List of Columbia Law School alumni

This is a partial list of individuals who have attended Columbia Law School. For a full list of individuals who have attended or taught at Columbia University as a whole, see the list of Columbia University people.

Government

United States Government

Executive branch

Presidents

• Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1905-1907)², Governor of New York (1929-33) and 32nd President of the United States (1933-45)
• Theodore Roosevelt (1880-1881)², hero of the Spanish-American War, Governor of New York (1899-1901), 25th Vice President of the United States (1901), 26th President of the United States (1901-1909), Nobel Peace Prize winner (1906), Medal of Honor (posthumously awarded 2001)

Cabinet and subcabinet members, Presidential advisors

• Mark Barnes (LL.M. 1991), member of the National Health Care Reform Task Force in the administration of President Bill Clinton
• Anthony "Tony" Blinkers (1988), National Security Advisor to Vice President Joseph Biden in the Administration of President Barack Obama (2009-)
• John D. Clark (1907), influential member of President's United States Council of Economic Advisors (1946-53) under President Harry S Truman
• J. Reuben Clark (1906), United States Under Secretary of State for President Calvin Coolidge (2nd ranking official in the U.S. Department of State from 1919-1972)
• Bainbridge Colby (1891), United States Secretary of State (1920-21); founder of the Progressive Party (1912)
• William Colby (1947), U.S. Director of Central Intelligence (1973-76)
• Lynn Forester de Rothschild, United States Secretary of Energy Advisory Board under President Bill Clinton
• Jacob M. Dickinson (attended), 44th United States Secretary of War (1909-1911)
• William Joseph Donovan (1908), founder, head, U.S. Office of Strategic Services (OSS) (founded during World War II), predecessor of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency; known as father of the CIA; U.S. Coordinator of Information (COI) under Franklin D. Roosevelt; also World War I hero, Medal of Honor, Legion d'honneur, croix de guerre, Freedom Award
• William Dudley Foulke (1871), United States Civil Service Commission, which subsequently became the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) with some functions spun off to the U.S. Office of Special Counsel and the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)
• Stephen Friedman (PFIAB) (1962), director of the President's United States National Economic Council under President George W. Bush (2002-2005), Chairman of the United States President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board under George W. Bush (2005-2009) (replacing Brent Scowcroft)
• James Rudolph Garfield (1888), United States Secretary of the Interior (1907-09), United States Civil Service Commission (1902-1903)
• Ulysses S. Grant, Jr., personal secretary to President Ulysses S. Grant
• John D. Hawke, Jr. (1960), United States Comptroller of the Currency (1998-2004) under Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush; a director of the United States Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, among other agencies (1998-2004); Under Secretary of the Treasury for Domestic Finance (1995-1998)
• Eric Holder (1976), 82nd United States Attorney General, former Acting U.S. Attorney General, former U.S. Deputy Attorney General
• Charles Evans Hughes (1884), United States Secretary of State, professor of law at Cornell Law School, Governor of New York (1907), Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court (1910-1916), Republican nominee for President of the United States (1916-against Woodrow Wilson), and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court (1930-41)
• John Marshall Kernochan, member of President John F. Kennedy's Commission on the Status of Women, which helped lead to women's rights legislation in the late 1960s
• Franklin MacVeagh (1864), United States Secretary of the Treasury (1909-13)
• Brett McGurk (1999), Special Adviser-Iraq (2009-); Director for Iraq, United States National Security Council under President George W. Bush; Private militias in Iraq
• Frank Polk (1897), Acting United States Secretary of State (1920), Under Secretary of State (2nd ranking official in the U.S. Department of State from 1919-1972) (1919-1920), headed American Commission to Negotiate Peace (1919)
• Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1904-1907), U.S. Assistant Secretary of the Navy (2nd ranking official in the U.S. Navy until 1940)
• Theodore Roosevelt, 25th Vice-President of the United States; U.S. Assistant Secretary of the Navy (2nd ranking official in the U.S. Navy until 1940); United States Civil Service Commission (1888-1895); presidential nominee of Progressive Party ("Bull Moose Party"), in the election of 1912 (against President William Howard Taft and Woodrow Wilson)
• Harlan Fiske Stone (1898), 52nd United States Attorney General, professor (1902-05) and dean (1910-23) of Columbia Law, Associate Justice (1925-41) and Chief Justice (1941-46) of the United States Supreme Court
• Richard Stone, Vice Chairman of President Ronald Reagan's Commission for Radio Broadcasting to Cuba
• Oscar S. Straus (1873), United States Secretary of Commerce and Labor (1906-09), first Jewish Presidential Cabinet Secretary
• Karan K. Bhatia, Deputy United States Trade Representative (2nd ranking official in the U.S. Office of Trade Representative) (2005-)
• Frank Blake (1976), Deputy United States Secretary of Energy
• Samuel Irving Rosenman (1919), first White House Counsel (1943-46) under Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman
• Charles Ruff (1963), White House Counsel under President Bill Clinton, defended President during impeachment trial in 1999
• Russell E. Train (1948), second Administrator of the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) (1973-77), Chairman of the newly formed President's Council on Environmental Quality (1970-73), Under Secretary of the United States Department of the Interior (at that time, the 2nd ranking official in the U.S. Department of the Interior) (1969-70)
• Harold R. Tyler, Jr. (1949), United States Deputy Attorney General (2nd ranking official in the U.S. Department of Justice) (1975-1977)
• Tracy Voorhees (1915), Under Secretary of the United States Army (2nd ranking official in the U.S. Army) (1949-50)
• J. Mayhew Wainwright (1886), U.S. Assistant Secretary of War (2nd ranking official in the U.S. Department of War until 1940) (1921-1923)
• Lawrence Edward Walsh (1935), United States Deputy Attorney General (1957-1960)

Solicitors general

• Lloyd Wheaton Bowers, United States Solicitor General (1909-10)
• Charles Fried (1960), United States Solicitor General (1985-1989), Acting United States Solicitor General, Deputy United States Solicitor General
• Daniel M. Friedman (1940), Acting United States Solicitor General (1977)
• Stanley Foreman Reed, United States Solicitor General (1935-38)
• R. Kent Greenawalt (1963), Deputy United States Solicitor General (1971-1972)

Judicial branch

Supreme Court

• Samuel Blatchford (1837)¹, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court (1882-93)
• Benjamin Nathan Cardozo (B.A.-CC, attended Law School for two years), judge, New York Court of Appeals (1914-32); Associate Justice of the Supreme Court (1932-38)
• William O. Douglas (1925), professor at Columbia Law and 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), professor at Rutgers (1963-72) and Columbia Law (1972-80); ACLU attorney (1972-80); judge, United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (1980-93); and Associate Justice of the Supreme Court (1993-present)
• Charles Evans Hughes (1884), Governor of New York (1907), Associate Justice of the Supreme Court (1910-1916), Republican nominee for President of the United States (1916), Secretary of State (1921-29), and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court (1930-41)
• John Jay (1764)¹, First Chief Justice of the Supreme Court (1789-95)
• Stanley Forman Reed, United States Solicitor General (1935-38) and Associate Justice of the Supreme Court (1938-57)
• Harlan Fiske Stone (1898), professor (1902-05) and dean (1910-23) at Columbia Law School, Attorney General (1924-25), Associate Justice (1925-41) and Chief Justice (1941-46) of the Supreme Court
• Joseph McKenna (studied at the law school), Associate Justice of the Supreme Court (1892-1897)

