24 Facts About Erwin Griswold

Erwin Nathaniel Griswold was an American appellate attorney and legal scholar who argued many cases before the US Supreme Court.

Erwin Griswold served as the dean of Harvard Law School for 21 years.

Erwin Griswold attended Harvard Law School from 1925 to 1929, earning an LL.

Erwin Griswold compiled The Bluebook, a uniform system of legal citation used by law professionals, in 1926 while a student at Harvard Law School.

Erwin Griswold subsequently joined the US Office of the Solicitor General as a staff attorney and served as a special assistant to the attorney general from 1929 to 1934.

Erwin Griswold became an expert at arguing tax cases before the Supreme Court, and is considered one of the great scholars in tax law.

Erwin Griswold joined the Harvard faculty in 1934, first as an associate legal professor, and then as a full professor from 1935 to 1946.

In 1946, just after Erwin Griswold was made dean, Soia Mentschikoff was appointed visiting professor, the first woman faculty member in the history of Harvard Law School.

The arguments Erwin Griswold made for orderly publication of the official actions of the Executive Branch were underlined when the Supreme Court issued its opinion in Panama Refining Co.

Harriet S Shapiro became the first woman attorney in the Solicitor General's office when Griswold hired her in 1972.

Erwin Griswold suggested that government demands for secrecy be treated with some skepticism by the public.

Erwin Griswold served as a mentor to many of the young lawyers in the firm.

Erwin Griswold was active in the Supreme Court Historical Society, serving as chairman of the board of trustees at the time of his death in 1994.

Erwin Griswold served as a trustee of his undergraduate alma mater, Oberlin College.

Erwin Griswold wrote several books including Spendthrift Trusts, Cases on Federal Taxation, Cases on Conflict Laws, and arguably his most popular, The Fifth Amendment Today, Law and Lawyers in the United States.

Erwin Griswold served as president of the Association of American Law Schools from 1957 to 1958 and as President of the American Bar Foundation from 1971 to 1974.

In 1985, at a ceremony commemorating the 50th Anniversary of the United States Supreme Court Building, Erwin Griswold gave a speech in which he compared the work Ruth Bader Ginsburg had done for women's rights to that which Charles Hamilton Houston and Thurgood Marshall had done for the civil rights of racial minorities.

Erwin Griswold was on President Jimmy Carter's selection committee for the District of Columbia Circuit which recommended Ginsburg to sit on the United States Court of Appeals there.

Together with William H Brown III and on behalf of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, Griswold testified against the confirmation of Clarence Thomas based on then-Judge Thomas' then-lack of judicial experience and his frequent reference to the legal theory of natural law.

Erwin Griswold's memoirs were published in 1992 under the title Ould Fields, New Corne: The Personal Memoirs of a Twentieth Century Lawyer.

Erwin Griswold died on November 19,1994, in Boston, at the age of 90.

Erwin Griswold was survived at the time of his death by his wife of 62 years, Harriet Allena Ford, two children, five grandchildren, and one great-grandchild.

Erwin Griswold has no relation to Colorado Secretary of State Jena Erwin Griswold.

Erwin Griswold is briefly portrayed in Steven Spielberg's 2017 film The Post by Kenneth Tigar.