Herman Badillo

Herman Badillo is a Manhattan Institute senior fellow writing on immigration issues. He is the author of One Nation, One Standard: An Ex-Liberal on How Hispanics Can Succeed Just Like Other Immigrant Groups (Sentinel, 2007), which challenges the received wisdom of liberal social policy and asks the Hispanic community to embrace self-reliance and assimilation.

Badillo was the first member of the United States Congress of Puerto Rican origin, representing New York’s 21st congressional district in the Bronx. He was also the first Puerto Rican to be elected Bronx borough president. He served as deputy mayor of New York City in the administration of Edward I. Koch, and was special counsel for the fiscal oversight of education during Mayor Rudolph Giuliani’s administration. Badillo was also chairman of the board of the City University of New York. Among many other “firsts,” he was a cofounder of the Puerto Rican Bar Association and of the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund.

Badillo has devoted a lifetime of working in both the public and private sectors on behalf of minorities and consumers on legal issues such as discrimination, labor, education, and business development. He was a founding partner of the Fischbein Badillo Wagner Harding law firm. He is of counsel to the law firm of Sullivan Papain Block McGrath & Cannavo,

Badillo holds a B.A. from City College and a J.D. from Brooklyn Law School where he finished first in his class. Badillo was admitted to the bar in 1955 and is also a CPA.