Shari Reig is a general commercial litigator with experience in virtually all aspects of litigation, from the initial pleading stage through trial and appeal. Since 1999, Shari has been extensively involved in the Swiss Banks Holocaust Victim Assets Litigation. In October 2002, Chief Judge Edward R. Korman of the Eastern District of New York appointed her as Deputy Special Master. With Special Master Judah Gribetz, on behalf of the court, she developed and now oversees implementation of the plan for worldwide allocation and distribution of the $1.25 billion settlement fund, supervising administrative agents in Zurich, Geneva, New York, Central and Eastern Europe, and elsewhere. To date, over $1.24 billion has been paid to more than 457,000 Holocaust victims and heirs worldwide.
For her work in connection with the Swiss Banks Holocaust Settlement, Shari has been mentioned in numerous articles and publications, including the New York Times, the Jerusalem Post, the New York Law Journal, the Jewish Political Studies Review, the Jewish Daily Forward and Reform Judaism.
In 2013, Shari was appointed by the United States Department of State to serve a four-year term as a trustee of the German Foundation “Remembrance, Responsibility and Future,” based in Berlin. As described by Ambassador Douglas Davidson, special envoy for Holocaust issues, in his letter to Shari confirming her appointment:
[T]he foundation is the product of an executive agreement concluded in the summer of 2000 between the United States and Germany. Following the signing of this agreement, the German Bundestag enacted [the law establishing] the foundation as the vehicle to make humanitarian payments to former slave and forced laborers and other victims of National Socialism. It was jointly funded by the German government and German industry. Between 2001 and 2007, the Foundation paid roughly 4.5 billion euros to nearly two million forced and slave laborers in almost one hundred countries. Once these payments were completed, the foundation became a grant-making institution through the establishment of a ‘Remembrance and Future’ fund. This fund, as the law puts it,…‘foster[s] projects that serve the purposes of better understanding among peoples, the interests of survivors of the National Socialist régime, youth exchange, social justice, remembrance of the threat posed by totalitarian systems and despotism, and international cooperation in humanitarian endeavors…. According to the law, the United States government names two members to the Board of Trustees. One is a representative of the United States government itself. The other is ‘one lawyer to be named by the Government of the United States of America.’ It is this seat that you would now hold.
Other trustees include: representatives of Germany, the State of Israel, Belarus, the Czech Republic, Poland, The Russian Federation and Ukraine; members of German industry; and representatives of victims’ organizations.
Shari’s litigation experience includes multi-year representation of a “Big Four” accounting firm against various securities class actions, as well as defense of clients in the franchise and entertainment industries.
Shari was an adjunct legal writing instructor at Brooklyn Law School from 1992 through 1994, and she taught legal writing at Harvard Law School while a student there.