Federal courts

• Charles L. Brieant 1949), former United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (1971-2008)
• Naomi Reice Buchwald (1968), United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (1999-)
• Robert L. Carter (1941), former United States District Court for the Southern District of New York
• Denise Cote (1975), United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (1994-)
• Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum (1953), United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (1986-)
• Marvin E. Frankel (1948), former United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, professor at Columbia, partner at Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel (1983-2002)
• Lee Parsons Gagliardi (1947), former United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (1971-1998)
• Paul G. Gardephe (1982), United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (2009-)
• Gerard Louis Goettel (1955), United States District Court for the District of New York (1976-)
• Alvin Hellerstein (1958), United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (1998-)
• William Bernard Herlands (1928), former United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (1959-1969)
• George Chandler Holt (1869), former United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (1903-1914)
• Richard J. Holwell (1970), United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (2003-)
• Kenneth M. Karas (1991), United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (2004-)
• Mary Johnson Lowe (LL.M. 1955), former United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (1978-1999)
• John S. Martin, Jr. (1961), former United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (1990-2003)
• Charles Miller Metzner (1933), United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (1959-)
• 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)
• Robert P. Patterson, Jr. (1950), United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (1988-)
• Milton Pollack (A.M., LL.M.), former United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (1967-2004)
• Simon H. Rifkind (1925), former United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (1941-1950)
• Harold R. Tyler, Jr. (1949), former United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (1962-1975)
• Lawrence Edward Walsh (1935), former United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (1954-1957)
• Francis A. Winslow, former United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (1927-1929)
• John M. Woolsey, former United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (1929-1943)
• Joseph F. Bianco (1991), United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York (2005-)
• Mortimer W. Byers (1898), former United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York (1929-1962)
• Thomas Chatfield (1896), former United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York (1907-1925)
• Nicholas Garaufis (1974), United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York (2000-)
• Dora L. Irizarry (1979), United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York (2003-)
• Charles Proctor Sifton (1961), former United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York (1977-2009)
• Jack B. Weinstein (1948), United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York (1967-present), professor at Columbia (1952-98)
• Joseph Carmine Zavatt (1924), former United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York (1957-1977)
• U. W. Clemon (1968), former United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama (1980-2009), Chief Judge(1999-2006)
• Richard G. Seeborg, United States District Court for the Northern District of California (2009-)
• Alexander Holtzoff (1911), former United States District Court for the District of Columbia (1945-1967)
• Richard W. Roberts (1978), United States District Court for the District of Columbia (1998-)
• Alexander Harvey II (1950), United States District Court for the District of Maryland (1966-)
• Nathaniel M. Gorton (1966), United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts (1992-)
• Denise Page Hood (1977), United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan
• Dickinson Richards Debevoise (1951), United States District Court for the District of New Jersey (1979-)
• Ira Lloyd Letts (1917), former United States District Court for the District of Rhode Island (1928-1935)
• Anita B. Brody (1958), United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania (1992-)
• Lynn S. Adelman (1965), United States District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin (1997-)
• James Edward Doyle (1940), former United States District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin (1965-1987); Chief judge (1978-1980)
• John Patrick Hartigan (A.M., LL.B.), former United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit (1951-1968), United States District Court for the District of Rhode Island (1940-1951)
• Hugh H. Bownes (1948), former United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit (1977-2003), United States District Court for the District of New Hampshire (1968-1977)
• Samuel Blatchford, former United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, United States District Court for the Southern District of New York
• Paul Raymond Hays, former United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (1961-1980)
• Wilfred Feinberg (1946), United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
• Emile Henry Lacombe (1865), former United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (1887-1916)
• Gerard E. Lynch (1975), United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (2009-); United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (2000-2009), professor at Columbia (1977-present)
• J. Daniel Mahoney (1955), former United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (1986-1996)
• Martin Manton (1901), former United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (1918-1939), United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (1916-1918)
• Julius Marshuetz Mayer, former United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (1921-24); United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (1912-21)
• Harold Medina (1912), former United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit; United States District Court for the Southern District of New York; cover of Time Magazine, Oct. 24,1949; noted for hearing landmark cases of conspiracy and treason; professor of law at Columbia Law; lawyer
• Leonard P. Moore, former United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (1957-1982)
• Robert D. Sack (1963), United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
• Ruth Bader Ginsburg (1959), former United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit
• Harold Leventhal (judge) (1936), former United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (1965-1979)
• Richard Wilde Walker, Jr. (attended), United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit (1914-1936)
• James Alger Fee (1914), former United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (1954-59), United States District Court for the District of Oregon (1931-1954)
• Daniel M. Friedman (1940), United States Court of Federal Claims; Chief judge, United States Court of Claims
• Jack Miller (politician) (1946), former United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, United States Court of Customs and Patent Appeals
• S. Jay Plager (LL.M. 1961) United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
• Giles Sutherland Rich (1929), former United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, United States Court of Customs and Patent Appeals, co-author of the Patent Act of 1952
• Russell E. Train (1948), former United States Tax Court (1957-1965)
• Norman H. Wolfe (1953), Special Trial Judge in the United States Tax Court (1985-?)
• Robert Gerber (1970), United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York, presiding over 2009 General Motors bankruptcy and other major bankruptcies

Legislative branch

• Bella Abzug, congresswoman from New York (1971-77) and leader of the women's movement
• Alva B. Adams (1899), United States Senator from Colorado (1923-24, 1933-41)
• John J. Adams, congressman from New York (1883-85;1885-87)
• Homer D. Angell (1903), Congressman from Oregon (1939-1955)
• Martin C. Ansorge (1906), congressman from New York (1921-23)
• Edward Basset (1886), congressman from New York (1903-1905), founding father of modern urban planning, developed "freeway" and "parkway" concepts, coined the term "freeway"
• Perry Belmont (1876), congressman from New York (1880-88)
• Loring Black, congressman from New York (1923-35)
• Robert William Bonynge (1885), congressman from Colorado (1904-1909)
• Frank T. Bow, congressman from Ohio (1951-72)
• Lloyd Bryce, congressman from New York (1887-1889)
• Johnson N. Camden, Jr., senator from Kentucky (1914-15)
• John F. Carew (B.A. 1893, LL.M. 1896), congressman from New York (1913-1929)
• Clifford P. Case (1928), congressman (1945-53) and senator (1955-79) from New Jersey
• Emanuel Celler (1912), congressman from New York (1923-1973)
• Alexander Gilmore Cochran, congressman from Pennsylvania (1875-77)
• LeBaron B. Colt (1870), senator from Rhode Island (1913-1924)
• Robert Crosser (transferred), congressman from Ohio (1913-1919, 1923-1955)
• Colgate Darden (1923), congressman from Virginia (1933-37, 1939-41), Governor of Virginia (1942-46), chancellor of the College of William and Mary (1946-47), president of the University of Virginia (1947-59); namesake of the Darden Graduate School of Business Administration
• Hamilton Fish II (1873), congressman from New York (1909-11)
• Ashbel P. Fitch, congressman from New York (1887-1893)
• Frank T. Fitzgerald (1876), congressman from New York (1889)
• Wallace T. Foote, Jr., congressman from New York (1895-1899)
• George E. Foss (attended), congressman from Illinois (1895-1913; 1915-1919)
• Samuel Fowler unspecified, represented New Jersey's 4th congressional district as the U.S. Representative from 1889-1893. Built and operated Cape Cod Canal
• Jaime Fuster (LL.M. 1966), U.S. representative from Puerto Rico's at large district (1985-1992)
• Ralph A. Gamble (1912), congressman from New York (1937-45; 1945-53; 1953-57)
• Fred Benjamin Gernerd (1924), congressman from Pennsylvania (1921-23)
• Slade Gorton (1953), senator from Washington (1981-1987;1989-2001)
• James R. Grover, Jr. (1949), congressman from New York (1963-75)
• Frederick Hale (1896-97), senator from Maine (1917-1941)
• Lister Hill (left 1915), congressman (1923-38) and senator (1938-69) from Alabama
• John Kean (1875), senator and congressman from New Jersey (1899-1911)
• Richard C. Hunter (1911), senator from Nebraska (1934-35)
• Theodore R. Kupferman, congressman from New York (1966-69)
• George P. Lawrence, congressman from Massachusetts (1898-1913)
• Luke Lea (1903), senator from Tennessee (1911-17)
• John J. Lentz (1883), congressman from Ohio (1897-1901)
• Montague Lessler (1889), congressman from New York (1902-03)
• Marcus C. Lisle, congressman from Kentucky (1893-1894)
• Washington J. McCormick (1910), congressman from Montana (1921-23)
• John McKeon (1828), congressman from New York (1835-1837, 1841-1843)
• Roy H. McVicker (1950), congressman from Colorado (1965-67)
• Thomas E. Martin ( LL.M. 1928), senator (1955-61), congressman (1939-55) from Iowa
• Schuyler Merritt (1876), congressman from Connecticut (1917-31; 1933-37)
• Brad Miller (congressman) (1979), congressman from North Carolina (2005-)
• Jack Miller (politician) (1946), senator from Iowa (1961-1973)
• Dwight Morrow (1898?), senator from New Jersey (1930-31)
• Wayne Morse (S.J.D. 1932), senator from Oregon (1945-69)
• J. Van Vechten Olcott (1877), congressman from New York (1905-1911)
• William Claiborne Owens (1872), congressman from Kentucky (1895-97)
• Richard W. Parker (1869), congressman from New Jersey (1895-1903; 1903-11; 1914-19; 1921-23)
• Frank C. Partridge (1864), senator from Vermont (1930-31)
• Thomas G. Patten (1880-82), congressman from New York (1911-1917)
• John Patton, Jr. (1877), senator from Michigan (1894-95)
• William Walter Phelps (1863), congressman from New Jersey (1873-75; 1883-89)
• Philip J. Philbin (1929), congressman from Massachusetts (1943-1976)
• Otis G. Pike (1948), congressman from New York (1961-79)
• Edward Everett Robbins (1884), congressman from Pennsylvania (1897-1899; 1917-1919)
• William Fitts Ryan (1949), congressman from New York (1961-72)
• James Scheuer (1948), congressman from New York (1965-93)
• Townsend Scudder (1888), congressman from New York (1899-1901; 1903-1905)
• John F. Seiberling (1949), congressman from Ohio (1971-87)
• Eugene Siler (attended), congressman from Kentucky (1955-1963, 1963-1965)
• Howard Alexander Smith (1908), senator from New Jersey (1944-59)
• Francis Lynde Stetson (1869), congressman from New York (in the 28th U.S. Congress)
• Percy Hamilton Stewart (1893), congressman from New Jersey (1931-33)
• Richard Stone (politician) (1954), senator from Florida (1975-80)
• Jessie Sumner (studied at the Law School), congresswoman from Illinois (1939-1947)
• James W. Symington (1954), congressman from Missouri (1969-77)
• Benjamin I. Taylor (1899), congressman from New York (1913-15)
• John A. Thayer, congressman from Massachusetts (1911-13)
• J. Mayhew Wainwright (1886), congressman from New York (1923-1931)
• William C. Wallace (1876), congressman from New York (1889-1891)
• Arthur Vivian Watkins, senator from New York (1947-59)
• Charles Weltner (1950), congressman from Georgia (1963-67), John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award
• George P. Wetmore (1869), senator from Rhode Island (1895-1907; 1908-13)
• Harrison A. Williams (1948), congressman (1953-57) and senator (1959-82) from New Jersey
• Francis H. Wilson (1875), congressman from New York (1895-1897)
• Herbert Zelenko (1928), congressman from New York (1955-63)

