Feinberg opens up about tackling One Fund

BOSTON (MyFoxBoston.com) -- They are tragedies etched forever in our minds: 9/11, the BP deepwater horizon disaster, the shootings at Virginia Tech, Sandy Hook, and the Boston Marathon bombings.

Following each tragedy, Ken Feinberg was asked to administer the victim's compensation fund, so soon after the marathon bombings took place, then Mayor Tom Menino and Governor Deval Patrick knew exactly who to call.

Our Mark Ockerbloom sat down with Feinberg and asked him about his thoughts on that fateful day and what it was like working on the One Fund.

"Well on that day, I like millions of Americans I was in Washington DC watching the news. Hearing the breaking news come in stunned! Immediately figured it was some act of terror from some foreign country or some foreign land and just stunned that something could happen like this on really a national day of celebration, it was a shocking thing," Feinberg said.

When asked what his thoughts were when he was asked to head up the One Fund, he said, "They both called and asked me to come up to Boston right away to meet with them and discuss a compensation program that might be established for the victims. Families of those who lost loved ones, those physically injured and so I immediately answered the call the way that I think probably thousands or millions of Americans if they were asked would do the same."

When asked how hard was it to balance caring and compassion with compensation, he said it was a huge problem.

"All the money in the world isn't going to make these families and these victims whole," Feinberg said.

When asked how the One Fund performed compared to other tragedies he's been around, Feinberg said, "Newtown, Connecticut $7.5 million, Virginia Tech shootings $7 million, Aurora, Colorado $5 million. One Fund Boston $60 million! From 100,000 private donors all over the United States, I am amazed frankly at the charitable impulse of the American people."

Looking forward to this year's marathon, he says it's going to be "quite an experience."

"It's going to be a wonderful celebration of an event that can't be tarnished, shouldn't be tarnished by history, with due respect to all of the victims of the dead and those injured, but I think it will show community resilience in stepping up and running that race, and doing it without any challenges at all," he said.

Feinberg did all this Pro bono and received no compensation. He did it as a public service and once the money was distributed, in record time as he points out, he returned to his law practice in Washington.

Cox Media Group