Stephen L. Dreyfuss inaugurated as President of UIA

During the closing ceremony of the 57th Congress of the Union Internationale des Avocats (UIA - International Association of Lawyers) held on 3 November in Macau, China, Stephen L. Dreyfuss of the United States succeeded Jean-Marie Burguburu of France as President of the UIA. Mr. Dreyfuss is the fourth American lawyer to become President of the oldest international lawyers’ association.

Stephen L. Dreyfuss is a partner in the Newark, New Jersey law firm of Hellring Lindeman Goldstein & Siegal LLP. His practice includes complex civil and criminal business litigation, joint ventures and international direct investment. He studied and worked in France early in his career, which familiarised him with the French business environment, and today Mr. Dreyfuss deals principally with international transactions and litigation, especially between the United States and France, as well as other countries of the European Union.

Mr. Dreyfuss’ more than 40 years of international experience have given him special skill with regard to issues requiring a practical synthesis of the European civil law and Anglo-Saxon common law systems.  He is the former President and current Executive Vice-President and Legal Counsel of the French-American Chamber of Commerce in New York, and a member of its Executive Committee, and also serves as Chair of the Advisory Council of the Princeton University Department of French and Italian.  He is frequently interviewed on French radio and television, and in the French press, with regard to high-visibility legal and economic issues.

Mr. Dreyfuss’ commitment to the UIA began nearly 25 years ago. Among other positions, he is former President of the UIA’s Criminal Law Commission, former UIA Director of Commissions, and since 2002 has served as Deputy Editor-in-Chief of the UIA magazine Juriste International. In 2011, he was elected First Vice- President of the UIA, and in 2012 was elected UIA President-Elect.  He will serve as UIA President for one year.

Mr. Dreyfuss is a 1971 graduate of Princeton University (A.B., magna cum laude) and a 1974 graduate of the Columbia University School of Law.  He began his career as a judicial law clerk in the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey, after which he served as a prosecutor in New York (Assistant District Attorney for New York County) from 1976 to 1979.  He joined Hellring Lindeman Goldstein & Siegal LLP in 1979.