Lecturer in Classics

Robert D. Rachlin, a resident of Burlington, is a lawyer by profession.  He co-founded Downs Rachlin Martin PLLC, the largest law firm in Vermont, with offices in Burlington, Brattleboro, Montpelier, St. Johnsbury, and Lebanon, NH.  He served as State’s Attorney of Caledonia County, Vermont from 1961-1964.    For six years, concurrent with his law practice, he taught at Vermont Law School (ethics, remedies, corporations). he has undertaken numerous pro bono legal projects, including representation of detainees at Guantánamo and representation of poor criminal defendants in Missouri and Arkansas.  He was recognized for his work on behalf of battered women in Arkansas.   He is an elected Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers and has served as chair of the Vermont chapter.

For many years, he has served as Chair of the Advisory Board of the UVM Carolyn and Leonard Miller Center for Holocaust Studies.  Publications authored in conjunction with the Center are among the list of publications below.

He is a lecturer with the UVM Department of Classics and an adjunct lecturer with the UVM Department of German & Russian.

He is a concert pianist and composer.  A co-founder of the Vermont Chamber Group, he performs a recital annually in Burlington with violinist Kevin Lawrence.

He is married to Catharine Bothwell Rachlin, MA (St. Michael’s), who has taught English as a Second Language at UVM and at St. Michael’s.  They have five children and ten grandchildren.

Publications

  •  What was “Jewish” about the “Jewish Influence” on German Law as Portrayed by Nazi Legal Theorists, in Hilary Earl and Karl A. Schleunes, eds., Lessons and Legacies XI, (Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 2014), pp. 250-261
  • Co-edited (with Professor Alan Steinweis of the U) a collection of scholarly essays entitled The Law in Nazi Germany: Ideology, Opportunism, and the Perversion of Justice, published in March 2013 by Berghahn Books (Oxford and New York). He contributed an essay to that volume: Roland Freisler and the Volksgerichtshof: the Court as an Instrument of Terror.
  • Anthony Haswell: Editor and Balladeer, 5 The Walloomsack Review (May 2011)
  • The 1798 Sedition Act and the East-West Political Divide in Vermont, 78 Vermont History 123 (Summer/Fall 2010)
  •  Review: Carl Schmitt - Constitutional Theory, published on H-German in H-Net Reviews (October 2009)
  •  From Weimar to Auschwitz: Carl Schmitt and the Jurisprudence of Exclusion from Wolfgang Mieder and David Scrase, eds., Reactions to the Third Reich: Then and Now, pages 23-50 (The University of Vermont Center for Holocaust Studies, Burlington, Vermont, 2009)
  • Review: Schmitt, Carl - The Concept of the Political, published on H-German in H-Net Reviews (October 2007)
  • Seven Habits of Effective Lawyers, 33 Vermont Bar Journal 1 (Summer 2007)
  •  Review: Paul Orgel, piano - Music from the Holocaust (CD), 10 Bulletin of the Center for Holocaust Studies No. 2, page 6 (Spring 2006) 
  • Review: Diemut Majer - Non-Germans” under the Third Reich: The Nazi Judicial and Administrative System in Germany and Occupied Eastern Europe, with Special Regard to Occupied Poland, 1939-1945, 9 Bulletin of the Center for Holocaust Studies No. 1, page 13 (Fall 2004)
  •  Felix Kersten: Himmler’s Doctor and the Eleventh-Hour Rescue Operation from David Scrase, Wolfgang Mieder, and Katherine Quimby Johnson, eds., Making a Difference: Rescue and Assistance During the Holocaust: Essays in Honor of Marion Pritchard (The University of Vermont Center for Holocaust Studies, Burlington, Vermont, 2004)
  • Growing Old With Judge Posner, 29 Vermont Bar Journal 20 (Summer 2003)
  • Review: Bezalel Naor - Kabbalah and the Holocaust, 7 Bulletin of the Center for Holocaust Studies No. 2, page 11 (Spring 2003)
  • The Perils of E-mail, Interface Now (December 21, 2001), reprinted as, Examining the Perils of E-mail, Northern New England Technology Newspaper (January 2002)
  •  Managing Litigation Risk and Cost, DRM Newsletter (2002)
  •  Review: Alan M. Dershowitz - The Genesis of Justice, The Vermont Bar Journal (December 2001)
  • Finland’s Jews and the Final Solution from Wolfgang Mieder and David Scrase, eds., Reflections on the Holocaust: Festschrift in Honor of Raul Hilberg (The University of Vermont Center for Holocaust Studies, Burlington, Vermont, 2001)
  • How were they Saved? Finland, the Second World War, and the Jews, 3 Bulletin of the Center for Holocaust Studies No. 2, page 7 (Spring 1999)
  •  Review: Raul Hilberg - The Politics of Memory, 2 Bulletin of the Center for Holocaust Studies No. 1, page 8 (Fall 1997)
  •  Developing Labor Law for Vermont Teachers, 40 Albany Law Review 733 (1975-1976)
Robert Rachlin

Education

  • A.B. Yale University (honors major, philosophy)
  • J.D. University of Chicago Law School

Contact

Email:

Robert.Rachlin@uvm.edu