After graduating from Weequahic, I went to Rutgers (New Brunswick) and graduated in 1968. Our classmate, Bill Rabinowitz, was one of my college housemates, and we are still in touch – unfortunately, he couldn’t make it to the reunion, but sends his best wishes.
Though I was a math major at Rutgers, I wound up going to law school, following in my father’s and older brother’s footsteps. I was fortunate to get into Harvard Law School, and went there in 1969, after a year off to take care of my Army Reserve active duty commitment. I did very well at Harvard, and it wound up propelling me forward to what has been an interesting and reasonably successful legal career. I had two great clerkships, including a year with Thurgood Marshall at the US Supreme Court. I then moved to California, and joined a large LA law firm, where I eventually became a partner. .
But LA was a mistake for me personally – I never really liked it, and looked forward to coming back to New York, which is what I eventually did. But first I took several years off – an early mid-life crisis, I often say – went off to Oxford University in England, first as a visitor, then as a full time student. I wound up getting another degree, in English literature, and had a wonderful broadening experience (at the ages of 36-39). And I capped off that experience by traveling around the world for a year, mostly in Asia, in student backpacker style. It was a great adventure, and one of the two best years of my life. (The other was at the Supreme Court.) .
On my return, I decided that I would be a lawyer when I grew up, after all. So I returned to New York, and took a job at the US Attorney’s Office. In the 60’s and 70’s, I would have never considered being a prosecutor, but it was a great job, doing work that was exciting and challenging and worthwhile, with many great colleagues. I spent 11 years there, and wound up supervising the appellate work that the office did in the US Court of Appeals. .
I finally left in the fall of 2000. I am now a partner at the New York office of a firm called Hogan & Hartson, a DC-based firm that is now one of the largest firms in the country. (There are about 150 lawyers in New York, and about 1,000 lawyers worldwide.) I am working a lot harder than I would like – an issue for me throughout my career – but I am basically very happy there. My practice – a combination of white-collar criminal defense work and appellate work – continues to be challenging and interesting, if much too busy. .
The great regret of my life is that I have never remarried and never had children. I was married in the 1970’s, to a nice Jewish girl from Maplewood and Douglass College, but it did not work out and we divorced in California in 1981. I have hoped ever since to find the right person and have a family, but that has never worked out either. In truth, I have still not given up, despite our advanced age, and still hope to be one of those older guys who amazingly still has young children. .
My life is much too busy, but I love living in New York and take advantage of the theater, restaurants, Yankee games and other things the city has to offer as often as I can. I just bought a new apartment on the Upper West Side, which I am very excited about. I have traveled a great deal, and love it – besides the year off exploring the world, I have seen a lot of Europe, spent a month in Australia in 2000, spent two weeks in South Africa last year, and just came back from two weeks in Greece (including the Olympic Games). My immersion in literature at Oxford left me with a love for reading that I have much too little time to indulge, but do my best. .
I look forward to the Reunion, and to catching up with others. My home email address is IraFeinberg@aol.com.