United States diplomats

• William Waldorf Astor, 1st Viscount Astor, U.S. Minister to Italy, statesman, philanthropist
• Perry Belmont (1876), U.S. Ambassador to Spain (1888-1889); congressman from New York (1880-88)
• Lloyd Bryce, U.S. Minister plenipotentiary to the Netherlands (1911-13)
• Charles Chaille-Long, U.S. Consul General and Secretary to delegation in Korea; soldier, explorer
• Reuben Clark, United States Ambassador to Mexico (1930-1933)
• William Joseph Donovan (1905), World War I hero, head of the OSS during World War II, and U.S. Ambassador to Thailand (1953-54)
• John Jay (1764), helped to fashion American foreign policy, U.S. Minister (ambassador) to Spain and France; the Jay Treaty
• Jay Lefkowitz, President George W. Bush's Special Envoy for Human Rights in North Korea
• Charles MacVeagh (1883), U.S. Ambassador to Japan (1925-28)
• David E. Mark, U.S. Ambassador to Burundi (1974-77); U.S. Foreign Service, serving in South Korea, Germany, Finland, Romania, Moscow; helped Georgians write their Constitution
• Vilma Socorro Martínez, first woman to serve as United States Ambassador to Argentina (2009-)
• Henry Morgenthau, Sr., U.S. Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire (1913-16)
• Dwight Morrow (1898?), U.S. Ambassador to Mexico (1927-30)
• William Walter Phelps (1863), U.S. Ambassador to Austria-Hungary (1881-82), Germany (1889-1893)
• Frank Polk (1897), Headed American Commission to Negotiate Peace (1919)
• Mitchell Reiss, former Director of Policy Planning at U.S. State Department under Secretary Colin Powell (2003-2005); U.S. Special Envoy to Ireland with diplomatic rank of Ambassador (stepped down in 2007); Chief negotiator for the United States in the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization
• Eugene Schuyler (1863), first American diplomat to visit Central Asia, first U.S. Minister to Romania and Serbia, also U.S. Minister to Greece
• David S. Smith, U.S. Ambassador to Sweden (1976-1977)
• Laurence A. Steinhardt (1915), U.S. Ambassador to U.S.S.R. (1939-41), Canada (1948-50), Czechoslavakia (1945-48), Turkey (1942-45)
• Richard Stone (politician) (1954), U.S. Ambassador at Large to Central America and to Denmark (1992-95)
• Oscar S. Straus (1873), thrice U.S. Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire (1909-1910; 1898-99; 1887-89)
• Tracy Voorhees (1915), the U.S. President's Personal Representative for Cuban Refugees (1960-61) in the administration of President John F. Kennedy
• Edward T. Wailes (1927), U.S. Ambassador to Iran (1958-61), Czechoslavakia (1961-62), Hungary (1956-57), South Africa
• Lawrence Edward Walsh (1935), Ambassador, U.S. Delegation, Paris Peace Talks (1969)
• Paul Warnke (1948), Chief SALT Negotiator under President Jimmy Carter and Director of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency (1976-1978), helped negotiate the unratified SALT II agreement with the former Soviet Union
• H. Walter Webb, U.S. Ambassador to Brazil

Miscellaneous United States government

• David M. Becker (1973), General Counsel and Senior Policy Director, United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) (2009-); General Counsel, SEC (2000-2002)
• Richard Ben-Veniste (1967), federal prosecutor (1968-73), chief of the Watergate Task Force of the Special Prosecutor's Office (1973-75); member of the 9/11 Commission (2002-04)
• Moe Berg (1930), spy for the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), able to speak twelve languages; 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); according to Casey Stengel, "the strangest man ever to play Major League Baseball"
• Preet Bharara (1993), United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York in the administration of President Barack Obama (2009-)
• Frank Blake (1976), General Counsel, United States Environmental Protection Agency, Deputy Counsel to Vice-President George H. W. Bush
• Michael Bradfield (1960), General Counsel, United States Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (2009-); former General Counsel, United States Federal Reserve Board in Washington, D.C., serving as counsel to Chairman Paul Volcker and Chairman Alan Greenspan
• Lanny A. Breuer, head of Criminal Division in the United States Department of Justice in the administration of President Barack Obama; former Special White House Counsel, helped represent President Bill Clinton from 1997 to 1999 during Independent Counsel and Congressional investigations, and the impeachment hearings
• Edward Bruce (New Deal) (1904), appointed by Franklin D. Roosevelt as Director of both the Public Works of Art Project and the Section of Painting and Sculpture, New Deal projects
• George Canellos (1989), regional director of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission's New York Office (2009-)
• Tristram Coffin (1989), United States Attorney for the District of Vermont in the administration of President Barack Obama (2009-)
• 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
• John Watts de Peyster, Jr. (studied at the Law School), Colonel in Union Army during the American Civil War; Battle of Williamsburg, Battle of Fredericksburg, Battle of Chancellorsville
• William Joseph Donovan (1908), United States Attorney for the Western District of New York, World War I hero (Medal of Honor)
• William O. Douglas (1925), third chairman of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (1936-39)
• Nathan Feinsinger (Law, post-graduate study), chairman of the United States Wage Stabilization Board, named to the Board in 1951 by President Harry S. Truman
• Robert A. Gerard, Assistant United States Secretary of the Treasury (1974-77)
• Harvey Goldschmid (1965), commissioner (2002-05), General Counsel, special adviser to the chairman, United States Securities and Exchange Commission
• Slade Gorton (1953), member of 9/11 Commission
• Eric Holder (1976), United States Attorney for the District of Columbia
• Jeh Johnson, General Counsel, United States Department of Defense under President Barack Obama; General Counsel, United States Air Force under President Bill Clinton
• Ken Khachigian (1969), speechwriter for President Richard Nixon, Chief speechwriter for President Ronald Reagan
• William Kovacic (1978), commissioner (2006) and chairman (2008) of the Federal Trade Commission
• Harold Ickes, Deputy Chief of Staff in the Clinton administration
• Bill Lann Lee (1974), Assistant Attorney General of the United States for Civil Rights (1997-2001)
• Russell Cornell Leffingwell (1902), Assistant United States Secretary of the Treasury; led (1944-1953) and president (1944-1946), the Council of Foreign Relations
• Jay Lefkowitz, General Counsel in the Office of Management and Budget, deputy director of policy at the White House under President George W. Bush
• Irving Lewis "Scooter" Libby (1975), novelist, chief of staff for Vice President Dick Cheney (2001-2005), convicted on obstruction of justice charges for his role in the Plame affair (2007)
• John T. McDonough (1861), appointed by President Theodore Roosevelt as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines (the country's highest court)
• George Madison (1980), General Counsel to the United States Department of the Treasury in the administration of president Barack Obama
• Charles E. F. Millard, Director of the United States Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (2007-), an independent agency of the U.S. government
• Leonard P. Moore, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York (1953-1957)
• Trevor Morrison (1998), Associate Counsel to the President in the administration of President Barack Obama (2009-), professor of constitutional law at Columbia Law
• Annette Nazareth, commissioner of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (2005-08)
• Robert Pitofsky, commissioner (1978-81) and chairman (1995-2001) of the Federal Trade Commission
• S. Jay Plager (LL.M. 1961), Associate director of the United States Office of Management and Budget (1987-1988)
• Benjamin Powell, General Counsel of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (2006-)
• Rudolph Douglas Raiford, first African American Chief of Labor Relations, United States Department of Housing and Urban Development
• Barbara Ringer (1949), first female Register of Copyrights, United States Copyright Office (1973-1980) and key contributor to preparation and passage of the Copyright Act of 1976
• Charles Ruff (1963), United States Attorney for the District of Columbia; in Watergate scandal, Special Prosecutor who investigated President Richard Nixon; represented Anita Hill during the Clarence Thomas Supreme Court nomination and confirmation hearings in the Senate; defended President Bill Clinton in the 1999 impeachment proceedings
• Richard G. Seeborg, United States Attorney for the Northern District of California (1991-1998)
• Whitney North Seymour (1923), Assistant United States Solicitor General (1931-1933)
• Andrew Shapiro (1994), Assistant Secretary, Political-Military Affairs, United States Department of State (2009-); former senior adviser to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
• Harris Sherman (1967), Undersecretary, United States Department of Agriculture in charge of U.S. Forest Service in administration of President Barack Obama
• Donald Verrilli (1983), Associate Deputy Attorney General of the United States in the administration of President Barack Obama (2009-)
• Lawrence E. Walsh (1935), Independent Prosecutor for the Iran-Contra Affair, Trustee of Columbia University
• Paul Warnke, Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs (1967-69); General Counsel to the United States Secretary of Defense under President Lyndon Johnson
• Charles Warren (U.S. author) (S.J.D. 1933), Assistant Attorney General of the United States (1914-18), drafted Espionage Act of 1917
• Mary Jo White (1974), first female United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York (1993-2002)
• Edward Baldwin Whitney, Assistant Attorney General of the United States

