Martin D. Ginsburg

Martin David Ginsburg (June 10, 1932 – June 27, 2010) was an American lawyer who specialized in tax law and was the husband of lawyer and U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. He taught law at Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, D.C., and was of counsel in the Washington, D.C., office of the American law firm Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson. Early life and education Ginsburg was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Evelyn (née Bayer) and Morris Ginsburg, a department store executive. He grew up in Rockville Centre, Long Island, where he attended South Side High School. His family was Jewish. Ginsburg earned a A.B. in chemistry from Cornell University in 1953 and a J.D. (magna cum laude) from Harvard Law School in 1958. He was a star on Cornell's golf team. After finishing a year at law school, Ginsburg married Joan Ruth Bader in 1954, after her graduation from Cornell. That same year, Ginsburg, a ROTC graduate commissioned in the Army Reserve, was called up for active duty and stationed at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, for two years. In 1956, he returned to law school, transferring to Harvard Law School along with his wife's admission there. During his third year at Harvard, Ginsburg endured two operations and radiation therapy to treat testicular cancer. Career After graduating from law school in 1958, Ginsburg joined the firm Weil, Gotshal & Manges. He was subsequently admitted to the bar in New York in 1959 and in the District of Columbia in 1980. Ginsburg taught at New York University Law School as an adjunct faculty member from 1967 to 1979. He was a visiting professor at Stanford Law School (1977–1978), Harvard Law School (1985–1986), the University of Chicago Law School (1989–1990), and New York University School of Law (1992–1993). He was a tenured professor at Columbia Law School (Charles Keller Beekman Professor of Law) from 1979 to 1980, and at Georgetown Law Center from 1980 until his death in 2010.