Ira M. Millstein

Lecturer in Law

Office:
Tel: 212-310-8100
Email: ira.millstein@weil.com
Director, Columbia Law School and Columbia Business School Program on Global, Economic and Regulatory Interdependence

Areas of Expertise
  • Antitrust and competition
  • Corporate governance
  • Securities litigation
Education
  • B.S., Columbia University, 1947
  • J.D., Columbia Law School, 1949
Biography
Ira M. Millstein is the director of the Columbia Law School and Columbia Business School Program on Global, Economic & Regulatory Interdependence. He is a senior partner at the international law firm Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP, where, in addition to practicing in the areas of government regulation and antitrust law, he has counseled numerous boards on issues of corporate governance, including the boards of General Motors, Westinghouse, Bethlehem Steel, WellChoice (fka, Empire Blue Cross), the California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS), Tyco International, the Walt Disney Co., the New York State Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the Ford Foundation, the Nature Conservancy, and Planned Parenthood Federation of America, among others.

Millstein is a member of the board of the National September 11 Memorial & Museum at the World Trade Center and serves as pro bono counsel to the board of directors of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, the agency overseeing the redevelopment of Lower Manhattan. Millstein was appointed by former Governor George Pataki as chairman of a New York State Commission on Public Authority Reform, which led to the 2009 Public Authorities Reform Act, and he currently serves as chairman of the governor's task force overseeing implementation of the Act.

In addition to his active legal practice, Millstein is the senior associate dean for corporate governance and the Theodore Nierenberg Adjunct Professor of Corporate Governance at the Yale School of Management. In November 2006, the School of Management renamed its corporate governance center the Millstein Center for Corporate Governance and Performance in honor of Millstein. He is the chairman emeritus, having served as chairman from 1999 to 2005, of the Private Sector Advisory Group to the Global Corporate Governance Forum founded by the World Bank and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). He served as chairman of the OECD Business Sector Advisory Group on Corporate Governance from 1997 to 1998 and as co-chair of the Blue Ribbon Committee on Improving the Effectiveness of Corporate Audit Committees (sponsored by the New York Stock Exchange and the National Association of Securities Dealers) in 1998–1999.

In 1997, he was appointed by Vice President Al Gore and Russian Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin to the U.S.-Russia Capital Markets Forum Working Group on Investor Protection. In 1996, Millstein chaired the National Association of Corporate Directors' blue ribbon commission on director professionalism.

He formerly has served as chairman of the board of advisors of Columbia University's Center for Law & Economic Studies' Institutional Investor Project; chairman of the New York State Pension Investment Task Force; adjunct professor at New York University School of Law; and fellow of the faculty of government at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government.

An elected fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, Millstein is a frequent lecturer and author on corporate governance, antitrust, and government regulation. In 2001, he received the first Award for Excellence in Corporate Governance by the International Corporate Governance Network. In June 2006, the National Law Journal named Millstein one of the 100 Most Influential Lawyers in America.

A graduate of Columbia Law School, Millstein is a life trustee and former chairman of the board of the Central Park Conservancy, chairman emeritus and a member of the board of overseers of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and chairman of the board of trustees of the American Red Cross of Greater New York. He is a member of the board of the National Association of Corporate Directors, serves on the Advisory Council of Transparency International, and is a former member of the Yale School of Management Advisory Board. He is a former chairman of the Antitrust Law Sections of both the American Bar Association and the New York State Bar Association.

Selected Publications
  • The Recurrent Crisis in Corporate Governance, with Paul W. MacAvoy (Palgrave, 2003; paperback ed., Stanford University Press, 2004).
  • "The Responsible Board," The Business Lawyer (1997).
  • "The Professional Board," The Business Lawyer (1995).
  • "The Evolution of the Certifying Board," The Business Lawyer (1992).
  • The Battle for Corporate Control: Shareholder Rights, Stakeholder Interests, and Managerial Responsibility (contributing author, New York University Press, 1991).
  • The Impact of the Modern Corporation (co-editor, Columbia University Press, 1984).
  • The Limits of Corporate Power, with Salem M. Katsh (MacMillan, 1981).