Columbia Law School

Columbia Law School is one of the professional schools of Columbia University. It is a preeminent American law school with about 1,500 students in New York, New York.

CLS Notables

See also the list of Columbia University people.

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The Supreme Court

• John Jay 1764¹, co-author of the Federalist Papers (1788), first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court (1789), and governor of New York (1797-1801)
• Samuel Blatchford 1837¹, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court (1882-1883)
• Charles Evans Hughes 1884, New York governor (1907), Associate Justice of the Supreme Court (1910-1916), Republican nominee for President of the United States (1916), Secretary of State under Presidents Warren Harding (1921-23) and Calvin Coolidge (1923-29), and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court (1930-41)
• Benjamin N. Cardozo 1891², judge on the New York Court of Appeals (1917-32) and Associate Justice of the Supreme Court (1932-37); namesake of the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University
• Harlan Fiske Stone 1898, professor (1902-05) and dean (1910-23) at Columbia Law School, Attorney General under President Calvin Coolidge (1924-25), Associate Justice (1925-41) and Chief Justice (1941-46) of the Supreme Court
• Stanley Forman Reed², Soliciter General (1935-38) and Associate Justice of the Supreme Court (1938-57)
• William O. Douglas 1925, professor at Yale Law School (1928-34), Chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (1936-39), and Associate Justice of the Supreme Court (1939-75)
• Ruth Bader Ginsburg 1959, law professor at Rutgers University (1963-72) and Columbia Law School (1972-80), ACLU attorney (1972-80), judge on the DC Circuit (1980-93), and Associate Justice of the Supreme Court (1993-present)

Politics and Government

• Alexander Hamilton 1773-76¹, principal author of the Federalist Papers (1788) and Secretary of the Treasury under President George Washington (1789-95)
• Perry Belmont 1876, congressman from New York (1880-88) and US Ambassador to Spain (1888-1889)
• Theodore Roosevelt 1880², hero of the Spanish-American War, New York governor (1899-1901), 25th Vice President of the United States (1901), 26th President of the United States (1901-1909), and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize (1906)
• Bainbridge Colby 1891, founder of the United States Progressive Party (1912); Secretary of State under President Woodrow Wilson (1920-21)
• Henry Morgenthau, Sr., US Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire (1913-16)
• Alva B. Adams 1899, senator from Colorado (1923-24, 1933-41)
• John Purroy Mitchell 1899, New York City mayor (1914-17)
• Luke Lea 1903, senator from Tennessee (1911-17)
• William Donovan 1905, World War I hero, head of the OSS during World War II, and US Ambassador to Thailand (1953-54)
• Franklin Delano Roosevelt 1904-1907², New York governor (1929-33) and 32nd President of the United States (1933-45)
• Charles Ruthenberg 1909, founder of the Communist Party of America (1919)
• Emanuel Celler 1912, congressman from New York (1923-1973)
• Tracy Voorhees 1915, Undersecretary of the Army (1948-53)
• Lister Hill 1915², congressman (1923-38) and senator (1938-69) from Alabama
• Colgate Darden 1923, congressman from Virginia (1933-37, 1939-41), Virginia governor (1942-46), and president of the University of Virginia (1947-59); namesake of the Darden Graduate School of Business Administration
• Thomas E. Dewey 1925, Manhattan district attorney (1937-42), New York governor (1942-55), and Republican nominee for President of the United States (1944, 1948)
• Clifford P. Case 1928, congressman (1945-53) and senator (1955-79) from New Jersey
• Wayne Morse 1932, senator from Oregon (1945-69)
• Robert Baumle Meyner 1933, New Jersey governor (1952-62)
• Constance Baker Motley 1946, attorney for the NAACP (1945-64); Manhattan Borough president (1964-66); first African American woman appointed to the federal bench (1966-86)
• Roy Cohn 1947, anti-communist attorney who was an influential aide to Senator Joseph McCarthy and was active in the espionage trial of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg
• Jack B. Weinstein 1948, professor at Columbia (1952-98) and federal judge (1967-93)
• Harrison A. Williams 1948, congressman (1953-57) and senator (1959-82) from New Jersey
• Slade Gorton 1953, senator from Washington (1981-87, 1994-2001)
• John D. Hawke, Jr. 1960, Comptroller of the Currency (1998-2004)
• Charles Fried 1960, professor at Harvard Law School (1961-87, 1989-95, 1999-present), US Soliciter General (1985-89), and Associate Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (1995-99)
• Charles F.C. Ruff 1963, Washington attorney who represented Anita Hill and President William Jefferson Clinton
• Gray Davis 1967, California governor (1999-2003)
• Michael Cardozo 1966, corporation counsel of New York City (2002-present)
• George Pataki 1970, New York governor (1994-present)
• Lewis Libby 1975, chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney (2001-present)
• Richard Ben-Veniste 1976, federal prosecutor (1968-73), chief of the Watergate Task Force of the Special Prosecutor's Office (1973-75), and member of the 9/11 Commission (2002-2004)
• Margery Bronster 1982, Hawaii attorney general (1995-99)
• Caroline Kennedy 1988, daughter of President John F. Kennedy
• Mikhail Saakashvili 1994, president of Georgia (2005-present)
• Li Lu 1996, leader of the Tiananmen Square Protests (1989)
• Karenna Gore Schiff 2000, daughter of former Vice President Albert Gore