Governors

• Doyle E. Carlton (1902), Governor of Florida (1929-33)
• Colgate Darden (1923), Governor of Virginia (1942-46), U.S. congressman from Virginia (1933-37, 1939-41), chancellor of the College of William and Mary (1946-47), president of the University of Virginia (1947-59); namesake of the Darden Graduate School of Business Administration
• Gray Davis (1967), Governor of California (1999-2003), Lieutenant Governor (1995-99) California State Controller (1987-95)
• Thomas E. Dewey (1925), Governor of New York (1942-55), Manhattan District Attorney (1937-42), and Republican nominee for President of the United States (1944, 1948), name partner of New York law firm Dewey Ballantine
• Wilford Bacon Hoggatt, Governor of Alaska (Territorial) (1906-09)
• Charles Evans Hughes (1884), Governor of New York (1907), professor at Cornell Law School, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court (1910-1916), Republican nominee for President of the United States (1916), United States Secretary of State (1921-29), and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court (1930-41)
• John Jay (1764), second Governor of New York
• Ruby Laffoon (attended), Governor of Kentucky (1931-35)
• John W. King (1943), Governor of New Hampshire (1963-1969), Justice and Chief Justice of the New Hampshire Supreme Court (the highest court in the State of New Hampshire)
• Robert Baumle Meyner (1933), Governor of New Jersey (1952-62)
• George Pataki (1970), Governor of New York (1994-2006)
• Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1904-1907)², Governor of New York (1929-33) and 32nd President of the United States (1933-45)
• Theodore Roosevelt², Governor of New York (1899-1901), hero of the Spanish-American War, 25th Vice President of the United States (1901), 26th President of the United States (1901-1909), Nobel Peace Prize winner (1906), Medal of Honor (posthumously 2001)
• George P. Wetmore (1869), Governor of Rhode Island
• Horace White (attended), Governor of New York and Lieutenant Governor

State Attorneys General

• Margery Bronster (1982), Hawaii Attorney General (1995-99)
• Steve Bullock (1994), Attorney General of the State of Montana (2009-)
• Samuel P. Colt (1876), Attorney General of Rhode Island
• Slade Gorton (1953), Washington Attorney General, former U.S. Senator from Washington
• Theodore E. Hancock, New York State Attorney General (1894-1898)
• Peter C. Harvey (1982), first African American to serve as Attorney General of New Jersey
• Richard C. Hunter (1911) Attorney General of Nebraska (1937-1939), former U.S. Senator from Nebraska
• Robert H. McCarter (1882), Attorney General of New Jersey (1903-1908)
• Thomas N. McCarter, Attorney General of New Jersey (1902-1903)
• John T. McDonough (1861) New York State Attorney General (1899-1902)
• Julius Marshuetz Mayer, New York State Attorney General (1905-1906)
• Alexander Simpson (attended), Attorney General of New Jersey
• Edmund Wilson, Sr., Attorney General of New Jersey (1908-1914)

State government and state courts

• Sheila Abdus-Salaam (1977), Justice of the New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division, First Judicial Department (2009-)
• Rolando T. Acosta (1982), Justice of the New York State Supreme Court, New York County
• William Shankland Andrews (1882), judge, New York Court of Appeals (the highest court in the State of New York) (1917-1928), where he dissented from several opinions by noted fellow judge and Columbia Law graduate Benjamin Cardozo
• Matthew Boxer, the first New Jersey State Comptroller.
• Charles D. Breitel, Chief Judge, New York Court of Appeals (1974-1978)
• Benjamin Cardozo (1889-91), judge and Chief Judge, New York Court of Appeals; Associate Justice, U.S. Supreme Court; namesake of Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law
• Frederick E. Crane, former judge and Chief Judge, New York Court of Appeals
• John Watts de Peyster (studied at the Law School), Brevet Major General in the New York Militia
• John Watts de Peyster, Jr. (studied at the Law School) Brevet Brigadier General in the New York Militia
• Edward R. Finch (1898), former judge, New York Court of Appeals
• Hamilton Fish II (1873), Speaker of the New York State Assembly (1895-1896)
• Charles Fried, Associate Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (the highest court in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts)
• Stanley Fuld (1926), former judge and Chief Judge, New York Court of Appeals
• Luis A. Gonzalez (1975), Presiding Justice of the New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division, First Judicial Department (2009-)
• Priscilla Hall (1973), Justice of the New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division, Second Judicial Department (2009-)
• William B. Hornblower (1875), former judge, New York Court of Appeals
• Frank S. Katzenbach, Associate Justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court (the highest court in the State of New Jersey)
• Steve Kelly, former Minnesota state senator, Minnesota House of Representatives, currently Director of the Center for Science, Technology, and Public Policy at the Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota
• Randall B. Kester (1940), Associate Justice of the Oregon Supreme Court (the highest court in the State of Oregon) (1957-1958)
• Irving Lehman (1897), former judge and Chief Judge, New York Court of Appeals
• Lindsey Miller-Lerman (1973), Justice of the Nebraska Supreme Court (the highest Court in the State of Nebraska) (1998-), former judge on the Nebraska State Court of Appeals
• Ben McAdams (2003), rising Utah state senator
• George Z. Medalie (1907), former judge, New York Court of Appeals
• Charles J. O'Byrne (1984), Secretary to the Governor of New York David Paterson (2008)
• James E.C. Perry (1972), Justice of the Florida Supreme Court (the highest court in the State of Florida) (2009-)
• Robert S. Smith (1968), judge, New York Court of Appeals (2003-)
• Arthur T. Vanderbilt, Chief Justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court from 1948 to 1957; noted attorney; legal educator; nationally known proponent of court modernization; on two separate occasions, he declined to be considered for nominations to the United States Supreme Court
• Richard Wilde Walker, Jr. (attended), Associate Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court (the highest court in the State of Alabama) (1914-1936)
• John Webb (jurist), Associate Justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court (the highest court in the state in State of North Carolina) (1986-1998)
• Charles Weltner (1950), Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Georgia (the highest court in the State of Georgia) (1981-1992)
• Robert Wilentz, Chief Justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court (1979-1996)

City government

• Hugh H. Bownes (1948), former mayor of Laconia, New Hampshire
• Michael Cardozo (1966), corporation counsel of New York City (2002-present)
• Rocky Delgadillo (1986), City Attorney of Los Angeles; first Latino in over 100 years to be elected city-wide in Los Angeles
• Thomas Dewey (1925), former Manhattan District Attorney
• Hugh J. Grant, mayor of New York City (1889-92).
• Rudolph Halley (1933), former President of the New York City Council
• Frank S. Katzenbach, former mayor of Trenton, New Jersey; justice, New Jersey Supreme Court
• George Latimer (Minnesota politician), mayor of St. Paul (1976-90), regent of the University of Minnesota
• Charles Meeker, mayor of Raleigh, North Carolina (2001-)
• 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)
• William M.K. Olcott, New York County District Attorney (1897-1898)
• George Pataki (1970), former mayor of Peekskill, New York; former governor of New York
• Eugene A. Philbin (1885), New York County District Attorney (1899-1901)
• Robert Price (attorney), Deputy Mayor of New York City under John Lindsay
• Theodore Roosevelt, president of the board of the New York City Police Commissioners (1888-1895), radically reformed the police department
• Percy Hamilton Stewart (1893), former mayor of Plainfield, New Jersey
• Maurice Suh, former Deputy Mayor of Homeland Security and Public Safety for the City of Los Angeles

