Frederic J. Truslow

Frederic J. Truslow (Frederic Jennings Truslow, born October 28, 1939) was a Washington lawyer who held senior housing posts at the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development before joining Lane and Edson, where he was a short-form registrant under the Foreign Agents Registration Act for the Republic of Peru on the recovery of pre-Columbian artifacts. The Justice Department registration files spell his name "Frederic"; trade, press and congressional records of the period print it both as Frederic and as Frederick.

Family and education

Truslow was born on October 28, 1939, the second son of Francis Adams Truslow and Elizabeth Auchincloss (Jennings) Truslow of New York City.¹ His father, born in Summit, New Jersey, in 1906, was head of the Rubber Reserve Company, president of the New York Curb Exchange, and a United States Department of State representative on the U.S.-Brazil Joint Commission for Economic Development; he died at sea on July 8, 1951, on the way to Rio de Janeiro.² A July 1997 obituary of Elizabeth Truslow Howell, the widow of Francis Adams Truslow and later the wife of Dr. John Taylor Howell Jr., lists her surviving sons as including "Frederic Jennings Truslow of Washington."³

The 1963 Harvard Law School yearbook lists Frederic Jennings Truslow of 1088 Park Avenue, New York, "B.A. Yale '61," with the notations "Gardner, L. Rev."⁴ The Harvard Law Review volume of 1962 to 1963 prints "Frederic J. Truslow" among its student editors, and the Harvard Law Record of 1962 lists "Frederic J. Truslow, New York and Yale" among twenty-five students chosen for the review.⁵ The Lawyers Directory of 1967 lists him as a new associate of a New York firm.⁶

Housing posts, 1973 to 1978

A 1973 housing directory lists "Frederic J. Truslow, Associate Counsel" in an entry for a state housing agency.⁷ A 1976 issue of the Journal of Housing described Frederick J. Truslow as director of the office of policy development and evaluation of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, responsible for developing and coordinating policies, research programs and evaluation mechanisms for housing programs.⁸ In the same year a Congressional Record entry lists him as "Deputy Assistant Secretary for Housing Production and Mortgage Credit" of the department.⁹ A 1977 record of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York describes him as a former member of one of its committees and more recently a deputy assistant secretary for housing production and mortgage credit.¹⁰

A 1978 housing bibliography lists an article by Charles L. Edson and Truslow on bonding for Section 8 housing as an alternative to Section 11(b), published in the trade journal Multi-Housing.¹¹

Lane and Edson, 1979 to 1988

A 1979 seminar program lists "Frederic J. Truslow, Seminar Chairman, Lane and Edson, P.C., Washington, D.C."¹² He is among the lawyers printed on Lane and Edson letterheads in congressional hearing records of 1983, 1984 and 1985, with Kenneth G. Hance Jr., Martin Klepper, Barry R. Schenof, Eugene Propper and Jack Feder.¹³

In 1981 The International Trade Law Journal described Frederick J. Truslow as "of the law firm of Lane & Edson, who represents the Peruvian Government in U.S. courts," and reported his statement that scores of archaeological sites had been stripped to supply between 40,000 and 80,000 pieces a year to the American art market.¹⁴ A 1982 issue of the Stolen Art Alert described him as "a Washington lawyer who has been retained as counsel to Peru" and reported his comments on Peru's priorities in stopping the flow of antiquities out of the country.¹⁵ Under the byline Frederic J. Truslow, the New York University Journal of International Law and Politics printed "Peru's Recovery of Cultural Patrimony" in 1983.¹⁶ An April 1986 ARTnews article on Peru and the antiquities trade quotes Truslow, an attorney with Lane and Edson, as calling preposterous the notion that Peru would file blanket suits against American museums and individuals claiming title to Peruvian antiquities.¹⁷ The Justice Department's registration files list Lane and Edson's registration 3286 for Peru from October 8, 1981, with short forms for Truslow and Propper that both ended on November 8, 1988.¹²

The acknowledgments of The Art of M&A (1989), a Lane and Edson guide written with Stanley F. Reed, name Frederic J. Truslow with Mark Kotlarsky, Bruce S. Lane, Thomas E. Weil Jr. and Justine E. Wilcox.¹⁸

Dewey, Ballantine and later records

The Wall Street Journal reported in September 1988 that Jack Feder was bringing sixteen lawyers from the ninety-lawyer Lane and Edson to the Washington office of Dewey, Ballantine, Bushby, Palmer & Wood.¹⁹ A roster of counsel printed in the record of 1988 hearings on the United States-Canada Free Trade Agreement lists "Frederick J. Truslow," annotated as admitted in New York only and in Massachusetts only, under the name of Dewey, Ballantine, Bushby, Palmer & Wood; a roster in the record of 1990 hearings prints "Frederic J. Truslow," admitted in New York only, under the same firm.²⁰ A 1989 Anuario Hispano directory lists "Truslow, Lane & Edson" at 2300 M Street NW.²¹