Bevis Longstreth

Last updated

Bevis Longstreth (born January 29, 1934) is an American retired lawyer and former Commissioner of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). He practiced law as a partner at Debevoise & Plimpton, and taught on the faculty of Columbia Law School. His legal scholarship has informed much of the modern understanding of fiduciary duty in the context of institutional investors. [1]

Contents

Longstreth is also a writer, having authored three historical novels, two set in Ancient Persia and one set in the United States during the 1930s. He sits on the board of a number institutions in education, the arts, and the financial world.

SEC Commissioner

Longstreth was the 60th Commissioner of the SEC, appointed twice by President Ronald Reagan. He served from 1981 to 1984. [2] [3] For over two decades, Longstreth was a partner in the New York-based law firm of Debevoise & Plimpton, where he spent all of his career as a lawyer, both before and after servicing as SEC commissioner. [4]

From 1994 to 1999, Longstreth was an adjunct professor at Columbia University School of Law, teaching the regulation of financial institutions. [5] He has been a frequent speaker and lecturer on various securities and corporate law topics. He is a former member of the Board of Governors of the American Stock Exchange, a former director of INVESCO, plc, a former trustee of College Retirement Equities Fund and a former director of Grantham, Mayo & Van Otterloo. For many years he served on the Pension Finance Committee of The World Bank. [6] As of 2018, he serves on the board of New School University and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. [7] He also serves on the board of The Highlands Current, a not-for-profit newspaper serving the Hudson River Valley. [8]

Author

Bevis Longstreth is a writer of historical novels. He has written three novels: Spindle and Bow (2005), Return of the Shade (2009), and Boats Against the Current (2016). Spindle and Bow is a story of love and adventure set in the 5th Century BC. The settings span some 3,000 miles (4,800 km), from the ancient city of Sardis, at the western edge of the Persian Empire in Anatolia to the Scythian village of Pazyryk in the Altai Mountains of southwestern Siberia. The story answers many mysteries surrounding the Pazyryk, a perfectly preserved pile carpet measuring about six feet square discovered in 1949 in a royal Scythian tomb with a man, a woman and nine horses cut down in the prime of life. Scholars consider the Pazyryk a masterpiece of weaving technique and artistry dating from the Iron Age, some 400 years before the birth of Christ. It remains today the world's oldest pile carpet. Longstreth is meticulous in his use of facts about the period and the carpet itself, using the accredited available historical sources. The carpet is now on view in the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg.

Return of the Shade is the story of Queen Parysatis of Ancient Persia., [9] a Queen and Queen Mother of the Persian Empire at its peak of power. She lived for about 60 years from around 444 to 384 BC, one and a half millennia ago. She was the purest strain of Persian, a direct descendant of Cyrus the Great, founder of the Achaemenid dynasty and of the Persian Empire, which lasted 220 years from 550 to 330 BC – a dynasty that brought stability, prosperity and a flourishing civilization to what we now call the Middle East and beyond. In its day, the largest and most powerful Empire the world had ever seen. It extended from the Indus River to North Africa, from the Aral Sea to the Persian Gulf, all told one million square miles. The Persian Empire had everything under the sun. Everything, that is, except a single historian to preserve for posterity its highs and lows. As seen through the eyes Greek historians, the Persians were weak and effeminate: a barbaric and despotic foil against which the courage, discipline, democracy, and culture of the Greek civilization could be set.

Longstreth says of Parysatis, "She was a forgotten Queen in a forgotten Empire, dismissed by the Greeks as hopelessly cruel. By working with the few facts about her that had been recorded by Greek historians such as Plutarch and Ctesias, it was possible -- much as it would be to divine an entire puzzle from a few important pieces -- to fill in the empty spaces with imagined accounts of Parysatis’ life: a life endowed with great power and the instinct to know how to use it; a life fraught with the drama of the Achaemenids, a royal line beset with patricides, fratricides and other wicked episodes so typical of the ruling classes at all points of the compass. Here, too, was a chance to illuminate an Empire cast in darkness by Greek writers."

Boats Against the Current charts the struggles of six lives braided together in the Great Depression, with FDR's New Deal and its Works Progress Administration serving as armature for the story. These fictional characters blend with many historical figures, including Hallie Flanagan, head of the WPA's famous Theatre Project, Huey Long, the tyrant from Louisiana, and William Allen White, the editor and owner of The Emporia Gazette in Kansas.

Longstreth is also the author of Modern Investment Management and the Prudent Man Rule (Oxford University Press, 1986), a book seeking to modernize the law governing investment management by fiduciaries.

