columbia’s “Deals” course, in which students study, analyze and negotiate actual business transactions.
Recognizing that the study of law today is both more complex and more costly than it was when he was a law student, Berg established the Berg Family Scholarship Fund in 2004 to provide tuition assistance to graduates of his undergraduate alma mater. The scholarship is named in memory of his parents. Berg’s father supported his decision to become a lawyer, while his mother had misgivings, based on negative experiences with lawyers in her own childhood. She had urged Berg to pursue a “noble career” like medicine, but he recalls that, “after she saw the work that I was doing first in my federal judicial clerkship and, later, in law practice, she came to realize that the work of a lawyer can benefit ordinary people and small businesses -- and not just the banks, insurance companies and the government.”
Fred Berg and his classmates will celebrate their 40th Columbia Law School Reunion on June 19-20, 2009.
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