RICHLAND, W(ilfred) Bernard 1909-2003

OBITUARY NOTICE—

See index for CA sketch: Born March 25, 1909, in Liverpool, England; died August 14, 2003, in Brooklyn Heights, NY. Attorney, educator, and author. Richland is most often remembered as being the corporate counsel for New York City during the 1970s budget crisis there. He immigrated to America from England at age sixteen and found work as an office boy for Judge Samuel Seabury in New York City. While studying at New York University, he became a clerk for Seabury; he graduated in 1936 and passed the New York State Bar and the U.S. Supreme Court Bar in 1937. Richland left Seabury's office in 1943 to join the city's Law Department as corporate counsel, and the next year he was made chief of the Opinions and Legislation Division. During the 1960s and early 1970s he worked for the private law firms Baer Marks and O'Dwyer & Bernstein before becoming general counsel to the State Charter Revision Commission of New York City in 1973; from 1975 to 1977 he was corporate counsel, heading the Law Department and helping to preserve important landmarks in the city that were threatened by budget cuts and building developers. After leaving this city post, he served as counsel to Botein, Hays & Sklar for ten years and taught local government law at New York Law School. His last job was as special master for appeals for the Agent Orange Administration from 1988 to 1996. In addition to contributing to law journals and serving on the New York Law Journal's editorial board, Richland was the author of one book, You Can Beat City Hall (1980).

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

New York Times, August 19, 2003, p. C13.