Non-U.S. government

• Giuliano Amato (1963), twice Prime Minister of Italy (2000-01; 1992-93), twice Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs (Secretary of State) (2001 and 1992), Minister of the Exchequer and Deputy Prime Minister (1987-89), Italian Minister of the Interior (2006-08), Minister for Institutional Reforms (1998-99), Minister of the Exchequer, Budget and Economic Programming (1999-2000), President of the Council of Ministers of Italy (2000-01; 1992-93), member of the Italian Senate (2001-06), member of the Italian Chamber of Deputies (2006-08; 1993-94)
• Mikhail Saakashvili (LL.M. 1994), president of Georgia (2005-present), former Minister of Justice
• Salahuddin Ahmad (LL.M. 1970), current Attorney General of Bangladesh
• Karin Maria Bruzelius (LL.M. 1969), Justice of the Supreme Court of Sweden (the highest court in the country of Sweden) (1997-); Swedish Under Secretary of State (the first woman to hold such a position) (1989-1997), Swedish Deputy Under Secretary of State (1979-1983)
• The Rt. Hon. Lord Justice Lawrence Collins, Baron Collins of Mapesbury (LL.M.), member of United Kingdom's Supreme Court (Oct. 2009); Lord of Appeal in Ordinary (April 2009); Lord Justice of Appeal (January 2007-); Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (see the Privy Council) (February 2007-); judge, High Court of England and Wales (2000)
• Ernest Howard Crosby (LL.B.), judge in First Instance, Alexandria, Egypt (1887-89)
• Jaime Fuster (LL.M. 1966), Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico (the highest court of the island)
• Charles Evans Hughes, Judge of the Permanent Court of International Justice in The Hague, The Netherlands (1928-1930)
• Kim Hyun-chong (1985), South Korea's Ambassador to the United Nations
• Liana Fiol Matta (LL.M., S.J.D.), second woman in Puerto Rican history to serve as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico
• Daryl Mundis, senior trial attorney at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia at The Hague
• Jim Peterson (LL.M.), retired Canadian politician, former Minister of International Trade (cabinet) (2003-2006), Secretary of State (sub-cabinet) (1997-2007), Member of Parliament in the Canadian House of Commons (1988-2007; 1981-1983)
• Robert Pollack, Canadian judge, member of the Manitoba Securities Commission (2002-2006)
• Francis M. Ssekandi (LL.M.), Judge of the World Bank Administrative Tribunal (2007-), former Judge of the High Court of Uganda and Justice of the Supreme Court of Uganda (the highest court in the country of Uganda)
• Hironobu Takesaki (LL.M. 1971), Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Japan (the highest court in the country of Japan) (2008-)

Academia

University presidents

• Carmen Twillie Ambar (1994), president of Cedar Crest College (2008-present); former head (2002-2007) and dean (2007-2008) of Douglass College (former New Jersey College for Women) (independent college from 1918-2007)
• Lee Bollinger (1971), professor (1973-1994) and dean (1987-1994) at the University of Michigan Law School, Provost of Dartmouth College (1994-1996), President of the University of Michigan (1996-2002) and president of Columbia University (2002-present); defendant in the Supreme Court case Grutter v. Bollinger (2003)
• Colin G. Campbell, 13th president of Wesleyan University
• Colgate Darden (1923), congressman from Virginia (1933-37, 1939-41), Governor of Virginia (1942-46), president of the College of William and Mary (1946-47), and president of the University of Virginia (1947-59); namesake of the Darden Graduate School of Business Administration
• Ellen V. Futter (1974), president of Barnard College (1980-93), president of the American Museum of Natural History
• E. Gordon Gee (1971), president of West Virginia University (1981-85), University of Colorado at Boulder (1985-90), The Ohio State University (1990-97), Brown University (1997-2000), Vanderbilt University (2000-07), and The Ohio State University (2007-present)
• Frank Johnson Goodnow (1882), first president of John Hopkins University
• Samuel Hoi, president of Otis College of Art and Design (2000-)
• George Latimer (Minnesota politician), regent of the University of Minnesota
• Samuel Laws, president of the University of Missouri (1876-1889), president of Westminster College, Missouri (1854-1861)
• Barry Mills (1979), president of Bowdoin College (2001-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)
• Hiram F. Stevens (1874), one of the five founders of William Mitchell College of Law
• Ethelbert Dudley Warfield (1885), president of Miami University, Lafayette College, and Wilson College; director of Princeton Theological Seminary.
• Norman Adrian Wiggins (LL.M., S.J.D.), president and chancellor of Campbell College (subsequently Campbell University) (1967-2003)

