Today we bid farewell to Harvey Goldschmid, a sweet and gentle man, a friend whom so many of us trusted, a powerful and influential voice in corporate and securities law, a person whose career was as effective both as a scholar and teacher and as a government official as I have ever known. Harvey also was my closest friend in academia. Our friendship began literally in the first hours of my professional career.
It is particularly appropriate we do so at an ILEP conference. Ed Labaton took the lead in organizing the first and all subsequent ILEP conferences. Harvey and I, along with Jim Cox, worked with Ed on the first conference, and Harvey and Jim stayed deeply involved during the next 21 years of ILEP events. From the initial focus on Class Actions at the Crossroads to the conference today, ILEP has made a difference in articulating thoughtful programs, including outstanding speakers on pivotal issues of investor protection. Harvey’s role has been consequential in every program.
Harvey characterized the noted Columbia historian Richard Hofstadter as the most important influence in his education, “although ironically he almost dissuaded [Harvey] from becoming a lawyer. [Harvey] did a major writing project for [Hofstadter],” which I believe was a study of the influential Columbia University President Nicholas Murray Butler to which Harvey sometimes alluded in conversations with me. “At some point . . . [Hofstadter] said that I really ought to do something more important with my life [than become a lawyer].” Harvey thought about this, but realized, “I love history in terms of reading, but there was more of an activist in me than in Richard Hofstadter. . . . [T]he excitement of being in the world more was . . . what finally drew me [to law].”