Paul R. Verkuil to Publish Book on the Perils of “Outsourcing Sovereignty”

07.16.2007

NEW YORK, NEW YORK, June 16, 2007 - The law firm of Boies, Schiller & Flexner LLP announced today that Senior Counsel and Cardozo Law school professor, Paul R. Verkuil, has authored a new book, Outsourcing Sovereignty: How Privatization of Government Functions Threatens Democracy And What We Can Do About It.   Published by Cambridge University Press, the book describes - and criticizes - the largely overlooked process of using private contractors to perform essential government work.

Mr. Verkuil's book is extremely timely - the Bush Administration is spending billions of dollars on private military forces in Iraq. For example it argues that delegating inherent government functions raises profound constitutional concerns and affects our politics and economics.  "I wrote this book to explore some of the intended social costs of the privatization movement that undermine the separation of powers and jeopardize our political arrangements," Mr. Verkuil said.

Mr. Verkuil has a distinguished record as a litigator, counselor, businessman and scholar.  In addition to his current role as Professor of Law at Cardozo Law School, Yeshiva University, he has served as Dean of the Cardozo and Tulane Law Schools and President of the College of William & Mary.  He has written three books - one of which is the leading treatise in the field of administrative law - and over sixty articles on public law issues.  An accomplished commercial litigator and arbitrator; he served as CEO of the American Automobile Association from 1992-1995 and a Special Master to the U.S. Supreme Court on New Jersey v. New York (the Ellis Island case); and he is a lifetime fellow of both the American Bar Foundation and the American Law Institute.  He is also an important part of Boies, Schiller & Flexner's overall success and serves as counsel to core clients as well as managing the pro bono practice at the firm.

"This is an important book that everyone who is interested in the threat that private special interests pose to our democracy should read," said Boies, Schiller & Flexner LLP Chairman David Boies.

Boies, Schiller & Flexner LLP, founded in 1997, has become one of the nation's premier law firms.  It has approximately 240 lawyers in offices located in New York, Washington, D.C., California, Florida, New Hampshire and Las Vegas.  Best known for landmark cases such as United States v. Microsoft, Bush v. Gore, and In re Vitamins, the firm represents some of the largest and most sophisticated organizations in the world in their most important matters. The firm has been described by The Wall Street Journal as a "national litigation powerhouse" and by the National Law Journal as "unafraid to venture into controversial" and "high risk" matters.  Boies, Schiller & Flexner can be visited on the web at www.bsfllp.com.