Legal academia

• Fionnuala Ni Aolain (LL.M.), Northern Ireland professor of law at the University of Ulster, specializing in human rights law
• Donna Artz (LL.M.) long time professor of law at Syracuse University College of Law, human rights law, Director of the Center for Global Law and Practice
• John F. Banzhaf III (1965), professor and practitioner of public interest law at George Washington University School of Law
• Mark Barnes (LL.M.), expert on healthcare law, public health, managed care law, and law and medicine
• Barbara Aronstein Black (1955), first women to head an Ivy League law school; professor and dean Columbia Law; contracts and legal history
• Lee Bollinger (1971), prof. (1973-1994) and dean (1987-1994) at the University of Michigan Law School, Provost of Dartmouth College (1994-1996), Pres. of the University of Michigan (1996-2002) and Pres. of Columbia University (2002-present); defendant in the Supreme Court case Grutter v. Bollinger (2003), scholar of first amendment and freedom of speech
• Victor Brudney (1940), professor of law, Emeritus, corporate finance at Harvard Law School
• Allison Christians (1999), professor of law at the University of Wisconsin Law School (Tax, International Law, Business Transactions) since 2005
• 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
• Lawrence Collins (LL.M.), co-author of standard reference work on conflict of laws (since 1987), author of many other books and articles on private international law, English judge
• Robert Cover (1968), professor at Columbia Law (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
• Michael Cox (1981), dean of Thomas M. Cooley Law School (1988-1996)
• Richard Cummings (writer), professor of jurisprudence at St. Catherine's College, Oxford and at Jesus College, Cambridge
• Brainerd Currie (LL.M.), noted for his work in conflict of laws and for his creation of the concept of governmental interests analysis; professor of law at the University of Chicago Law School and Duke Law School, among others; dean at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law; considered the poet laureate of law professors; namesake of annual Brainerd Currie Memorial Lecture at Duke Law
• Eduardo De Los Angeles (1970), dean and professor of law at Ateneo Law School (Philippines), President of the Philippine Stock Exchange
• Paul Demaret (LL.M.), former professor of law at the University of Liege; Rector of the College of Europe (Burges, Belgium), Director of Legal Studies (1981-2003), Chair in European Economic Law, European Community Law, International Trade Law, Robert Schuman Professor at Peking University Law School
• William O. Douglas (1925), professor at Columbia Law and Yale Law School; commercial law, bankruptcy, legal realist movement; Associate Justice, United States Supreme Court
• Nathan Feinsinger (Law, post-graduate study), expert in labor law, professor of law at the University of Wisconsin Law School, mediated and arbitrated a number of national strikes and labor disputes in many industries
• Robert Isaac Field, expert in many areas of health care law and regulation
• Marvin E. Frankel (1948), professor at Columbia Law, federal judge, partner at Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel (1983-2002)
• Charles Fried (1960), professor at Harvard Law (1961-87, 1989-95, 1999-present), U.S. Solicitor General (1985-89), and Associate Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (1995-99)
• E. Allan Farnsworth (1952), expert on the law of contracts and professor at Columbia Law (1952-2004)
• Michael Geist, Canadian legal academic in internet and E-Commerce law at the University of Ottawa
• Ruth Bader Ginsburg, first women on both Columbia and Harvard Law Reviews; professor at Rutgers School of Law; first women granted tenure, Columbia Law; co-founded Women's Rights Law Reporter; Associate Justice, United States Supreme Court
• Harvey Goldschmid (1965), professor at Columbia Law and expert on securities law
• R. Kent Greenawalt (1963), professor at Columbia Law; Fellow, Clare Hall, Cambridge University (1972-1973); Fellow, All Souls College, Oxford University (1979); main interests legal philosophy, civil rights; former United States Deputy Solicitor General
• Jack Greenberg (1948), counsel for the NAACP (1949-84), in which capacity he argued Brown v. Board of Education (1954); argued 40 civil rights cases before the U.S. Supreme Court; dean (1989-93) and professor (1984-present) Columbia Law; Presidential Citizens Medal (2001)
• William Dameron Guthrie, legal educator and lawyer, Storrs lecturer at Yale University, professor at Columbia Law, author of legal treatises
• James C. Hathaway (LL.M., J.S.D.), legal scholar in the field of international refugee law
• John D. Hawke, Jr. (1969), legal scholar in federal regulation of financial institutions, author of Commentaries on Banking Regulation (1985)
• Geoffrey C. Hazard, Jr. (1954), Sterling Professor emeritus at Yale Law School, Trustee Professor of Law at the University of Pennsylvania Law School
• Charles Evans Hughes (1884), professor at Cornell University Law School; United States Secretary of State; Associate and Chief Justice, U.S. Supreme Court
• George R. Johnson, Jr. (1976), dean of Elon University School of Law (2009-)
• Yale Kamisar (1955), expert on criminal law and professor at the University of Michigan Law School (1965-present)
• Benjamin Kaplan (1933), Royall Professor of Law, Emeritus, Harvard Law School, copyright scholar and jurist
• Irving Kayton (LL.M., J.S.D.), former professor at the George Washington University School of Law, expert on patent and copyright law
• John Marshall Kernochan, law professor; founded the Columbia Law's Kernochan Center for Law, Media and the Arts; pioneering work in intellectual property law spurred stronger protections for artists
• Jessica Litman, expert on copyright law, professor of law at the University of Michigan Law School
• Louis Lusky (1937), pioneer in field of civil rights law, former professor at Columbia Law
• Gerard E. Lynch (1975), professor and vice dean at Columbia Law, primary scholarly interests include criminal law and procedure, sentencing, and professional responsibility
• Harold Medina (1912), professor at Columbia Law (1912-1947); lawyer; judge in federal trial court (1947-1951) and federal appellate court (1951-1980); on cover of Time Magazine, October 24, 1949
• Soia Mentschikoff (1937), drafter of the Uniform Commercial Code, first women to teach at Harvard Law School, professor at University of Chicago Law School, dean of University of Miami School of Law
• Alan C. Michaels (1986), dean of The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law (2008-present)
• Dorothy Miner (1961), helped develop nationwide legal protections for historic landmarks, professor of law
• Richard B. Morris, historian, legal scholar, best known for his pioneering work in colonial American legal history
• Wayne Morse (S.J.D. 1932), professor and dean of the University of Oregon School of Law
• Robert Pitofsky, dean of Georgetown University Law Center, professor of law, leading scholar in the area of trade regulation, former Chairman of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission
• S. Jay Plager (LL.M. 1961), former professor and dean at the Indiana University School of Law (1977-1984)
• Mitchell Reiss (J.D.), Vice-Provost of International Affairs and professor of law at William and Mary Law School
• Lawrence Sager (1966), dean of University of Texas Law School (2006-present), long time professor of law at New York University Law School, visiting professor at Harvard Law School, University of Michigan Law School, Princeton University, one of the nation's preeminent constitutional theorists and scholars
• Rudolf Schlesinger (1942), professor of law at Cornell University, seminal work in comparative law
• Whitney North Seymour (1923), professor at Yale Law School and New York University, Assistant U.S. Solicitor General (1931-1933)
• Theodore Shaw (1979), professor at Columbia Law (civil procedure, constitutional law, advanced constitutional law), former Director-Counsel and 5th President of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund
• Munroe Smith (1877), pioneering work in comparative jurisprudence, one of the founders of the Political Science Quarterly, dean of the School of Mines
• Michael I. Sovern (1955), professor (1957-present) and dean (1970-79) at Columbia Law, president of Columbia University (1980-93), and chairman of Sotheby's (2002-present), scholar of labor law and an expert on employment discrimination
• Stewart Sterk, professor of law at Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, leading casebook on trusts and estates
• Hiram F. Stevens (1874), first dean of William Mitchell College of Law, professor of law at the University of Minnesota Law School
• Harlan Fiske Stone (1898), dean of and professor at Columbia Law; United States Attorney General; Associate and Chief Justice, U.S. Supreme Court
• Arthur T. Vanderbilt, served for many years as the dean of the New York University School of Law, currently housed in a building that bears his name; on two separate occasions he declined to be considered for nominations to the United States Supreme Court; Chief Justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court (1948-1957)
• Judith Vladeck (1957), legal scholar, attorney, helped set new legal precedents against sex discrimination and age discrimination, professor at Fordham Law School and Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations
• Charles Warren (U.S. author) (1933), legal scholar, Pulitzer prize for History (Supreme Court in United States History)
• Herbert Wechsler (1931), professor at Columbia Law (1933-1978); director of the American Law Institute (1963-84); argued in U.S. Supreme Court the seminal libel case New York Times v. Sullivan (1964); known for his constitutional law scholarship and creation of the Model Penal Code
• Jack B. Weinstein, professor at Columbia Law (1952-1998), author of a leading treatise on evidence and numerous articles and books; federal trial judge
• Mark D. West, professor of law at University of Michigan Law School, widely published on subject of Japanese law and the Japanese legal system
• Louis Westerfield (LL.M. 1980), professor and first African American dean of the University of Mississippi School of Law (1994-1996)
• Jens Ohlin (2005), faculty at Cornell Law School
• Sanford H. Kadish (1948), influential professor of Criminal Law at the University of California, Berkeley
• Robert A. Kagan (1962), professor of Political Science and Constitutional Law at the University of California, Berkeley
• Bruno de Vuyst (LL.M. 1976) professor of law at Vesalius College, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB); Advisor Industrial Policy, VUB; Secretary-general, BI³ Fund (the VUB spin-off fund); deputy judge, Commercial tribunal, Brussels; author of books and articles on intellectual property and financial law

Arts and letters

• Suchindra Bali, Tamil actor
• John Kendrick Bangs (1883-84), writer and satirist associated with so-called "Bangsian fantasy"
• Alfred Bester (dropped out), science fiction author, TV and radio scriptwriter, magazine editor, Hugo Award
• Charles Chaille-Long (1880), soldier, explorer of Africa, writer
• Da Chen, Chinese author
• Thomas Frederick Crane, American folklorist, academic at Cornell University, lawyer
• Ernest Howard Crosby, author
• Richard Cummings (writer), author, playwright, theorist, and critic
• John Watts de Peyster (studied at the Law School), author on the art of war, military history and biography; also published drama, poetry, military criticism
• Bruce Ducker (1964), novelist, Pulitzer Prize nominated, Colorado Book Award
• Wafah Dufour (LL.M.), singer/songwriter
• Alonzo Elliot, composer and song writer (studied with Nadia Boulanger and Leonard Bernstein, among others)
• Freddie Gershon, published author of hugely successful roman a clef concerning the music industry in the 1960s through the 1980s
• William Francis Gibbs (LL.B., M.A.), renowned naval architect
• Oscar Hammerstein II², writer, producer, and director of musicals, awarded two Academy Awards , two Pulitzer Prizes, and nine Tony Awards
• Eddie Hayes (lawyer), memoirist
• Arthur Garfield Hays (1905), author of numerous books and articles
• Isaac Hollister Hall (1865), famed Orientalist and curator of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (1885-96)
• Thomas Hauser (1970), award-winning author, Pulitzer Prize nominated
• William Ivins, Jr. (1907), curator of prints at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (1916-1946), author
• Speight Jenkins (1961), arts administrator, general director of the Seattle Opera (1983-)
• Tudor Jenks (1880), author, poet, artist, editor, lawyer
• Caroline Kennedy (1988), writer, editor, author of seven best selling books (including two on civil liberties), attorney; daughter of President John F. Kennedy
• John Marshall Kernochan, law professor, composer, and music publisher
• Gustav Kobbe 1879, music critic and author, best known for his guide to opera, The Complete Opera Book
• Howard Koch (screenwriter), blacklisted in the 1950s, work includes The War of the Worlds (1936), Casablanca (1942) (for which he received an Academy Award), Letter to an Unknown Woman (1948)
• Robinne Lee, actress, Seven Pounds (2008) with Will Smith, Hav Plenty (1997), among other films
• Rod MacDonald (1973), singer/songwriter
• Hamilton Wright Mabie (1869), essayist, critic, and lecturer
• Brander Matthews (1873), writer and educator, first U.S. professor of dramatic literature, Legion of Honor
• Brad Meltzer (1996), New York Times best-selling novelist, DC Comics author, and co-creator of the television series Jack & Bobby
• Duffield Osborne (1881), author
• Edward Packard, children's author who developed the "choose your own adventure" style of storytelling
• Abraham Polonsky (1935), Academy Award-nominated screenwriter blacklisted in the 1950s
• Isaac Rice (1880), author, inventor, and chess patron
• Paul Robeson (1923), actor of stage and film, singer (opera, lieder, international folk music, spirituals), and writer; fluent or near fluent in 12 languages
• Nick Santora (1996), writer (The Sopranos, Law & Order), producer (Prison Break) and novelist
• Karenna Gore Schiff (2000), author, journalist, attorney, daughter of Vice-President Al Gore
• Eugene Schuyler (1863), translator of Ivan Turgenev and Leo Tolstoi, writer, scholar
• Paula Sharp, author, translator
• Stephen Strimpell, actor of stage and film
• Gerald Tomlinson, writer of mysteries and books on baseball and other topics
• Cenk Uygur, host of the radio show The Young Turks (talk show)
• Arthur Dudley Vinton, author and lawyer
• Charles Warren (U.S. author) (S.J.D.), Pulitzer Prize for History
• Manly Wade Wellman, writer, recipient of Edgar Allan Poe Award, among other awards
• Daniel R. White (1979), lawyer, humorist, writer, editor; best known as the author of The Official Lawyer's Handbook, a satire of the legal profession, and White's Law Dictionary, a parody of Black's Law Dictionary
• Charles Yu, writer, National Book Foundation "5 Under 35" Award