Personal life

Early life

Longstreth was born in 1934, in New Jersey. [2] [10] [11] He was originally known as Bevis Longstreth, Jr. [12] His parents were Bevis and Mary (Shiras) Longstreth. They had five children: [12]

Bevis Longstreth, Sr. was an industrialist, having taken over his mother's family's salt businesses, and upon selling them, starting Thiokol Corporation and leading it until his death in 1944. [12] [13]

Adult life

A graduate of Princeton University and Harvard Law School (1961, JD), Longstreth served as a First Lieutenant in the US Marine Corps from 1956 to 1958. He married Clara St. John, a musician, [11] in 1963. [10] [14] They have three children. [10] He has run the New York Marathon, [10] and served on the board of Symphony Space. [15]

Son Benjamin Hoyt Longstreth married Molly Elissa Rauch in a Jewish Reform ceremony, in July 2000. [16]

As of 2015 he had nine grandchildren. [17]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Artaxerxes II</span> King of the Achaemenid Empire from 405/4 to 359/8 BC

Arses, known by his regnal name Artaxerxes II, was King of Kings of the Achaemenid Empire from 405/4 BC to 358 BC. He was the son and successor of Darius II and his mother was Parysatis.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pazyryk burials</span> Iron Age tombs in the Altai Mountains of Russia

The Pazyrykburials are a number of Scythian (Saka) Iron Age tombs found in the Pazyryk Valley and the Ukok plateau in the Altai Mountains, Siberia, south of the modern city of Novosibirsk, Russia; the site is close to the borders with China, Kazakhstan and Mongolia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom</span> International law firm

Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP and Affiliates, typically shortened to Skadden, is an American multinational law firm headquartered in New York City. The company is known for its work on company mergers and takeovers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Beard Foundation</span> Nonprofit organization

The James Beard Foundation is an American non-profit culinary arts organization based in New York City. It was named after James Beard, a food writer, teacher, and cookbook author. Its programs include guest-chef dinners to scholarships for aspiring culinary students, educational conferences, and industry awards. In the spirit of James Beard's legacy, the foundation creates programs that help educate people about American cuisine, and supports and promotes the chefs and other industry professionals.

Thiokol was an American corporation concerned initially with rubber and related chemicals, and later with rocket and missile propulsion systems. Its name is a portmanteau of the Greek words for sulfur and glue, an allusion to the company's initial product, Thiokol polymer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zeugma (Commagene)</span> Ancient city of Commagene in modern-day Turkey

Zeugma was an ancient Hellenistic era Greek and then Roman city of Commagene; located in modern Gaziantep Province, Turkey. It was named for the bridge of boats, or zeugma, that crossed the Euphrates at that location. Zeugma Mosaic Museum contains mosaics from the site, and is one of the largest mosaic museums in the world.

Parysatis was a Persian queen, consort of Darius II and had a large influence during the reign of Artaxerxes II.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stanley Rogers Resor</span> American governmental official (1917–2012)

Stanley Rogers Resor was an American lawyer, military officer, and government official.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mary Jo White</span> American attorney

Mary Jo White is an American attorney who served as the 31st chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) from 2013 to 2017. She was the first woman to be the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, serving from 1993 to 2002. On January 24, 2013, President Barack Obama nominated White to replace Elisse B. Walter as Chair of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. She was confirmed by the Senate on April 8, 2013, and was sworn into office on April 10, 2013. In 2014, she was listed as the 73rd most powerful woman in the world by Forbes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stateira (wife of Alexander the Great)</span> Daughter of Darius III, died 323 BC

Stateira, possibly also known as Barsine, was the daughter of Stateira and Darius III of Persia. After her father's defeat at the Battle of Issus, Stateira and her sisters became captives of Alexander of Macedon. They were treated well, and she became Alexander's second wife at the Susa weddings in 324 BC. At the same ceremony Alexander also married her cousin, Parysatis, daughter of Darius' predecessor. After Alexander's death in 323 BC, Stateira was killed by Alexander's other wife, Roxana.

Eric R. Dinallo is a partner and chair of the insurance regulatory practice at Debevoise & Plimpton LLP and a member of the firm's Financial Institutions and White Collar & Regulatory Defense Groups. Formerly Executive Vice President, Chief Legal Counsel at The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America, Inc. Formerly Superintendent of Insurance for New York State, he was nominated by Governor Eliot Spitzer and confirmed by the New York State Senate on April 18, 2007, as the 39th Superintendent of the New York State Insurance Department. On May 28, 2009, he announced his resignation and subsequently left state government service to become a visiting professor at New York University's Stern School of Business. On August 24, 2009, Dinallo announced that he was preparing for a possible campaign for the elected office of New York State Attorney General. He was defeated in the primary on September 14, 2010, by Eric T. Schneiderman, who went on to win the office in the general election.

Eli Whitney Debevoise was a prominent New York lawyer who co-founded the law firm Debevoise & Plimpton and periodically served in a variety of high-profile government positions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Armenian carpet</span> Weaving technique used for carpet, rugs and floor covers, etc.

