WUSTL law dean to oversee $20 billion BP Gulf fund | Newsroom | Washington University in St. Louis

My new Dean is now 50% responsible for this money. Let me know if there's any complaints or corruption and I'll pass the message on.

Kent D. Syverud, JD, dean of the Washington University in St. Louis School of Law and the Ethan A.H. Shepley University Professor, has been named a trustee of the $20 billion Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Trust.

Syverud, who also serves as WUSTL's associate vice chancellor of Washington, D.C., programs, is one of two appointees who will oversee the newly established trust. The other trustee is John S. Martin Jr., a distinguished retired federal judge in New York.

The trustees will administer the account. Claims processor, attorney Kenneth Feinberg, will determine eligibility.

The fund is designed to settle legitimate claims against BP resulting from the Deepwater Horizon explosion April 20, 2010, which prompted a massive oil and gas spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Syverud called the appointment “an honor and a great public responsibility.”

“This spill has been a traumatic experience for so many,” Syverud says.

He wants the trust, which was created by BP in negotiations with the White House, “to be responsibly administered for the benefit of those with legitimate claims.”