Wilfred Bernard Richland

Background

Wilfred Richland was born on March 25, 1909, in Liverpool, United Kingdom. He was the son of Julius Richland, a tailor, seaman, and adventurer. Richland immigrated to the United States from the United Kingdom at age sixteen.

Education

Wilfred Richland attended Saint Simon's School in Liverpool and graduated at the age of 14. He also studied at New York University from 1932 to 1936.

Career

When Wilfred Richland immigrated to the United States from the United Kingdom, he found work as an office boy for Judge Samuel Seabury in New York in 1925. While studying at New York University, Richland became a clerk for Seabury.

After graduating in 1936, Richland passed the New York State Bar and the United States Supreme Court Bar in 1937. He left Seabury's office in 1943 to join the New York City Law Department as corporate counsel, and the next year he was made chief of the Opinions and Legislation Division until 1958. Richland served on Governor William Averell Harriman's State Commission on Home Rule in 1958, a special counsel to Mayor Robert Ferdinand Wagner's Study of Housing and Urban Renewal in 1960, and he sat on the Commission on Home Rule of the State Office for Local Government from 1960 to 1964. During the 1960s and early 1970s, he worked for the private law firms Baer Marks and O'Dwyer & Bernstein before becoming general counsel to the State Charter Revision Commission of New York City in 1973 until 1975. From 1975 to 1977, Richland was corporate counsel of the Abraham David Beame Administration, heading the Law Department and helping to preserve significant landmarks in the city that were threatened by budget cuts and building developers. After leaving this city post, Wilfred Richland served as counsel to Botein, Hays & Sklar for ten years and taught local government law at New York Law School from 1978 to 1988. His last job was as a special master for appeals for the federal Agent Orange Administration, in United States District Court in Brooklyn from 1988 to 1996.

Moreover, Wilfred Richland was a writer. In addition to contributing to law journals and serving on the New York Law Journal's editorial board, Richland was the author of one book, You Can Beat City Hall.

Achievements

• Wilfred Richland was well known as an attorney and writer. He was New York's chief lawyer during the fiscal crisis of the 1970s. As a writer, Richland was the author of one work You Can Beat City Hall.

Works

More photos

• book

  • You Can Beat City Hall 1980

Connections

Wilfred Richland married Pauline Diamond in 1933. They had two daughters, Robin Silverton and Lisa Richland.

Father:

Julius Richland

colleague:

Samuel Seabury

Samuel Seabury was famous for dedicating himself to a campaign against the corrupt Tammany dominance of New York City politics.

Wife:

Pauline Diamond

Daughter:

Robin Silverton

Daughter:

Lisa Richland

colleague:

William Averell Harriman

William Averell Harriman was an American statesman who was a leading United States diplomat in relations with the Soviet Union during World War II and the Cold War period following World War II.

colleague:

Robert Ferdinand Wagner Jr.

Robert Ferdinand Wagner was an American Democratic Party politician and mayor of New York City in 1954-1965.

colleague:

Abraham David Beame

Abraham David Beame was the mayor of New York City from 1974 to 1977.