The term Armenian carpet designates, but is not limited to, tufted rugs or knotted carpets woven in Armenia or by Armenians from pre-Christian times to the present. It also includes a number of flat woven textiles. The term covers a large variety of types and sub-varieties. Due to their intrinsic fragility, almost nothing survives—neither carpets nor fragments—from antiquity until the late medieval period.

Paul Michael Bator was a Hungarian-born American legal scholar, Supreme Court advocate, and academic expert on United States federal courts. He taught for almost 30 years at Harvard Law School and the University of Chicago Law School. He also served as the United States Deputy Solicitor General during the Reagan administration, in which capacity he argued and won the landmark administrative law case Chevron U.S.A. v. Natural Resources Defense Council. From 1984 to 2024, the Chevron doctrine governed the judicial interpretation of Congressional statutes that authorized federal regulators to make law.

Francis Taylor Pearsons Plimpton was an American diplomat, New York City lawyer, partner at the law firm Debevoise & Plimpton and a president of the New York City Bar Association.

Barbara Paul Robinson is a New York City lawyer who works with the firm Debevoise & Plimpton. The firm specializes in Trusts and Estates law. She was also the president of the New York City Bar Association.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lorna G. Schofield</span> American judge (born 1956)

Lorna Gail Tiangco Schofield is a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Neil Eggleston</span> American lawyer (born 1953)

Warren Neil Eggleston is an American lawyer who served as the White House Counsel under President Barack Obama. Eggleston was the fourth person to hold this post during the Obama administration.

Andrew J. Ceresney is an American lawyer at Debevoise & Plimpton and a former government official who served as director of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's Division of Enforcement.

Rebecca Roiphe is an American lawyer and legal historian specializing in ethics and the history of the legal profession. She is the Joseph Solomon Distinguished Professor of Law at the New York Law School. She is a legal analyst who regularly appears on news outlets such as MSNBC, CNN, and CBS. She is a public intellectual who is quoted as an expert for the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and New York Times. She is also a journalist who has written for the New York Times, the Washington Post, The New York Review of Books, Slate, as well as other publications.

References

  1. ↑ Sassoon, David (2016-06-08). "Will This Retired Lawyer Open the Floodgates of Divestment From Fossil Fuels?". Inside Climate News. Retrieved 2021-11-12.
  2. 1 2 "BUSINESS PEOPLE Longstreth, a Democrat, To Leave S.E.C. Early". New York Times. 1983-12-12. Retrieved 2018-05-07. Bevis Longstreth, a Democratic member of the Securities and Exchange Commission, has informed President Reagan that he will leave the commission on Jan. 13, nearly five months before his term expires. The announcement yesterday by Mr. Longstreth came as no surprise because he has been telling associates that he would leave early.
  3. ↑ Farrell, William E.; Weaver Jr., Warren (1984-01-13). "BRIEFING". New York Times (published 1984-01-14). Retrieved 2018-05-07.
  4. ↑ Cuff, Daniel F. (1984-01-31). "BUSINESS PEOPLE" (published 1984-02-01). Retrieved 2018-05-07.
  5. ↑ "Bevis Longstreth".
  6. ↑ "TIFF Education Foundation". Archived from the original on 2008-10-15. Retrieved 2010-07-06.
  7. ↑ "Membership Roster". Archived from the original on 2017-01-11. Retrieved 2017-05-11.
  8. ↑ "About - Highlands Current" . Retrieved 2017-05-11.
  9. ↑ "Bevis Longstreth -- About the Author". Archived from the original on 2010-01-19. Retrieved 2010-07-06.
  10. 1 2 3 4 Winfrey, Carey (1977-10-24). "The Elation and Agony Of a First ‐Time Starter". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2018-05-07.
  11. 1 2 Sloane, Leonard (22 June 1981). "BUSINESS PEOPLE; MAJOR ISSUES CLEAR TO S.E.C. NOMINEE". The New York Times. Retrieved 2018-05-07.
  12. 1 2 3 Myers, William Starr (2000). Prominent Families of New Jersey. Genealogical Publishing Com. ISBN   9780806350363.
  13. ↑ Collections of the Kansas State Historical Society. Kansas State Historical Society. 1918.
  14. ↑ "Clara S. St. John Is Attended by 6 At Her Wedding; Teacher Is Married in Weston, Mass., Church to Bevis Longstreth". The New York Times. 1963-08-11. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2018-05-07.
  15. ↑ Rockwell, John (8 October 1981). "NEWS OF MUSIC; GRANT TO AID ORCHESTRA COMMISSIONS" . Retrieved 2018-05-07.
  16. ↑ "WEDDINGS; Molly Rauch, Benjamin Longstreth". The New York Times. 2000-07-02. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2018-05-07.
  17. ↑ Schwartz, John (2015-06-05). "Norway Will Divest From Coal in Push Against Climate Change". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2018-05-07.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.