Martin D. Ginsburg - Life and Career

Life and Career

Ginsburg was born to Morris and Evelyn (Bayer) Ginsburg and grew up on Long Island. His father was a department store executive. He earned an A.B. from Cornell University (1953) and a J.D. (magna cum laude) from Harvard Law School (1958). He was a star on Cornell's golf team. He finished a year at law school, married Ruth Joan Bader (after she finished at Cornell), and was drafted (1954). He was stationed at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. He exploited his undergraduate training in chemistry to learn to cook— his new bride's limited culinary skills encouraged it. He returned to law school and his wife entered HLS (1956). During his third year at law school, he endured two operations and radiation therapy to treat testicular cancer. After law school, he joined Weil, Gotshal & Manges (1958). He was admitted to the bar in New York (1959) and District of Columbia (1980).

He taught at New York University Law School (1960s), and was a visiting professor at Stanford Law School (1977–1978), Harvard Law School (1985–1986), University of Chicago Law School (1989–1990), and at NYU (1992–1993). He was a tenured professor at Columbia Law School (Beekman Professor of Law) (1979–1980), and at Georgetown (1980–2010).

Ginsburg's firm represented H. Ross Perot in a business matter, and the two men became friends (1971). After President Jimmy Carter nominated his wife to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (1980), Ginsburg reached out to Perot and other influential friends to assure her Senate confirmation. Ginsburg resolved complex tax questions that threatened General Motors's acquisition (1984) of Perot's Electronic Data Systems. Perot endowed (1986) the Martin Ginsburg chair in taxation at Georgetown Law Center, but Ginsburg never filled that appointment.

Ginsburg married future Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader June 23, 1954; they are the parents of Jane Carol Ginsburg (born 1955, HLS 1980), and James Steven Ginsburg (born 1965).

Once each term, he cooked a meal for his wife's clerks.

He died from cancer on June 27, 2010. He was buried at Arlington National Cemetery.