Name: Harvey Rishikof
Age: 45
Position: Dean and Professor of Law at Roger Williams University Ralph R. Papitto School of Law
Backround: Rishikof has held several high profile jobs including Legal Counsel to the Deputy Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (1997-1999) and Administrative Assistant to the Chief Justice of the United States (1994-1996). He was also a lecturer at Harvard University (1991-1993) and a lawyer at the prominent law firm of Hale and Dorr in Boston (1989-1992).
Education: New York University School of Law, J.D. (1986); Harvard University, Ph.D. candidate (1978-1983, 1987-1990); Brandeis University, M.A.(1978); McGill University, B.A. (1975).
Family: Married, two daughters
Residence: Barrington
PBN: Tell me about your experience at the FBI?
RISHIKOF: I was legal counsel to the deputy director and had a wide ranging jurisdiction. I worked on a number of issues at the bureau. At that time the FBI laboratories were under investigation by the Inspector General of the Justice Department because of allegations made by a whistle blower. The Director and the then-General Counsel were recused from the process of responding to the report because they themselves were mentioned in the report. One of my first assignments was dealing with the appropriate way that the bureau should respond to the report. We did a number of things that I think the people at the bureau were very proud of, including, for the first time, we hired a new director for the FBI laboratories with a Ph.D in physics Another one of my functions was as a liaison with the main justice. I was involved in working out issues that rose to the level of Attorney General and Deputy Attorney General. There were a number of protocols with Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms dealing with how we do imaging between two systems of identification for bullets and shells. Under our stewardship came the creation of the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network, whereby for the first time we helped create standards for how images would be loaded up between the ATF system and the FBI system so you will be able to integrate them from around the nation to form a national data base.
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It appears to be such an exciting and rewarding job so why did you decide to leave?
There were a variety of reasons. First of all, I originally came from academics. Before I came to the bureau I was the Administrative Assistant to the Chief Justice of the United States. It was a very dean-like position. The chief is chancellor of the Smithsonian Institution, which is very similar to running a major university. The administrative assistant assists the chancellor as the secretary of the Smithsonian and deals with policy issues. For example, one of the major policy issues I was involved in was the Enola Gay (the plane that dropped the first atom bomb on Japan) issue, which was one of my first assignments. I had to work to help resolve what was a slight conflict that had erupted over the exhibit.
Before that I had been Judicial Fellow to the Supreme Court and assisted in the writing of a long-range plan for the federal courts. The basic issue was if you were to change the federal courts how would you do it and why? An offshoot of that study is the current issue concerning the splitting of the Ninth Circuit, which for legal scholars and administrators is a major issue. Before that I had been teaching at Harvard in social studies, one of the four or five honors programs at Harvard.
What in particular appealed to you about Roger Williams University’s law school?
The attraction to Roger Williams law school is it is a new school and a school with a great future. From my perspective becoming a dean of a new school (the law school is six years old) allows you to have room to maneuver and help you create a wonderful institution and to build on it. I have talked to other schools about becoming a dean. But, many other schools that are older have less opportunity to become involved in shaping the future because of the structures that exist and the approach of the school. I have worked in the private sector, I have worked in the public sector and I have worked for universities. I find that education is probably one of the most critical qualities to give a person an opportunity to improve themselves and define themselves. I very much wanted to return and participate in something I cared deeply about. Becoming the dean of a law school that wanted to participate and contribute to its community was important to me.
How do you see Roger Williams law school becoming more competitive with the well known Boston area law schools?
As a new school what we want to be is a force in the state and region. We are going to help define our future by carving out unique specialties that will be associated with coming to Roger Williams for your education. Examples are our Marine Affairs Institute and our (Louis Feinstein Legal Clinic for Family Law and Criminal Defense Clinic programs). I would also like to develop our international program, which currently includes teachings in Lisbon and London. We have plans to expand, depending on how all the cards fit together, and to go to Rome and to Beijing.
We have a unique relationship with Portugal. We will build on our indigenous Rhode Island Portuguese population. The Beijing issue is particularly important because of how important China will be for the 21st century.
I’m also interested in building a national security law institute and developing our unique relationship with the Naval War College.
The logic would be in addition to creating a first rate intellectual community you build on a number of indigenous comparative advantages such as the closeness to the Navy, the Marine Affairs Institute and our relationship working perhaps with the Rhode Island legislature to develop a law internship program. We need to build upon these comparative advantages that make for a unique educational experience. I think that sort of strategy helps in going about attracting students from the region. Also we have a small school so we can offer a much closer mentoring relationship with faculty to students.
The Bar scores of the school’s graduates have been a concern. Tell me how you hope to address this?
I think recently there has been an experiment to take a look at how the Bar exams are graded. I think that will have some effect on our passage rate. Two, I think institutionally we have to take responsibility for our students and assist them in helping them study and getting ready for the Bar. I will be meeting with third-year students and recent graduates (who have)taken the Bar(exam) to help craft what would be a set of programs that will help the students. I personally think that is something that we will see as part of our responsibility in helping the students.
How would you like to see the law school become more of an asset to the business community, the government and the community in general?
We are going to be very, very open. One way to do that will be to sit down with members of the Bar, members of the business community and members of the government and ask them how they would like us to assist based on their interest and what they think of our interest. We want to forge a marriage that is productive for them and us. Maybe they want more emphasis on public policy, or the bankruptcy area or commercial law. We want to find out.
Would you like to see a closer relationship between the law school and the other colleges on campus?
Yes, it will be. I come from a very strong inter-disciplinary training. I have met with a number of the deans from the school so far about this area. I think part of the intellectual experience for young lawyers who are being trained is they have to have substantive knowledge in a variety of areas. For example, increasingly in litigation you are confronting algorithms in statistics. Twenty years ago the average attorney probably did not feel comfortable with an algorithm or even statistical data, but we need that facility to be able to do that. Another example, when I first started practicing law I was immediately struck how often you had to go over business sheets, accounting sheetsparticularly in litigation dealing with commercial areas.
Also, a very important part of our education should reflect new developments in science, patent law issues and business.
How about creating ties with other schools – URI and Providence College, for example?
We have two programs with URI. We have a Master’s in marine affairs and a Master’s in community planning. I would like very much, as the law school begins to move on to the next stage, to reach out to the universities and colleges around.
My goal is to make it a very rich intellectual environment and that means reaching out internally to other schools here and externally to other schools in the state.
How is the legal community in Rhode Island viewed outside of the state?
I think that increasingly Providence and Rhode Island are being viewed as having a very sophisticated bench and Bar. I think there is a real sense that Rhode Island is experiencing a renaissance. I think with the renaissance comes a variety of expertise.
