Professor Catherine Dwyer:
Citizen of the World

BY PATRICIA MAJHER SOME MIGHT CALL THE SIX MONTHS SHE SPENT IN CENTRAL ASIA THIS YEAR — SPEARHEADING EDUCATIONAL REFORM IN UZBEKISTAN AND KYRGYZSTAN—A SABBATICAL. BUT THIS PROFESSOR KNOWS BETTER; IN HER WORDS, IT WAS “GIVING-BACK TIME.” Catherine Dwyer By almost any standard, Professor Catherine “Kate” Dwyer has led a life of extraordinary achievement. After earning a bachelor’s degree in economics at Barnard in 1973, she considered the many job opportunities open to her. “I was intrigued by the world of finance,” she says, “and wanted very much to work on Wall Street.” To prepare for her career, she enrolled in Columbia University’s graduate business school to earn an MBA in finance. As if that weren’t challenging enough, she also matriculated at the Boston University School of Law, where she studied for a JD. “I felt that a law degree would keep my career options open,” she explained. After graduating from both schools in 1976, she got the Wall Street job she’d dreamed of—not in finance, but in law, working as an associate attorney for the litigation and corporate departments at Mudge, Rose, Guthrie & Alexander. After three-and-a-half years, she moved to the other side of the desk, becoming a staff attorney at Automatic Data Processing (ADP) in New Jersey and, later, its group counsel for financial services. “I discovered I loved working in house,” she recalls, “seeing mergers and acquisitions through from start to finish.” In 1985, she was named the company’s vice president of corporate development, responsible for identifying, analyzing, structuring and negotiating its acquisitions. “I became the deal maker,” she explained. While at ADP, she also established a relationship with nearby Seton Hall University and its law school. “I taught business law, corporate finance, securities, drafting…those kinds of courses.” Nineteen eighty-nine brought a job change for Dwyer. That’s the year she became vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary for the BISYS Group, a large public corporation that provided outsourcing to and through financial organizations. The following year, she also took on the responsibility of directing the restructuring and refinancing of Genigraphics, a BISYS affiliate. The $35-million company “has now grown into a $500-million concern,” notes Dwyer with pride. While these new positions were fulfilling—both personally and professionally—Dwyer longed for something more. She explains, “After I graduated from law school, I developed a list of all I wanted to achieve in this field. And I checked everything off in 15 years.” Dwyer decided it was time to look at her career in a different way; instead of focusing on what she could get out of it, she decided to give something back “as a citizen not just of the United States, but of the world.” And the timing—around 1991—couldn’t have been more fortuitous. That was the year of the dissolution of the Soviet bloc. It was also the year that the American Bar Association formed a foundation to respond to the legal needs of emerging European democracies. One of the first acts of the foundation was to create the Central European and Eurasian Law Initiative (or CEELI, for short). And Dwyer was an early volunteer. “I started off just consulting for CEELI from home,” she says, “helping to develop Moldavian banking regulations and stock exchange rules for Bulgaria.” But it soon became clear she could do even more good for these re-developing nations if she left the comfort of her corporate position and traveled to them, to offer her expertise. In 1996, Dwyer left the corporate environment and dedicated herself full time to an academic career. Her first overseas assignment was in Odessa, Ukraine, with the Civic Education Project. “I worked with the vice rector, the professors of economics, and the administrative staff at Odessa State University to help them develop an undergraduate business school.” Over the course of a year, she also taught international law and commercial law classes as a visiting professor, assisted the Odessa mayor’s office in reforming licensing requirements for small businesses, and even helped the local symphony produce a plan for raising private monies rather than relying solely on State funding. On her return to the U.S., she served as a faculty fellow at Seton Hall’s School of Diplomacy and also became its director of planning and special projects. Two years after her European trip, she ventured to Beijing, China, where she presented workshops in negotiation techniques for the Foreign Ministry, worked on a project involving certain aspects of corporate law and taught law at the Foreign Affairs College and the University of International Business and Economics. The turn of the millennium found her in Europe again; this trip, however, was devoted to her own education. In October of that year, she became the first American to earn a degree—an LLM in European business law—from the Pallas Consortium in the Netherlands. In 2001, Dwyer came to Michigan State University, which recognized her unique abilities and awarded her a joint appointment between MSU-DCL and the Eli Broad College of Business. (Not surprisingly, she also was invited to sit on MSU’s International Studies Program Advisory Consultative Committee.) After two years of teaching, she requested a semester off to undertake her fourth and most important trip abroad in the interest of educational reform. From January to June of this year, she represented CEELI in the former Soviet republics of Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan. Her mission in Central Asia? To initiate the process of analyzing their legal education systems and to suggest changes and additions, where necessary. Dwyer knew going into the situation that she’d be met with some interesting challenges. “I’d heard the students had no course materials to speak of, and that—as a result—they were given no outside homework to do,” she explains. Dwyer was also aware that law was being taught by the “straight lecture” method, with no opportunities for students to ask questions or to be asked to do any analytical thinking. What she didn’t expect to find was—in addition to the high cost of tuition—a system of suspicious “fees” that included bribing the faculty for grades. “The problem of bribery was openly discussed and everyone claimed to disapprove of it,” she remembers, “but it still persists.” Dwyer cites the low wages of professors—about $200 a month—as a contributing factor to the situation. While Dwyer could not effect much change in the salaries paid to the faculties (except to suggest that they be raised!), she was able to make substantial contributions in other areas. For instance, she formed a working committee of professors, non-governmental organization attorneys, and educators to draft the first text and teacher’s manual on property law in Kyrgyzstan; she chaired the effort to recommend curriculum reforms (of which she was the primary author) at the American University of Central Asia; she initiated with the Attorneys Association of Kyrgyzstan the process of developing an independent assessment system for law schools, which received the approval of the Ministry of Education; and she headed the project for curriculum development—from full assessment through implementation at Tashkent State Law Institute, the leading law school in Uzbekistan. Dwyer also developed a long-term strategic plan aimed at advancing the region’s legal education system in a thoughtful, measured way. Her suggestions have been passed along to the institutions she studied and to CEELI staff members charged with helping to implement the plan. “Of course, I didn’t have time to finish the projects,” says Dwyer, “but I was fortunate enough to be able to start them. And I hope that others will see them through.” Although the six months spent away from family and friends was often lonely—and basic amenities such as electricity and hot water were sometimes difficult to come by—Dwyer wouldn’t change a thing about the experience. “I couldn’t say ‘no’ to this opportunity to put my skills to use for a greater good.” “And besides,” she added, “it was an interesting and intense adventure filled with new friends and a whole lot of fun.” For Professor Dwyer’s full reports on her experiences, log on to law.msu.edu/faculty_staff/dwyer.