International Finance Expert to Analyze Conditions, Consequences of European Debt Crisis in Pitt Law School Lecture March 15

PITTSBURGH—Europe’s current debt crisis not only threatens to undercut significant political and economic gains made by European Union countries, but it also endangers the financial recovery of the United States. 

Kurt Riechenberg, a senior legal secretary at the Court of Justice of the European Union and a visiting professor in the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, will address this far-reaching global issue at a noon March 15 lecture titled “The Euro Crisis: Some Lessons for the European Union,” in Room 113, Barco Law Building, 3900 Forbes Ave., Oakland. This event is the U.S. Steel Lecture sponsored by the School of Law’s Center for International Legal Education and the Pitt European Union Center of Excellence. 

During this free public discussion, Riechenberg will analyze the systemic problems facing the Euro project and will propose actions for the European Union to develop sustainable future economic models. 

Riechenberg has served within the EU’s Court of Justice in Luxembourg and Germany since 1983. He has held the position of senior legal secretary to EU Court Judge Rosario Silva de Lapuerta since 2003. Prior to this appointment, he served as the chief of staff to the president of the court from 1998 to 2003. He also has served the court as a clerk for three other EU Justices as well as an assistant to the registrar. 

Prior to joining the EU’s Court of Justice, Riechenberg worked in Germany’s Federal Department of Economic Affairs and France’s Department of Economics and Finance. 

Following his service to the EU Court of Justice, between 2005 and 2007, Riechenberg served as secretary of the Group of Wise Persons, a committee established by the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe to evaluate the functioning of the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France. 

Within Pitt’s School of Law, Riechengerg currently teaches courses on the basic principles of EU law and jurisprudence as well as EU intellectual property laws. He first arrived at Pitt as a visiting professor in 1993 and has since served as a Fulbright Professor, a lecturer in the Honors College, and a Semester at Sea instructor. Riechenberg also has taught law at Columbia University, the University of Paris, the University of Luxembourg, the University of Trier, and the University of the Andes, among others. 

This lecture is funded by a grant from the U.S. Steel Foundation and has been approved by the Pennsylvania Continuing Legal Education (CLE) Board for one hour of substantive credit. There is a $25 fee to obtain CLE credit. 

For further information about the lecture, call 412-648-7023, visit www.law.pitt.edu/cile, or e-mail cile@pitt.edu. 

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