BRIAN O’DWYER

BRIAN O’Dwyer is of counsel in the New York litigation firm O’Dwyer & Bernstien which was founded by his Co. Mayo-born father, the late Paul O’Dwyer, former president of the New York City Council. Formerly a senior partner, O’Dwyer’s practice concentrates on personal injury, immigration rights, labor relations and general commercial litigation.

O’Dwyer joined the firm in 1976 after serving as a trial attorney for the National Labor Relations Board, and became its senior partner in 2006.

O’Dwyer is the founder and immediate past chairman of the Emerald Isle Immigration Center, the largest Irish immigrant center in the U.S. He has been conferred with the Child of Peace Award by the Catholic Home Bureau, and the Ellis Island Medal of Honor.

O’Dwyer’s work in the political arena has concentrated largely on promoting Irish and Irish American interests. He served as national chairman of Irish Americans for Clinton-Gore in 1992 and 1996 and Irish Americans for Gore in 2000, and was a founding member of the National Democratic Ethnic Coordinating Committee and Irish American Democrats. He is also one of the leaders of the Irish Americans for Biden group.

He was part of the delegation that accompanied President Bill Clinton to Ireland on each of the president’s three official trips, and served as an advisor to the White House on Irish issues including the peace process. He was appointed by Clinton as a commissioner of the President’s Commission on White House Fellowships. In June 2011, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton appointed him as commissioner of the United States National Commission for UNESCO.

O’Dwyer earned a BA from George Washington University, a master’s in Spanish from Middlebury College in Madrid, and a JD from Georgetown Law. He returned to George Washington to receive a master’s in law. In 2013 he was awarded a doctor of philosophy by Dublin City University.

O’Dwyer and his wife Marianna have two children and four grandchildren. He served as grand marshal of the 2019 St. Patrick’s Day parade in New York City, succeeding his father who led the parade in 1974, and his uncle William O’Dwyer, the former mayor of New York, who was grand marshal in 1938.