Scott Horton

Overview

Scott Horton is a partner with the law firm of Patterson, Belknap, Webb & Tyler LLP in New York. Scott completed his legal studies at the Universities of Munich and Mainz in Germany and took his J.D. degree from the University of Texas in Austin in 1981. He has been active with human rights matters throughout his career, having represented Andrei Sakharov and Elena Bonner in proceedings contesting the regime of internal exile which was imposed upon them by Soviet authorities, as well as several other Russian, Czech, Armenian and Azerbaijani dissidents. He has worked with the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights, Human Rights Watch and the International League for Human Rights (of which he is now president). Scott is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and chairs the Committee on the CIS of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York. He is the author of over one hundred publications, largely on issues of legal reform and development in nations of the former Soviet Union.[1]

Photo by Stacey Adams
Nov. 2004

From the ILHR website:

Scott Horton is a partner with Patterson, Belknap, Webb & Tyler LLP, an international law firm with offices in New York and Moscow and affiliated offices in St. Petersburg, Nizhny Novgorod, Kyiv, Tbilisi, Erevan, Baku, Tashkent, Bishkek and Almaty. He founded the firm's practice in the CIS countries and today is responsible for its extensive work throughout the Central Asian and Transcaucasus regions. Mr. Horton has handled some of the largest foreign direct investment in the Caspian region, but his practice also encompasses advisory work for foreign sovereigns (including at various times all five of the Central Asian republics) on legal reform issues, representation of multilateral development banks in secured finance and equity investment projects, and representation of Western natural resource companies in exploration and development projects. At the same time he is active in the firm's exempt organizations practice, representing and advising grant-making organizations. He hold his J.D. degree from the University of Texas at Austin and studied law at the Universities of Mainz and Munich in Germany before coming to Austin.

Mr. Horton has been a lifelong activist in the human rights area, having served as counsel to Andrei Sakharov, Elena Bonner, Sergei Kovalev and other leaders of the Russian human rights and democracy movements for over twenty years and having worked with the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights and the International League for Human Rights, among other organizations. He is currently president of the International League and a director of the Moscow-based Andrei Sakharov Foundation. Mr. Horton is also an advisor of the Open Society Institute's Central Eurasia Project, and a director of the International Center for Not-for-Profit Law, the Council on Foreign Relations's Center for Preventive Action and numerous other NGO organizations.

Mr. Horton is an adjunct professor at the Columbia University School of Law and the author of over 200 articles and monographs on legal developments in nations in transition.[2]

Affiliations

• Patterson, Belknap, Webb & Tyler LLP – Partner
• International League for Human Rights – President
• International Center for Not-for-Profit Law
• Council on Foreign Relations
• Lawyers Committee for Human Rights – Board Member (organization since renamed)
• Human Rights Watch
• Andrei Sakharov Foundation (Moscow) – Director
• Open Society Institute – Advisor
• Advisory Board, Eurasianet
• Trustee, Sanghata Global

Sanghata Global Trustees, organizational web page, accessed November 23, 2014.