Lester S. Hyman is a legal practitioner, with clients including Fortune 500 corporations, foreign governments and companies across the globe. Previously a founding partner and senior of counsel with the prominent Washington law firm Swidler Berlin, he now acts as a sole counselor.

Hyman lives in Washington, D.C., and has a home on the Caribbean island of Tortola

Tortola

Tortola is the largest and most populated of the British Virgin Islands, a group of islands that form part of the archipelago of the Virgin Islands. Local tradition recounts that Christopher Columbus named it Tortola, meaning "land of the Turtle Dove". Columbus named the island Santa Ana...

, where he is a member of the Board of the British Virgin Islands

British Virgin Islands

The Virgin Islands, often called the British Virgin Islands , is a British overseas territory and overseas territory of the European Union, located in the Caribbean to the east of Puerto Rico. The islands make up part of the Virgin Islands archipelago, the remaining islands constituting the U.S...

 Community College and the British Virgin Islands National Parks Trust. He acts as United States Legal Counsel for the BVI.

Education

Hyman graduated Brown University

Brown University

Brown University is a private, Ivy League university located in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. Founded in 1764 prior to American independence from the British Empire as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations early in the reign of King George III ,...

 in 1952 with a Bachelor of Arts degree and graduated Columbia University School of Law

Columbia Law School

Columbia Law School, founded in 1858, is one of the oldest and most prestigious law schools in the United States. A member of the Ivy League, Columbia Law School is one of the professional graduate schools of Columbia University in New York City. It offers the J.D., LL.M., and J.S.D. degrees in...

 in 1955 with a Bachelor of Laws degree.

Clinton administration

For the Clinton Administration

Presidency of Bill Clinton

The United States Presidency of Bill Clinton, also known as the Clinton Administration, was the executive branch of the federal government of the United States from January 20, 1993 to January 20, 2001. Clinton was the first Democratic president since Franklin D. Roosevelt to win a second full term...

, Hyman vetted candidates for Vice President, Attorney General, Secretary of the Treasury, Director of the CIA, and the U.S. Supreme Court, including preparation for Senatorial confirmation hearings.

In 1994, President Clinton appointed him to the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial Commission, which oversaw the construction of the FDR Memorial

Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial

The memorial's design concept of four outdoor "rooms" and gardens is animated by water, stone, and sculpture.The 1974 design competition was won by Lawrence Halprin; but for more than 20 years Congress failed to appropriate the funds to move beyond this conceptual stage...

 in Washington. President Clinton appointed Hyman to the Presidential Delegation representing the United States at the Peace Accord signing in Guatemala in 1996 that ended a 36-year civil war.

Author

Hyman's book, United States Policy Towards Liberia, was published by the Africana Homestead Legacy Publishers in 2003. It is based on his time as Legal Counsel to Liberia from 1997 to 1999 and talks about the humanitarian crisis.

Federal and State Government

In the federal government, Hyman served as an attorney with the Corporation Finance Division of the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission, and later as senior consultant to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. On the state level, he was chief assistant to the governor, then secretary of commerce and development, and later chairman of the Massachusetts Democratic Party.

As a member of the International Observer Team in 1990 headed by former President Jimmy Carter, he monitored the first democratic election in the history of Haiti. Additionally, he has been involved in peace resolution efforts in Africa, as well as legal and governmental issues in Japan, France, Korea, Germany, England, Lebanon, Russia, and the Caribbean.

Non-Profit board

Hyman served on the Board of Trustees of the Norton Simon Museum of Art at Pasadena, California from 1996 to 1997.

From 2004 to 2007, he was a trustee of the University of the District of Columbia (UDC) and a member of the Board of the UDC Foundation. While a member of the board of the International Intellectual Property Institute (IIPI) in 2004, he served as project director for an 18-nation IIPI conference on the creation of the Caribbean Court of Justice.

He is a member of the Board and Chair of the Legal Advisory Committee of the not-for-profit Center for Advanced Defense Studies (CADS), and has taught a course in “Decision-Making in Politics” at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. He is also a founding member of the Board of Directors of the Center for National Policy.

Present activities

Hyman currently serves as strategic advisor to Oxantium Ventures LLC, which manages a fund targeted at early stage technology companies in emerging markets.

He writes on U.S. and international issues, and his articles appear in such publications as The Los Angeles Times

Los Angeles Times

The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....

 and The Boston Globe

The Boston Globe

The Boston Globe is an American daily newspaper based in Boston, Massachusetts. The Boston Globe has been owned by The New York Times Company since 1993...

. He has appeared on CNN, CNN International, and the Fox TV national cable network as a legal/political/international expert.