Bernard William Nussbaum was an American attorney, best known for having served as White House Counsel under President Bill Clinton.
46 Facts About Bernard Nussbaum
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Bernard Nussbaum's father was later employed by the labor union that represented garment workers, the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union.
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Bernard Nussbaum grew up on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, home at the time to many immigrant families from Eastern Europe.
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Bernard Nussbaum graduated in 1954, having been a member of the school's academic honor society, and an editor on the school's newspaper, the Stuyvesant Spectator.
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Bernard Nussbaum then was accepted at Columbia College in New York.
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Bernard Nussbaum was awarded scholarships by New York State and by Columbia which made it possible for him to attend Columbia.
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Bernard Nussbaum joined the staff of the college daily newspaper, the Columbia Daily Spectator and, in his senior year, became its editor-in-chief.
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In 1958, Bernard Nussbaum graduated from Columbia and was admitted to Harvard Law School.
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Bernard Nussbaum was a federal prosecutor for more than three years and tried a number of major criminal cases.
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Bernard Nussbaum won a jury verdict convicting a prominent accountant and investor of bribing and conspiring to bribe an internal revenue agent.
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In 1968, Bernard Nussbaum ran for a seat in the New York State Assembly.
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In 1970, Bernard Nussbaum managed Robert Morgenthau's campaign for Governor of New York.
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Bernard Nussbaum led a group of former assistant United States attorneys in conducting a statewide petition drive to place Morgenthau's name on the Democratic Party primary ballot for the party's nomination for governor, opposing Arthur Goldberg, the former Supreme Court Justice, who was the choice of the Democratic Party leaders.
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In 1972, Bernard Nussbaum represented Elizabeth Holtzman who, in a surprise victory, had defeated senior US Representative Emanuel Celler, who at the time was chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, by a little over 600 votes in the Democratic primary election.
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Bernard Nussbaum won that case, which was ultimately decided by the New York State Court of Appeals, and Holtzman's election was upheld.
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In December 1973, Bernard Nussbaum left his law firm to serve as a senior member on the House Judiciary Committee's impeachment inquiry staff, led by John Doar, which conducted the impeachment investigation involving President Richard Nixon.
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Bernard Nussbaum played a role in presenting the results of the staff's inquiry to the House Judiciary Committee.
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Bernard Nussbaum introduced him to the man she would marry in 1975, Bill Clinton.
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In 1993, Bernard Nussbaum again left his law firm, when he was appointed Counsel to the President of the United States.
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Bernard Nussbaum was involved in handling the early stages of the Whitewater controversy, an investigation into an unsuccessful Arkansas real estate investment made by the Clintons years earlier, and the investigation of the suicide of his deputy, Vincent Foster.
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Contrary to the advice of others on the White House staff, in the administration, and in Congress, Bernard Nussbaum strongly urged the President not to seek the appointment of an independent counsel with respect to those matters.
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Bernard Nussbaum maintained there was no legal basis for such an appointment, as there was no evidence of wrongdoing by the President, either before or after he entered office.
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Bernard Nussbaum warned the president that the institution of an independent counsel, who is responsible to no one, tends to become an uncontrolled, never ending effort to find wrongdoing even where none exists.
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Bernard Nussbaum predicted that conservative judges would replace anyone who was appointed by the Attorney General with a choice more to their liking.
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Bernard Nussbaum predicted the investigation would likely last as long as the President was in office and beyond.
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Bernard Nussbaum was ultimately acquitted by the Senate, but the impeachment proceeding subsequently affected future presidential elections, first involving Vice President Al Gore and later Hillary Clinton.
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Bernard Nussbaum resigned on March 5,1994, as a result of the Whitewater controversy and the position he took regarding the appointment of an Independent Counsel.
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Bernard Nussbaum returned to his law firm in late 1994 and resumed the private practice of law.
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Bernard Nussbaum represented the Hilton Corporation in a Nevada federal court and obtained an injunction preventing ITT Corporation from blocking a takeover effort.
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Bernard Nussbaum won a judgment in Delaware Chancery Court on behalf of IBP Corporation ordering Tyson Foods to consummate a multi-billion merger between IBP and Tyson, which Tyson had agreed to but was seeking to avoid.
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In 2004, Bernard Nussbaum won a jury verdict in a New York federal court on behalf of the developer of the rebuilt World Trade Center, Larry Silverstein, against major insurance companies.
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Bernard Nussbaum represented a senior partner of the Simpson Thacher law firm who was charged with diverting fees owed to the firm.
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In 1992, in a case which generated one of the most prominent legal ethics controversies of the decade, Bernard Nussbaum represented the law firm of Kaye Scholer.
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At this point Bernard Nussbaum was retained to represent Kaye Scholer.
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On January 28,2011, Bernard Nussbaum sent a letter to President Barack Obama stating that while serving as White House Counsel he extensively reviewed the Jonathan Pollard file.
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Bernard Nussbaum was the recipient of awards from charitable and educational institutions as well as legal organizations.
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Bernard Nussbaum served as Vice President of the New York City Bar Association and as President of the Federal Bar Council, a bar association whose membership consists of lawyers and judges who practice primarily in federal courts within the Second Circuit.
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Bernard Nussbaum was a Fellow of the American College of Trial lawyers, a select professional association of trial lawyers from the United States and Canada.
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Bernard Nussbaum was a member of philanthropic boards of trustees, including Brandeis University and the Jewish Theological Seminary.
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Bernard Nussbaum served as a trustee of the Boys Brotherhood Republic, a self-governing youth club on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.
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Bernard Nussbaum served on the Board of Trustees of The Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City which encompasses seven major hospitals in New York City and a highly regarded medical school.
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Bernard Nussbaum was a member of the board's audit committee and legal committee.
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Bernard Nussbaum was a member of a three-person independent review board appointed in 2014 by the Brooklyn District Attorney.
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In December 2008, Bernard Nussbaum married Nancy Kuhn, who had been a fundraiser for political and charitable organizations.
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Bernard Nussbaum had three children: a daughter, Emily Nussbaum ; two sons, Peter Nussbaum, Frank Nussbaum and a stepson, William Kuhn.
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Bernard Nussbaum died from heart disease at his home in Manhattan on March 13,2022, at the age of 84.