Edwin D. Williamson
Eight Floor
1701 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, D.C. 20006
TEL (202) 956-7505
FAX (202 293-6330
EMAIL:
BIOGRAPHY OF EDWIN D. WILLIAMSON
Edwin D. Williamson retired as a partner of the law firm of Sullivan & Cromwell LLP and became Senior Counsel as of December 31, 2006. He continues to consult with the firm with respect to the United States’ economic sanctions law and the ethics rules applicable to government officials. Mr. Williamson has spent his entire professional career with Sullivan & Cromwell LLP, except for his service as the Legal Adviser of theU.S. Department of Statefrom September 20, 1990 until January20, 1993.
Mr. Williamson began his professional career with Sullivan & Cromwell, upon graduating from New York University School of Law in 1964. He became a partner in 1971 and served as the firm’s resident partner in its London office from 1976 to 1979. He moved from thefirm’s New York office to its Washington office in 1988. Upon his return to the firm following his service as the Legal Adviser, Mr.Williamson resumed his international financing and transactions practice. His clients have included major investment banking firms, multinational corporations, foreign sovereigns and venture capitalists.
As the Legal Adviser, Mr. Williamson advised the Secretary of State and, through him, the President of the United States on international legal issues. He was responsible for formulating the international legal position of the United States in the 1990-1991 Persian Gulf conflict, the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the concomitant issues of state succession, and the dissolution of Yugoslavia and the attempt to end the Serbian-Bosnian conflict.
Mr. Williamson has served as a Vice Chairman and a member of the Executive Board of the Business and Advisory Committee (BIAC) to the OECD and a member of the Executive Committee of the U.S. Council for International Business (USCIB). He chaired BIAC’s special task force on the 2003-4 review by the OECD of its Principles of Corporate Governance and BIAC’s expert group on the OECD’s ill-fated Multilateral Agreement on Investment.
In addition to his public policy work in the international investment and corporate governance areas, Mr. Williamson is an active participant on panels and other forums involving public international law and national security issues, such as the domestic and international bases for the use of force, the role of the United States with respect to the International Criminal Court and the application of international legal principles in the war against terrorism.
Mr. Williamson is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a member of the Executive Council of the American Society of International Law. In June 2004, he completed a two-year term on the United States Advisory Board of NTT DoCoMo, Inc. He is a former director of Triton Oil & Gas Limited and a past Chairman of the Board of Regents of the University of the South. He was elected to the University’s Board of Trustees in October 2007.
A native of Darlington, South Carolina, Mr. Williamson was graduated from the University of the South, Sewanee Tennessee, in 1961, from which he received an honorary Doctor of Civil Law degree in 1992. At NYULawSchool, he was a Root-Tilden scholar and an Editor of the NYU Law Review. He is married to the former Mary Kathe Gates, has three children and resides in Washington, D.C.
December 2007
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