Anthony R. Pierno is the retired Senior Vice President and General Counsel of MAXXAM Inc. and of each of its subsidiary corporations, including Kaiser Aluminum & Chemical Corporation (also a publicly held company) and The Pacific Lumber Company.
Among issues and activities managed under Mr. Pierno's direction were those related to the acquisition of Pacific Lumber, including major private and government pension litigation, significant class actions and takeover disputes and the legal and due diligence aspects of a series of major financings and refinancings, aggregating as much as $2.7 billion in a single year. He also managed the resolution of long-standing environmental issues, struggles over the so-called Headwaters Forest and the eventual agreement with the Federal and California governments to resolve that issue, as well as general administration of legal matters which were characterized by innovation, quality enhancement, strengthening of the professional staff and expanded coordination and management of legal affairs.
In addition to his responsibilities as the chief legal officer of that group of companies, with a total of some 35 professionals and a total legal staff of 80, his direct reports included the heads of the Human Resources, Internal Audit and Governmental Affairs groups.
A long-time practitioner in Southern California and formerly the Commissioner of Corporations of the State of California, Mr .Pierno was, immediately prior to joining MAXXAM, a partner and head of the Business Practice group in the Los Angeles office of Pillsbury, Madison & Sutro. He has practiced in the areas of securities, commodities and franchise laws and the broader commercial and corporate practice areas, as well as managing the full scope of legal services for many clients. He has written for legal publications on a wide variety of topics including, by example, Supreme Court jurisdiction, title insurance, corporate disaggregation, securities, commodities and franchise regulation and general corporation laws.
He was appointed Commissioner of Corporations in California by Governor Ronald Reagan. As head of the Department of Corporations, he was responsible for administering 17 separate business regulatory laws through offices in four cities. The sale of corporate and other securities, franchise regulation, the licensing of security brokers and salesmen, the regulation of companies in the consumer finance industry and independent escrow companies were among those included within the jurisdiction of that department.
During 1970, then-Commissioner Pierno led a successful effort to prepare and enact the Franchise Investment Law, the first law in the nation to deal expressly with what was then a significant regulatory problem. This legislation, which he sponsored jointly with the California Attorney General, served as the early model for the Federal Trade commission's Franchise Rule and for many of the laws enacted by other states.
He was instrumental in preparing and having enacted legislation modernizing seven other of the laws under the jurisdiction of the Department and was actively involved in the preparation and enactment of California's Corporate Securities Law of 1968, then a major innovation.
He sponsored other major new laws for California. Among them was one which (pre-ERISA) created a new Retirement Systems Disclosure Law, eliminating an outmoded and troublesome prior law, and another which established a privately-funded guarantee program to protect depositors in industrial loan companies.
After his return to private practice, while serving as Chairman of the Committee on Corporations of the State Bar of California (1971-1975), he conceived and managed a project to revise the general corporation Law of the State of California, which effort reached fruition when the new law went into effect on January 1, 1977.
Mr. Pierno also served on and chaired the Board of Investment of the State of California; on the Executive Committee and as Chairman of the Conference Committee and of the Uniform Securities Act Revision Committee of the North American Securities Administrators Association; as Chairman of Governor Reagan's Task Force on Higher Education; on the California Attorney General's Volunteer Advisory Committee; on the Advisory Board of the New York Institute of Finance (Law Division); on the National Arbitration Committee of the NASD; as a member of the California Secretary of State's Citizens, Advisory Committee; on the Executive Committee of the Business Law Section, State Bar of California; as Chairman of the Franchise Committee of the California State Bar; as a member of the Los Angeles County Childrens' Services Commission; as a Director and President of ICAN Associates, Los Angeles; and as a member of Texas' Committee of Twelve, a group that played significant role in bringing about recent judicial reform in Texas.
Mr. Pierno was the recipient of the Whittier College Alumni Achievement Award in 1970 and was named the Lancer Alumni Distinguished Service Honoree in 1974. In 1983, he received the Emcalian Award presented by Marymount Palos Verdes College for "Distinguished Achievement by an Eminent Californian." He has been awarded the Honorary Degree "Doctor of Humane Letters" by Whittier College. He has been separately cited by the Governor of California, by that state's Attorney General and by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors for his efforts in support of organizations battling child abuse.
In addition to his professional activities, he recently served for six years as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Whittier College, and is past Chairman of Marymount College, Palos Verdes, California.
A graduate of Whittier College (B.A. with highest honors, 1954) and Stanford Law School (J.D. 1959) where he was an editor of the Law Review, Mr. Pierno and his wife, Beverly, are the parents of four adult children and have eight grandchildren.
Mr. Pierno is a member of the California Club (Los Angeles) and a past member of the Palos Verdes Golf Club and of the Forest Club (Houston).
