In the aftermath of Enron, Tyco, and WorldCom, U.S. Senator Paul Spyros Sarbanes broke the deregulation mold and passed one of the most significant corporate reform bills since the early days of the New Deal, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.  

On Tuesday, December 9 at 6:00 p.m., he joins Milano and The New School for Social Research to present the Paul H. Douglas Lecture on ethics in government titled, “Then and Now: Fighting the Deregulation Ideology.”  Senator Sarbanes will describe how he overcame the influence of an “inside the beltway” culture heavily reliant on corporate lobbyists to curb financial abuses and enhance ethical conduct and investor protections. Drawing on this personal experience, Sarbanes will describe the challenges the Obama Administration will face in its own reform efforts.

By winning re-election to an unprecedented 5th term in 2000, Paul Spyros Sarbanes became Maryland’s longest serving United States Senator.
 In 2001, as chairman of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, Sarbanes held a series of comprehensive hearings resulting in the passage of the “Public Company Accounting Reform and Investor Protection Act.” Signed into law on July 30, 2002, the legislation is now known as the “Sabanes-Oxley Act” for the principal sponsors of the legislation. As a result of his work in shepherding this historic legislation through the Congress and into law, Sarbanes was honored in June 2003 with the prestigious Paul H. Douglas Ethics in Government Award from the University of Illinois.

The Paul H. Douglas Lecture Series on Ethics and Government was established to honor Senator Douglas' distinguished, three-term career in the U.S. Senate, which was marked by legislative productivity, bringing together the highest moral standards with practical wisdom. The aim of the series is to engage the public as well as The New School community on these critically important subjects. Each lecture features a distinguished speaker who is or has been deeply involved in governmental and ethical issues. The New School's reputation for civic-minded, progressive thought and action makes it the ideal home for a lecture series of this nature.

The event will be held in Wollman Hall at the Eugene Lang Building at 65 West 11th Street on the 5th floor. Admission is free, but seating is limited and reservations are required by emailing mcnamard@newschool.edu.