Karmel Roberta Photo

Roberta Karmel

1901 Distinguished Research Professor of Law
Phone
(718) 780-7946
Education
LL.B., New York University School of Law
B.A., Radcliffe College
Areas of Expertise
Business Law
Corporate Law
European Union Law
Financial Regulation
International Law
Securities Regulation

Biography

Professor Karmel's area of expertise is international and domestic securities regulation, for which she is widely called upon to teach and lecture all over the world. She is a former Commissioner of the Securities and Exchange Commission, a former Public Director of the New York Stock Exchange, and was in private practice for 30 years. She was also a Fulbright Scholar studying the harmonization of the securities laws in the European Union. She is the author of Regulation by Prosecution: The Securities and Exchange Commission Versus Corporate America (Simon & Schuster, 1982) and the two-volume work, Life at the Center: Reflections on Fifty Years of Securities Regulation (Practising Law Institute, 2015), and has widely published articles on securities regulation and international securities law in dozens of law reviews and journals. She also authored a bi-monthly column, "Securities Regulation," in the New York Law Journal.
Professor Karmel's professional activities and affiliations are numerous. She is the Chair Emerita of the Board of Trustees of the Practising Law Institute, a member of the American Law Institute, and a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation. She also serves on the ABA's Presidential Task Force on Financial Markets Regulatory Reform. She previously served as a director of the New York Chapter of the National Association of Corporate Directors and was the Vice-Chair of the International Coordinating Committee of the American Bar Association Business Law Section.
A member of the faculty since 1985, Professor Karmel has played an instrumental role in leading the activities of the Dennis J. Block Center for the Study of International Business Law as the Center’s co-director, and with developing the Center for the Study of Business Law & Regulation. In 2009, she was the Harry Cross Visiting Professor at the University of Washington School of Law. Other recent honors include, Phi Beta Kappa Alpha Iota of Massachusetts at Harvard College (Hon.) and the American Bar Association Women Lawyers of Achievement Award.
Publications