Zicklin Professor Lipner is the 2010 winner of the Sidney Lirtzman Award for distinguished teaching, research and service.
I had the pleasure of sitting down recently with Professor Seth Lipner to talk about his impressive career and the motivating factors that led him on a path to become a distinguished and influential scholar and spokesperson. He is a nationally recognized scholar who has achieved multi-dimensional success in education, law and professional writing. Each reflects his continued passion and commitment to excellence.
Professor Lipner is the 2010 winner of the Sidney Lirtzman Award for distinguished teaching, research and service, and the Zicklin School of Business congratulated him on receiving this honor at a reception held on May 12. His family, friends and colleagues helped him celebrate this noteworthy achievement and acknowledge his overall contributions to this institution and to society at large.
His wide ranging accomplishments reflect his desire for scholarly pursuit and engagement across diverse specialties. His life work includes educating students, enlightening business and legal professionals, compiling research and providing advisement and direction to selected members of the investor community.
During his early years Professor Lipner was exposed to the field of law through his father, an attorney. His impression was that this would be a noble and respected profession and thus he began his pursuit of law by completing an accelerated program at Albany Law School. He continued his studies in Trade Regulation at New York University School of Law, where one of his school papers was selected for publication. This positive response to his research and writing sparked the transformation to a professional level of knowledge and expertise that has benefited both the business and academic communities
Professor Lipner is a renowned private arbitrator specializing in investor grievances in the financial services and securities industries. He represents high net worth investors. He is co-author of the annual ‘Securities Arbitration Desk Reference’, 1,100 pages in length, and nationally recognized as the gold standard in arbitration. Additionally, he presents research and writes commentary about law and investor related issues several times a month for Forbes.com as well as many articles and papers in professional journals.
His decision to pursue teaching as a career option occurred while attending law school. Employed as an administrator and working with professors, he observed that they appeared to have a higher level of contentment and personal satisfaction as professionals. Secondly, a teaching schedule would offer flexibility to engage in his many other professional activities, such as arbitration law, research and writing scholarly books and articles for national publication.
His first teaching assignment was as an Adjunct professor at Adelphi University. In 1982 he came to Baruch where, as Professor of Law, he has become a revered and dedicated faculty member. He has served on many Baruch committees where legal expertise was required. Also, he served in a collaborative role on three Zicklin AACSB accreditation committees helping the Zicklin School to meet all necessary accreditation criteria. Importantly, he has been a passionately involved Chair of the Zicklin undergraduate curriculum committee for 16 years, which has helped to advance the academic program in countless ways.
Professor Lipner enjoys his work at Zicklin because he states this is the only school in the country where the law department has developed a customized business law program for each unique major at the graduate and undergraduate level. Additionally, he believes an important component of the educational process is to instill a sense of corporate responsibility and ethical behavior in Zicklin students since most are business majors who will have executive and managerial responsibility in the future.
When asked what gives him pleasure in his personal life, Professor Lipner responded his wife and 17 year old daughter, and a few rounds of golf when time permits. He also mentioned his ability to make positive contributions to society through his work and research, and having the opportunity to challenge, influence and educate Zicklin students.
Finally, as a native New Yorker, Professor Lipner shared his appreciation for the beauty and symmetry of the city as seen through its magnificent skyline as he travels to Baruch. And when walking into the College he is immediately reminded of the great potential that lies just inside its doors.