Business and philanthropy

• Dan Abrams (1992), general manager of MSNBC; formerly chief legal correspondent for NBC News and host of The Abrams Report
• Tom A. Alberg, co-founder of Madrona Venture Group
• William Waldorf Astor (1875), Anglo-American financier, son of John Jacob Astor, US Minister to Italy (1881-1885)
• Mark Attanasio (1982), investment banker and owner of the Milwaukee Brewers (since 2004, incumbent as of 2006)
• 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 (since 1989, incumbent as of 2006)
• Douglas Black (1918), president of Doubleday (1946-63)
• Frank Blake (1976), CEO of Home Depot
• Alan N. Cohen (1954), chairman and CEO, Madison Square Garden Corporation (1974-77); principal owner, New Jersey Nets; and principal owner, Boston Celtics (1983-2004)
• J. Barkclay Collins II (1969), general counsel for Hess Corporation (1984-present)
• Philippe Dauman (1978), president and CEO of Viacom, parent company of Paramount Pictures and MTV Networks
• Lynn Forester de Rothschild, CEO of E L Rothschild (2002-)
• Henry Clay Folger (1881), president of the Standard Oil Company (1911-1923) and founder of the Folger Shakespeare Library
• Ted Forstmann (1965), co-founder of Forstmann Little & Company, chairman and CEO of Gulfstream Aerospace (1990-1999), and member of Forbes 400 (1998-2003)
• George Griswold Frelinghuysen (1872), president of P. Ballantine & Sons Company
• Stephen Friedman (1962), chairman of Goldman Sachs (1990-1994), director of the National Economic Council (2002-2005), Chairman of the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, incumbent as of 2006
• Charles Patrick Garcia, president of Sterling Hispanic Markets Capital Group; White House Fellow, Chairman of the Board of Visitors of the United States Air Force Academy (appointed by President George W. Bush in 2005)
• Jerome L. Greene (1928), real estate investor and namesake of Columbia's main building, Jerome L. Greene Hall
• Edward S. Harkness (1928)³, Standard Oil Company heir, donated funds used to construct Butler Library at Columbia and most of the undergraduate dormitories at Yale and Harvard, as well as to Phillips Exeter Academy
• David W. Heleniak (1974), vice-chairman of Morgan Stanley
• Morton L. Janklow (1953), literary agent to Sidney Sheldon, Pope John Paul II, Danielle Steele, Ronald Reagan, and J.K. Rowling
• Michael Karlan (1992), founder of the nation's largest social and networking group, Professionals in the City
• Jerome Kohlberg, Jr. (1950), co-founder of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, member of the Forbes 400.
• Orin Kramer (1970), chair of the New Jersey Pension Fund
• James T. Lee (1899), prolific Manhattan real estate developer/magnate; grandfather of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
• H. F. Lenfest (1958), media proprietor and member of Forbes 400 (from 1999)
• Randy Lerner (1987), Chairman and CEO of MBNA (2002-2005), owner of the Cleveland Browns (since 2002, -present) and Aston Villa Football Club (since 2006, incumbent as of 2006), and member of Forbes 400 (since 2002, incumbent as of 2006)
• Russell E. Train (1948), founding trustee, CEO, president, and chairman of the World Wildlife Fund
• Michael Lynne (1964), president (1990-2001), co-CEO and co-chairman (since 2001, incumbent as of 2006) of New Line Cinema
• Douglas H. McCorkindale (1964), CEO (since 2000, incumbent as of 2006) and chairman (since 2001, incumbent as of 2006) of Gannett
• Bruce Ratner (1970), founder (1985), president, and CEO of Forest City Ratner; principal owner of the New Jersey Nets
• Lawrence R. Riccardi (1965), general counsel of IBM (1995-2002)
• Isaac Rice (1880), founded the Electric Boat Company, renamed itself the General Dynamics Corporation in 1952
• Tom Rogers (President and CEO of TiVo Inc.), president and CEO Tivo
• Thomas Rothman (1980), co-chair of Fox Filmed Entertainment
• Herb Sandler, founder of Golden West Financial (1963), philanthropist, member of Forbes 400 (from 2003)
• Robert B. Shapiro (1962), CEO of Monsanto Company
• Robert Shaye (1964), founder, chairman/co-chairman and CEO/co-CEO of New Line Cinema (since 1967, incumbent as of 2006)
• Sid Sheinberg, president and COO of MCA
• Richard D. Simmons, president of the Washington Post Co. (1981-1991)
• David Stern (1966), commissioner of the National Basketball Association (since 1984, incumbent as of 2006)
• Todd Stitzer (1978), CEO Cadbury plc (incumbent as of 2009)
• Franklin A. Thomas (1963), president of the Ford Foundation (1979-1996)
• Armando J. Tirado (two LL.M.s), Executive Vice-President and General Counsel for O3b Networks, Ltd.
• S. Robson Walton (1969), chairman of Wal-mart (1992, incumbent as of 2006) and member of the Forbes 400 (since 1992)
• Mark Weldon (1997), CEO of New Zealand Stock Exchange (since 2002, incumbent as of 2008)
• H. Donald Wilson, database pioneer and entrepreneur, first president and one of the principal creators of Lexis and Nexis

Journalism

• Dan Abrams (1992), media legal commentator
• Dan Ackman, journalist and civil rights lawyer
• Poultney Bigelow, journalist and author
• William Dudley Foulke (1871), journalist, literary critic
• Eddie Hayes, journalist, lawyer
• Tudor Jenks (1880), journalist, editor, lawyer
• Robert Krulwich (1974), media journalist, Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award, Emmy Award, George Polk Award
• Henry Demarest Lloyd, referred to as "the father of investigative journalism"
• Cynthia McFadden, ABC news anchor, George Foster Peabody Award
• Matthew Miller (journalist) (1986), also columnist and author, The Two Percent Solution (among other works)
• Victor Robinson, medical journalist and physician
• Karenna Gore Schiff (2000), journalist, author, lawyer
• Alexander Simpson (attended), journalist, attorney
• H. Walter Webb, journalist

