LESTER EDELMAN

Highlights

• Chief counsel, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
• Counsel, U.S. House Committee on Public Works and Transportation
  

Biography

For nearly 20 years, Lester Edelman was the Chief Counsel and Senior Policy Advisor to the United States Army Corps of Engineers (Washington, D.C.).  Lester was responsible for managing more than 400 lawyers worldwide.  Recognizing the spiraling cost of litigation on the Corps of Engineers, he focused the department on finding better ways to prevent and resolve disputes including Partnering (dispute avoidance) and Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR).

From 1968 to 1979, Lester was Counsel to the U.S. House Committee on Public Works and Transportation.  For nearly a decade, Lester negotiated and helped write major legislation including:

• The Clean Water Acts of 1972 and 1977,
• The Airline Deregulation Act,
• The Uniform Relocation and Real Property Acquisition Act, and
• Many laws involving water resource development, federal highway aid, and urban mass transportation.

Lester currently serves on the Board of Governors of the American College of Construction Lawyers, the Advisory Committee of the United States Court of Federal Claims and is a Principal to the Council for Excellence in Government.

Lester has a J.D. from Boston University School of Law and an LL.M. from Columbia University School of Law.

 

Other Achievements

• The Presidential Ranking of Distinguished Executive in the Senior Executive Service, personally presented by President George H. W. Bush (1992)

• The National Performance Review “Hammer Award” for ADR/Partnering Teams “contribution to building a government that works better and costs less”.

• United States Court of Federal Claims “Lifetime Achievement Award” (2000)