Richard W. Beckler (30 March 1940 – 25 September 2017) was an attorney. He served a number of prominent clients. At the time of his death in late September, 2017, he had been appointed as General Counsel of the US
General Services Administration
The General Services Administration (GSA) is an Independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the United States government established in 1949 to help manage and support the basic functioning of federal agencies. G ...
.
After his death, Beckler's actions at the GSA were discussed in the US national media when it was revealed that the GSA had supplied the
special counsel investigation by
Robert Mueller
Robert Swan Mueller III (; born August 7, 1944) is an American lawyer who served as the sixth director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) from 2001 to 2013.
A graduate of Princeton University and New York University, Mueller served a ...
with copies of more than 5000 emails sent by the
Trump administration transition team. GSA Deputy Counsel Lenny Loewentritt, stated that Beckler had not made a commitment to the transition team that law enforcement materials requests would be routed through transition lawyers.
Reuters reported statements that "The FBI had requested the materials from GSA staff on Aug. 23, asking for copies of the emails, laptops, cell phones and other materials associated with nine members of the Trump transition team responsible for national security and policy matters".
Early life
Beckler was born in
Brooklyn, New York
Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...
on 30 March 1940, the child of William Beckler and Mary (Lohrmann) Beckler.
[ He had an older sister named Beth.][
Beckler was educated at ]Williams College
Williams College is a Private college, private liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Williamstown, Massachusetts, United States. It was established as a men's college in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim ...
(BA) and Fordham University School of Law
Fordham University School of Law is the law school of Fordham University. The school is located in Manhattan in New York City, and is one of eight ABA-approved law schools in that city.
According to Fordham University School of Law's ABA- ...
(JD).[
Richard Beckler served in the U.S. Navy, Active Duty Officer from 1962 to 1970 and as Lieutenant Commander in the U.S. Naval Reserve (1965–1978).
Richard Beckler served as Assistant District Attorney in the NY (Manhattan) County District Attorney's Office under District Attorney Frank Hogan (1968–1972). Beckler joined the U.S. Department of Justice, Fraud Section, in 1972. Beckler was promoted to and served as the Section Chief of the Criminal Fraud Section of the U.S. Department of Justice 1976–1979, where he headed a task force on foreign payment cases and worked closely with officials from the Department of the Treasury, the SEC and the Department of State.
Mr. Beckler joined Fulbright & Jaworski as Head of the Washington Litigation Group from 1979 to 2003. He spent the next 37 years in white collar criminal defense for the firms Fulbright & Jaworski, Howrey LLP, and Bracewell & Giuliani mostly representing corporations such as ]Halliburton
Halliburton Company is an American multinational corporation and the world's second-largest oil service company which is responsible for most of the world's fracking operations. It employs approximately 55,000 people through its hundreds of su ...
. Beckler also represented many individuals, including CIA Director William J. Casey
William Joseph Casey (March 13, 1913 – May 6, 1987) was an American lawyer who was the Director of Central Intelligence from 1981 to 1987. In this capacity he oversaw the entire United States Intelligence Community and personally directed the ...
.
Beckler had also represented Iran-Contra figure John Poindexter
John Marlan Poindexter (born August 12, 1936) is a retired United States naval officer and Department of Defense official. He was Deputy National Security Advisor and National Security Advisor during the Reagan administration. He was convicte ...
.Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...
, for the international law firm Bracewell LLP
Bracewell LLP is an international law firm based in Houston, Texas, that began in 1945. The firm has approximately 350 lawyers and has United States offices in New York City, Washington, D.C., San Antonio, Seattle, Dallas, and Austin, as well as o ...
.
Mr. Beckler's appointment as GSA General Counsel was announced on May 12, 2017.
Hospitalization & death
Beckler was hospitalized in September 2017 and died on 25 September, 2017, in Los Angeles.Pancreatic cancer
Pancreatic cancer arises when cell (biology), cells in the pancreas, a glandular organ behind the stomach, begin to multiply out of control and form a Neoplasm, mass. These cancerous cells have the malignant, ability to invade other parts of ...
".
References
External links
Richard Beckler videos
at C-SPAN
Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network (C-SPAN ) is an American Cable television in the United States, cable and Satellite television in the United States, satellite television network, created in 1979 by the cable television industry as a Non ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Beckler, Richard
1940 births
2017 deaths
Deaths from pancreatic cancer in California
Williams College alumni
Fordham University alumni
20th-century American lawyers
Lawyers from Brooklyn