COMMISSION STAFF:

Lorna B. Goodman - Executive Director
Lorna B. Goodman served most recently as Nassau County Attorney, a position she held since 2002.  The first woman appointed County Attorney, Ms. Goodman was the chief civil legal officer in the County and supervised a team of more than 100 lawyers.  During her eight years, she spearheaded improvements in the operation and infrastructure of Nassau County following a fiscal crisis that resulted in increased State oversight of the County’s budget.  In addition, she negotiated legislation that established a sewer and storm water finance authority, restructured the County’s parking violations bureau, and reduced judgments and settlements against the County by an average of over 50 percent.  From 1976 to 2001, Goodman served on the executive staff of the New York City Law Department as Chief of the Affirmative Litigation Division.  She holds degrees from Vassar College and Hofstra Law School.  Ms. Goodman lives in Manhattan.

Frederick P. Schaffer - General Counsel
Frederick P. Schaffer serves as General Counsel and Senior Vice Chancellor for Legal Affairs of The City University of New York, where he is responsible for providing legal counsel to the Board of Trustees, the Chancellor and the University on a wide range of issues and supervises a legal department of 13 lawyers. Mr. Schaffer also serves as General Counsel to the CUNY Construction Fund, a public authority that finances capital construction at the University.

Before coming to CUNY, Mr. Schaffer was a litigation partner in the law firm of Schulte Roth & Zabel LLP, where he specialized in commercial and securities litigation and employment law. Earlier in his career, Mr. Schaffer served as Counsel to Mayor Koch, Chief of Litigation in the Office of the Corporation Counsel of the City of New York and Assistant U.S. Attorney in Manhattan. He also was an Associate Professor at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law. Mr. Schaffer recently served as Chairman of the Legal Aid Society and is currently a Trustee of the Practising Law Institute. He has previously served as Chairman of NYC Public/Private Initiatives, Inc. and a Director of the University Settlement Society. He is also active in the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, where he has served as a member of a number of committees, including the Executive Committee, the Nominating Committee and as Chairman of the Committee on Education and the Law. Mr. Schaffer received his B.A. degree summa cum laude from Harvard College and his J.D. degree magna cum laude from Harvard Law School, where he was an editor of the Harvard Law Review. Following law school, he clerked for the Honorable Francis L. Van Dusen, Circuit Judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.

Joseph P. Viteritti - Research Director
Joseph P. Viteritti is the Blanche D. Blank Professor of Public Policy at Hunter College, CUNY, where he is Chair of the Department of Urban Affairs & Planning and Director of the Public Policy Program at Roosevelt House. He specializes in state & local governance, education policy, and public law. His most recent of ten books is When Mayors Take Charge: School Governance in the City (Brookings Institution Press, 2009). Professor Viteritti previously served as an advisor to the New York City Charter Commission appointed by Mayor Edward Koch (1987-1988), Executive Director of the New York State Charter Commission for Staten Island appointed by Governor Mario Cuomo (1991-1996), advisor to the Districting Commission for the City Council appointed by Speaker Peter Vallone (1991), and Executive Director of the Commission on School Governance appointed by Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum (2007-2008). He has previously taught at Princeton, NYU, Harvard, and SUNY, Albany.