Arthur L. Liman

Arthur Lawrence Liman (November 5, 1932 – July 17, 1997) was an American lawyer and partner at the New York firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison. Liman served as the chief counsel for both the New York state commission for the Attica Prison riot in 1971 and the investigation of the Iran–Contra affair in 1987.

Early life and education Arthur Liman was born on November 5, 1932, in Far Rockaway, Queens, and spent most of his childhood in Lawrence, Long Island. Liman's grandparents were Jewish immigrants from Russia, who settled in New York City. Liman's mother was valedictorian of her high school class, Phi Beta Kappa at Hunter College, and taught Latin. His father graduated from City College of New York and taught history in public schools before joining his father's dressmaking business. Liman's older sister Gladys, a graduate of Smith College, was a poet.

Liman attended Harvard University, where he studied political science and graduated in 1954. Liman wrote in his memoir that he decided to become a lawyer after observing a day of hearings by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the Committee on Government Operations, known colloquially as the "McCarthy Hearings." Liman decided to attend the hearings because he had chosen to write his senior thesis on "the threat that McCarthy-style congressional investigations posed to our concepts of civil liberties and limited government."

At Governor Rockefeller's request, Liman was appointed to serve as chief counsel of the New York State Special Commission on the Attica Prison uprising (the McKay Commission). Liman led the investigation, "the main purpose of which is to dispel the long-persisting doubts about what actually happened." He and his staff spent months documenting events and speaking to all parties involved. Liman took special care to develop trust with the prisoners and later described joining 500 prisoners for their supper on Christmas Day in 1971.

Liman led the investigation and conducted 40 days of televised hearings before the Senate. Two key witnesses – Lt. Col. Oliver North and Vice Adm. John Poindexter – refused to state that President Reagan had played any role in the covert actions. In his later memoirs, Liman reflected that "the public and the media tended to believe that Congress somehow had ‘lost' and the witnesses ‘won'. . . . But Iran-contra wasn't about winning and losing. An attempt had been made to undermine our Constitution. What the investigation accomplished was to bring all of it, in all its details, to the national attention. In this sense, I believe we all won." The program offers fellowships for Yale Law School graduates to spend a year working on issues such as welfare rights, elder law, indigent criminal defense, immigration, and juvenile justice. The program also awards summer fellowships to students at Barnard, Brown, Harvard, Princeton, Spelman, and Yale to pursue public interest-themed projects at organizations across the country. As of 2013, they had awarded fellowships to 94 Yale Law School graduates, and well as to hundreds of undergraduates.

Published works Liman's memoir, Lawyer: A Life of Counsel and Controversy, was published posthumously in 1998 and released in paperback in 2003.