New ALI Deputy Director Assumes Duties
ALI Deputy Director Stephanie Middleton
Stephanie Middleton has joined the staff of The American Law Institute as Deputy Director effective March 29, 2010. A graduate of Yale University and the University of Pennsylvania Law School, Ms. Middleton served until recently as staff director and general counsel for the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Senator Arlen Specter, Ranking Member. Before that she was chief counsel for litigation at CIGNA Corporation, a global health-services firm headquartered in Philadelphia. She also worked for more than two years as deputy general counsel for Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge. Ms. Middleton began her legal career as an associate at Morgan, Lewis & Bockius in Philadelphia.
Before attending law school, Ms. Middleton taught for several years at a large Philadelphia-area high school. She decided to study law, she said, because the happiest and most engaged people seemed to be learning and studying all their lives, and the law offered endless opportunities to study “things that actually matter.” Besides, she said, “I wanted to feel like one of the kids who bothered to read the rules on the inside of the box that the game came in.”
After a nationwide search, the Institute’s Executive Committee unanimously approved Director Lance Liebman’s recommendation that Ms. Middleton be appointed. As Deputy Director, Ms. Middleton oversees the day-to-day operations of ALI’s Philadelphia headquarters and supports and advises the Director on the Institute’s law-reform work. In announcing the appointment, Director Liebman said, “The breadth of Stephanie Middleton’s legal experience ideally qualifies her for heading the ALI’s Philadelphia office, as it includes working in a law firm, in the corporate sector, and in both the executive and legislative branches of government. ALI President Roberta Ramo and I look forward enthusiastically to working daily with Stephanie as the Institute pursues its current law-reform agenda and seeks new domestic and transnational subjects that would benefit from our recommendations.”
Ms. Middleton succeeds Elena A. Cappella, who will be honored for almost two decades of service to the Institute at the 87th Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C., on May 17-19. Ms. Middleton is looking forward to attending her first Annual Meeting, especially the presentation on potential new projects, and to meeting in person the many members, Reporters, and Advisers whose names and e-mails are now familiar to her. She welcomes “any and all ideas about projects or about ways to maintain the traditions and high standards of ALI.”