Business & Philanthropy

• William Waldorf Astor 1875, Anglo-American financier, son of John Jacob Astor, US Minister to Italy (1881-1885)
• Henry Clay Folger 1881, president of the Standard Oil Company (1911-1923) and founder of the Folger Shakespeare Library
• John William Sterling 1893, founder of the Manhattan law firm Shearman & Sterling; major donor to his undergraduate alma mater, Yale University; namesake of Yale's library, law building, and its most prestigious endowed chair
• Douglas Black 1918, president of Doubleday (1946-63)
• Russell E. Train 1948, founding trustee, CEO, president, and chairman of the World Wildlife Fund
• David Sive 1948, pioneer in environmental law; founding partner, Sive, Paget & Riesel, PC
• Morton L. Janklow 1953, literary agent to Sidney Sheldon, Pope John Paul II, Danielle Steele, Ronald Reagan, and J.K. Rowling
• Alan N. Cohen 1954, chairman and CEO of the Madison Square Garden Corporation (1974-77), principle owner of the New Jersey Nets, and principle owner of the Boston Celtics (1983-2004)
• Herbert Sandler, founder of Golden West Financial (1963), philanthropist, member of Forbes 400 (2003-present)
• H. F. Lenfest 1958, media proprietor and member of Forbes 400 (1999-present)
• Stephen Friedman 1962, chairman of Goldman Sachs (1990-1994) and director of the National Economic Council (2004-Present)
• Michael Lynne 1964, president (1990-2001), co-CEO (2001-present) and co-chairman (2001-present) of New Line Cinema
• Douglas H. McCorkindale 1964, CEO (2000-present) and chairman (2001-present) of Gannett
• Robert Shaye 1964, founder, chairman/co-chairman and CEO/co-CEO of New Line Cinema (1967-present)
• David Stern 1966, commissioner of the National Basketball Association (1984-present)
• Ted Forstmann 1965, co-founder of Forstmann Little & Company, chairman and CEO of Gulfstream Aerospace (1990-1999), and member of Forbes 400 (1998-2003)
• S. Robson Walton 1969, chairman of Wal-mart (1992-present) and member of the Forbes 400 (1992-present)
• Bruce Ratner 1970, founder (1985), president, and CEO of Forest City Ratner; principal owner of the New Jersey Nets, which he hopes to move to Brooklyn
• Roland W. Betts 1978, investor, film producer, lead owner in George W. Bush?s Texas Rangers partnership (1989-1998), and developer and owner of Chelsea Piers (1989-present)
• Mark Attanasio 1982, investment banker and owner of the Milwaukee Brewers (2004-present)
• Randolph Lerner, CEO of MBNA (2002-present), owner of the Cleveland Browns (2002-present), and member of Forbes 400 (2002-present)

Arts & Academia

• Isaac Hollister Hall 1865, famed Orientalist and curator of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (1885-96)
• Charles Chaille-Long 1880, soldier and explorer of Africa
• John Kendrick Bangs 1883-84², writer and satirist associated with so-called "Bangsian fantasy"
• William Ivins, Jr. 1907, curator of prints at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (1916-1946)
• Paul Robeson 1923, All-American athlete, actor, singer, and civil rights activist
• Felix S. Cohen 1931, expert on Native American law, legal philosopher, and professor at Yale Law School, the City College of New York, the New School, and Rutgers University; early proponent of legal realism
• Herbert Wechsler 1931, professor at Columbia Law School (1933-1978) and director of the American Law Institute (1963-84); argued in front of the Supreme Court in the seminal libel case New York Times v. Sullivan (1964)
• Jack Greenberg 1948, counsel for the NAACP (1949-84), in which capacity he argued Brown v. Board of Education (1954); professor at Columbia Law School (1984-present)
• Robert L. Carter, LL.M. 1941, civil rights activist, NAACP general counsel, in which capacity he argued Brown v. Board of Education II (1955); judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York
• E. Allen Farnsworth 1952, expert on the law of contracts and professor at Columbia Law School (1952-2004)
• Yale Kamisar 1955, expert on criminal law and professor at the University of Michigan Law School (1965-present)
• Michael I. Sovern 1955, professor (1957-present) and dean (1970-79) at Columbia Law School, president of Columbia University (1980-93), and chairman of Sotheby's (2002-present)
• Edward Packard, children's author who developed the "choose your own adventure" style of storytelling
• Robert Cover 1968, professor at Columbia Law School (1971-72) and Yale Law School (1972-86); scholar of history, philosophy, literature, and law; author of the multidisciplinary analysis Justice Accused: Antislavery and the Judicial Process, and The Structure of Procedure
• Lee Bollinger 1971, professor (1973-87) and dean (1987-1994) at the University of Michigan Law School, and president of Columbia University (2002-present); defendant in the Supreme Court case Grutter v. Bollinger (2003)
• Barry Mills 1979, president of Bowdoin College (2001-present)
• Brad Meltzer 1996, author of legal thrillers

Athletics

• John Montgomery Ward 1883, played baseball for the Providence Greys (1878-82), New York Giants (1883-1889, 1893-94), Brooklyn's Ward Wonders (1890) and Brooklyn Grooms (1890-91); president of the Boston Braves (1911-1912); advocate for player's rights; member of the Baseball Hall of Fame (1964)
• Moe Berg 1930, light-hitting catcher for the Brooklyn Robins (1923), Chicago White Sox (1926-1930), Cleveland Indians (1931, 1934), Washington Senators (1932-34) and Boston Red Sox (1935-39); able to speak twelve languages; spy for the OSS; according to Casey Stengel, "the strangest man ever to play Major League Baseball"

¹ Studied law at Columbia University or its predecessor, King's College, prior to the founding of the Law School.

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² Failed to complete the law degree.

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