Metropolitan News-Enterprise

 

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

 

Page 3

 

UC Berkeley Law School Honors Arent Fox Partner

 

By a MetNews Staff Writer

 

The UC Berkley Law School has selected Robert C. O’Brien, managing partner of Arent Fox’s Los Angeles office, as this year’s recipient of its Stefan A. Riesenfeld Memorial Award in recognition of his service as co-chair of the US Department of State Public-Private Partnership for Justice Reform in Afghanistan, the firm has announced in a release.

Named in honor of a long-time professor of international law who died in 1999, the award is traditionally given to a distinguished scholar or practitioner who has made outstanding contributions to the field of international law and is the school’s highest recognition of service and accomplishment in this field, according to a UC Berkeley website. The award is scheduled to be presented at an on-campus symposium on justice reform initiatives hosted by the Berkeley Journal of International Law next Thursday, where O’Brien, a 1991 alumnus, is slated to serve as the keynote speaker.

David D. Caron, the C. William Maxeiner Distinguished Professor of Law at UC

Berkeley and President of the American Society of International Law, described O’Brien as “a skilled diplomat and lawyer with extensive international experience, who has served in key posts in both Republic and Democratic administrations” and is “deeply devoted to human rights issues and to establishing the rule of law in regions of the world where little or none exists.”

O’Brien said he knew Riesenfeld from his days as a law student and was “honored and humbled to be associated with [the late professor’s] legacy through this award.”

The attorney serves on the U.S. Cultural Property Advisory Committee, where he advises the Department of State on the Convention on Cultural Property Implementation Act, according to his firm biography.

He is also a member of the panel of neutrals for the International Center for Dispute Resolution/American Arbitration Association and is currently the court-appointed special Discovery Master in the high-profile “Bratz” doll litigation pending in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.

Before attending UC Berkeley and joining the State Bar in 1991, O’Brien graduated cum laude from UCLA in 1988.

 

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