Cecelia Goetz
The Honorable Cecelia Goetz | |
---|---|
United States Bankruptcy Judge | |
In office 1978–1993 | |
Associate Counsel at Nuremberg | |
In office 1946–1948 | |
Personal details | |
Born | New York City, New York, US | September 30, 1917
Died | January 26, 2004 West Palm Beach, Florida, US | (aged 86)
Alma mater |
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Cecelia H. Goetz (September 30, 1917 – January 26, 2004) was an American lawyer and bankruptcy judge who served as a prosecutor at the Nuremberg trials.
Early life
Goetz graduated from Textile High School in Chelsea, where she was editor-in-chief of the school paper.[1] Goetz earned her law degree from New York University School of Law where she served as editor-in-chief of the New York University Law Review—the first woman named editor-in-chief of a major American law journal[2]—and graduated as salutatorian in 1940.[3][4][5] While in law school, she studied abroad at the Sorbonne.[1] As of her graduation in 1940, she lived at 2015 Avenue I in Brooklyn.[6]
Nuremberg
After initially being rebuffed, Goetz took a job at the Department of Justice in the equivalent of today's Civil Division.[7][8] She applied to serve as a Nuremberg prosecutor, was rebuffed again at the instance of the Department of War,[5] but was eventually given a "waiver of disability" by Telford Taylor so she could serve.[9][10][11] The "disability" was her gender.[9][11] She had been offered a supervisor's role at Justice—the first woman to be given such an opportunity—but declined it in favor of work at Nuremberg.[12]
She was first involved in the Flick Trial[13] and then became Associate Counsel on the trial of Alfred Krupp,[10] delivering the opening statement on December 8, 1947.[14] She was one of four women on the Nuremberg prosecution team and, as Associate Counsel, she outranked six men.[5][15] At the time, she observed that "[t]o get a decision in this case would, in my opinion, be a great step toward avoiding future wars."[1] She would later describe her participation in the trials as "the most important work I have ever been involved in."[15]
Private practice and government
After Nuremberg, Goetz returned to the United States. She worked at her father Isidor Goetz's firm, Goetz & Goetz,[1][16] and later became the first woman to serve as Assistant Chief Counsel to the Economic Stabilization Agency.[10] She was later Special Assistant to the Attorney General in the Tax Division of the Department of Justice.[17] In 1964, she was admitted to the partnership at Herzfeld & Rubin, a New York law firm.[10]
Judicial career
Goetz was appointed a United States Bankruptcy Judge in 1978,[10] becoming the first woman to serve as Bankruptcy Judge in New York's Eastern District.[3] Her chambers were in Happauge, New York.[18] In the early 1990s, Goetz oversaw the bankruptcy proceedings of Braniff International Airways, which had filed under Chapter 11 in August 1991.[18] She served until 1993,[19] returning to Herzfeld & Rubin thereafter.[20]
Works
- Goetz, Cecelia H.; Hoenig, Michael (1974). "A Rational Approach to 'Crashworthy' Automobiles: The Need for Judicial Responsibility". Southwestern University Law Review. 6 (1): 1–87. ISSN 0886-3296 – via HeinOnline.
- Goetz, Cecelia H. (1980). "The Basic Rules of Antitrust Damages". Antitrust Law Journal. 49 (1): 125–140. ISSN 0003-6056. JSTOR 40840258.
- Goetz, Cecelia H. (1982). "Bankruptcy". Brooklyn Law Review. 48 (4): 821–44. ISSN 0007-2362 – via HeinOnline.
- Goetz, Cecelia H. (1982). "Consumer Bankruptcies: Should Ability-to-Pay Condition Bankruptcy Relief?". New York Law School Law Review. 27 (3): 705–744. ISSN 0145-448X – via HeinOnline.
- Goetz, Cecelia H. (1999). "Impressions of Telford Taylor at Nuremberg". Columbia Journal of Transnational Law. 37: 669–672. ISSN 0010-1931 – via HeinOnline.
Notes
- ^ a b c d Barden, Judy (January 22, 1948). "U.S. Woman Attorney at Nuernberg Reveals Her Age but Not Weight". The Scranton Times-Tribune. North American Newspaper Alliance. p. 22 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Amann 2011, p. 609.
- ^ a b "Alumnus/Alumna of the Month: Cecelia Goetz". New York University School of Law. Retrieved June 27, 2020.
Goetz proved to be up to any challenge and graduated as the salutatorian of the class of 1940. … She was the first woman bankruptcy judge in the Eastern District of New York.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ Bradley 1996, p. 173.
- ^ a b c Heller 2011, p. 34.
- ^ "Boro Girl Gives Salutatory at Law School Exercises". Brooklyn Daily Eagle. June 4, 1940. p. 14 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Berry 1996, p. 173.
- ^ Amann 2011, p. 610.
- ^ a b Morello 1986, p. 184: "When Goetz … sought a job as a prosecutor in the Nuremberg trials, her request was initially not taken seriously. 'You’re much too attractive,' she was told. … When Goetz still met with resistance she decided to make a direct appeal to Telford Taylor, the chief U.S. prosecutor at Nuremberg. 'Fortunately he did not share such antifeminist views and he immediately directed that I be appointed to the prosecution team. Nevertheless, in order for me to be processed, Taylor had to sign a 'waiver of disability' form—the disability being the fact that I was a woman.'"
- ^ a b c d e Berry 1996, p. 174.
- ^ a b Berger 1986, p. 184.
- ^ Lynch, Loretta (September 29, 2016). Commemoration of the 70th Anniversary of the Nuremberg Trials (Speech). 10th International Humanitarian Law Dialogues. Nuremberg, Germany. Retrieved June 27, 2020.
{{cite speech}}
: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ "Nürnberg Krupp Trial Papers of Judge Hu C. Anderson". Vanderbilt University. Retrieved June 27, 2020.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ Amann 2011, p. 612.
- ^ a b Riddle, Lyn (September 27, 1997). "Prosecution of Nazis still stirs pride, passion". Atlanta Journal-Constitution – via Newspapers.com.
{{cite news}}
: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ Amann 2011, p. 614.
- ^ Amann 2011, p. 615.
- ^ a b "Company News; Court Is Asked to Appoint Trustee for Braniff Breakup". The New York Times. July 23, 1992. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved June 27, 2020.
- ^ Trust, Alan. "Message from the President". Federal Bar Association.
… [Goetz] was appointed as the first woman bankruptcy judge in the EDNY, a position she served in with distinction until she retired in 1993.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ Berry 1996, p. 175.
Sources
- Amann, Diane Marie (2011). "Cecelia Goetz, Woman at Nuremberg". International Criminal Law Review. 11 (3): 607–620. doi:10.1163/157181211X576456. ISSN 1567-536X. SSRN 1694855.
- Berry, Dawn Bradley (1996). The 50 Most Influential Women in American Law. Los Angeles: Lowell House. ISBN 9781565654693.
- Heller, Kevin Jon (2011). The Nuremberg Military Tribunals and the Origins of International Criminal Law. Oxford: Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199554317.001.0001. ISBN 978-0-19-172862-4. OCLC 757401636.
- Morello, Karen Berger (1986). The Invisible Bar: The Woman Lawyer in America, 1638 to the present. New York: Random House. ISBN 0-394-52964-2. OCLC 13269032 – via Internet Archive.
Further reading
- Manchester, William (1968). The Arms of Krupp, 1587–1968. New York: Bantam Books. ISBN 0-316-52940-0. OCLC 237115. Chapter 25 provides a detailed account of the Krupp Trial and Goetz's role in it.