Private legal practice

• Arthur Garfield Hays (1905), prominent corporate litigator.
• Phelan Beale (1905), noted for East Hampton properties including Grey Gardens.
• George B. Case (1897), founder of New York law firm White & Case.
• Paul Drennan Cravath (1886), name partner of New York law firm Cravath, Swaine & Moore (awarded first Municipal Law prize, and prize tutorship).
• William Nelson Cromwell (1878), founder of New York law firm Sullivan & Cromwell.
• Marvin E. Frankel (1948), name partner in New York Law firm Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel LLP, litigator, federal judge, professor at Columbia Law, legal scholar.
• Walter J. Fried 1928, name partner of New York law firm Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson.
• Ed Hayes (1972), defense attorney and Court TV anchor; basis for the character Tommy Killian in the Tom Wolfe novel The Bonfire of the Vanities.
• Charles Evans Hughes, one of the founders of New York law firm Hughes Hubbard & Reed LLP; from 1925 to 1930, he argued
• Caroline Kennedy (1988), daughter of President John F. Kennedy; former candidate for U.S. Senator (New York).
• Harvey R. Miller (1959), the New York Times called him "the most prominent bankruptcy lawyer in the nation." (March 9, 2007)
• Daniel A. Neff (1977), Chairman of Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz.
• Gary P. Naftalis (1967), co-chairman of New York law firm Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel LLP.
• Louis Nizer, noted trial attorney, senior partner of New York law firm Phillips Nizer LlP.
• Robert G. Morvillo (1962), defense lawyer for Martha Stewart.
• Charles F.C. Ruff (1963), Washington attorney who represented Anita Hill and President Bill Clinton.
• Joseph Meyer Proskauer (1899), founder of New York law firm Proskauer Rose.
• Whitney North Seymour (1923), president of the ABA; chairman of Simpson Thacher & Bartlett.
• John W. Simpson (lawyer) (1873), one of the founders of New York law firm Simpson Thacher & Bartlett.
• David Sive (1948), pioneer in environmental law; founding partner, Sive, Paget & Riesel, PC.
• John H. Slate, Jr. (1938), name partner of New York law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom.
• John William Sterling (1893)³, founder of the New York 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.
• Francis L. Stetson (1869), early leader of New York law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell.
• Thomas Thacher (1873), one of founders of Simpson, Thacher & Bartlett.
• Frank Polk, name partner of Davis Polk & Wardwell.
• Louis Weiss, Simon H. Rifkind, and John Wharton, name partners of New York law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison.
• Frank Weil, Sylvan Gotshal, and Horace Manges, founders of New York law firm Weil, Gotshal & Manges.

Religion

• J. Reuben Clark (1906), leader in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church); member, Quorum of the Twelve Apostles (1934-1961)
• Bernard Hebda (1983), Catholic Bishop of the Diocese of Gaylord, Michigan (incumbent as of 2009)
• Charles J. O'Byrne, former Catholic priest

Activism

• Bella Abzug (1947), social rights activist and a leader of the women's rights movement
• Mark Barnes (LL.M. 1991), advocate for public healthcare law at the state and national levels, co-founded the first AIDS law clinic
• Edward Bassett (1886), one of the founding fathers of modern day urban planning
• Lee Bollinger, advocate for affirmative action, defendant in Grutter v. Bollinger and Gratz v. Bollinger
• Robert L. Carter (1941), civil rights activist, NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund general counsel, in which capacity he argued Brown v. Board of Education II (1955)
• Julius Chambers (LL.M. 1964), civil rights leader, attorney, and educator; Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund
• Felix Cohen (1928), advocate for native American rights, fundamentally shaped federal native American law and policy
• Roy Cohn (1947), conservative lawyer who became famous during the investigations of Senator Joseph McCarthy into alleged Communists in the U.S. government
• Robert Cover (1968), civil rights and international anti-violence activist, professor at Yale Law School
• William Dudley Foulke (1871), reformer, one of the principal reformers of the New York State and the federal civil service systems, early president of the American Suffrage Association
• Marvin Frankel (1949), founder of the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights, served as its chairman for many years; also helped establish sentencing guidelines for the federal courts
• Ruth Bader Ginsburg, women's rights advocate, co-founded the Women's Rights Law Reporter; co-authored the first law school casebook on sex discrimination; as chief litigator of the ACLU's women's rights project, she argued six(?) cases before the U.S. Supreme Court
• Richard Gottfried, a leading advocate for patient autonomy and for universal access to quality, affordable health care
• Jack Greenberg (lawyer) (B.A. 1945, LL.B. 1948), Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund; argued 40 civil rights cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, including Brown v. Board of Education (1954)
• Arthur Garfield Hays (1905), civil liberties activist, general counsel for the ACLU, notable trials included the Scopes Trial, the trial of Sacco and Vanzetti, and the Scottsboro case
• Charles Evans Hughes, one of the co-founders of the National Conference of Christians and Jews to oppose the Ku Klux Klan, anti-Catholicism, and anti-Semitism
• Steve Kelly, legal advocate for litigants who could not afford an attorney and for public housing tenants; consumer advocate
• Caroline Kennedy (1988), principal fund raiser of private funds for the New York City public schools, co-founder of Profiles in Courage Award, a director of the Commission on Presidential Debates and the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, one of three co-chairs of President-elect Barack Obama's Vice Presidential Search Committee (2008), adviser to the Harvard Institute of Politics
• John Marshall Kernochan, advocate for artists' intellectual property rights
• William Kunstler (1948), civil rights and human rights activist, director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) (1964-1972); co-founded the Center for Constitutional Rights in 1969; a self-described radical lawyer who defended numerous controversial clients, including the Chicago Seven; a popular author
• John Brooks Leavitt (1871), reformer, author
• Charles K. Lexow, first attorney for the Legal Aid Society of New York City
• Li Lu (1996), leader of the Tiananmen Square Protests (1989), first student at Columbia to simultaneously receive B.A., M.B.A., and J.D. degrees
• Louis B. Marshall (1877), mediator and Jewish community leader who worked to secure religious, political, and cultural freedom for all minority groups; conservationist
• Vilma Socorro Martinez, served for almost ten years as president and general counsel of Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund
• James Meredith (1968), American civil rights movement figure, first African American student at the University of Mississippi
• Constance Baker Motley (1946), attorney for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (1945-64); Manhattan Borough president (1964-66); first African American woman appointed to the federal bench (1966-86)
• Marshall Perlin (1942), civil liberties lawyer, defended Julius and Ethel Rosenberg
• Paul Rapoport (1965), co-founder of the New York City Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Services Center and the Gay Men's Health Crisis
• Michael Ratner (1969), human rights activist on national and international level, current president of the Center for Constitutional Rights (co-founded by William Kunstler in 1969), the National Law Journal named him as one of the 100 most influential lawyers in the United States (2006)
• Isaac Rice, U.S. chess patron
• Paul Robeson (1923), civil and human rights activist, international social justice activist, writer, Spingarn Medal
• Theodore Roosevelt, progressive reformer, conservationist, crusader against monopolistic corporations, a leader of the Republican Party and the Progressive Party
• Herbert L. Rosedale (B.A. 1953, LL.M. 1956), one of the foremost anti-cult activist in the United States
• Menachem Z. Rosensaft (1979), a leader of the Second Generation Movement of children of survivors, Founding Chairman of the International Network of Children of Jewish Survivors
• Brad R. Roth (LL.M. 1992), social and human rights activist, critic of torture policies in the administration of George W. Bush
• Charles Ruthenberg (1909), founder of the Communist Party of America (1919)
• Mikheil Saakashvili (LL.M. 1994), founder and leader of the United National Movement in Georgia (country), leader of the bloodless "Rose Revolution"
• Theodore Shaw (1979), Director-Counsel and 5th President of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, professor at Columbia Law
• Judith Vladeck (1947), civil rights advocate, particularly on behalf of women; helped set new legal precedents against sex discrimination and age discrimination
• Charles Weltner (1950), advocate for racial equality, second individual to receive the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award
• Martin Heiss (1979), Advocate of Chinese Socialism

Athletics

• Lou Bender (1935), pioneer player with the Columbia Lions and in early pro basketball, who was later a successful trial attorney.
• Mark Attanasio (1982), investment banker and owner of the Milwaukee Brewers (since 2004, incumbent as of 2006)
• 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"
• David Mark Berger (1970), winner of NCAA weightlifting title in the 148 pound-class, winner of the gold medal in the middleweight weight-lifting contest at the 1969 Maccabiah Games, winner of a silver medal at the 1971 Asian Games in weightlifting, and member of the 1972 Israeli Olympic team who was murdered during the Munich Massacre at the 1972 Munich Summer Olympics.
• 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 (since 1989, incumbent as of 2006)
• Alan N. Cohen (1954), chairman and CEO of the Madison Square Garden Corporation (1974-77), principal owner of the New Jersey Nets, and principal owner of the Boston Celtics (1983-2004)
• Gary Goldring (1982), part-owner of the Tampa Bay Rays
• Stan Kasten (1976), President (2003-) of the MLB Washington Nationals; President (1986-2003) of the MLB Atlanta Braves; President (1986-2003) and General Manager (1979-1990) of the NBA Atlanta Hawks; President (1999-2003) of the NHL Atlanta Thrashers
• Walter O'Malley (transferred from), owned the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers team in Major League Baseball from 1950 to 1979
• Alison Ressler (1983), part-owner of the Milwaukee Brewers
• Richard Ressler (1983), part-owner of the Milwaukee Brewers
• Paul Robeson (1923), All-American Athlete
• Marc Stern (1969), part-owner of the Milwaukee Brewers
• 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)
• Mark Weldon (1997), member of the New Zealand men's swim team at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona

Notes

¹ Studied law at Columbia University prior to the founding of the Law School.

² Failed to complete the law degree.

³ Received the LL.D.