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Martin Garbus

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Martin Garbus
Martin Garbus with his hands under his chin, looking toward the camera
Born (1934-08-08) August 8, 1934 (age 90)
Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
NationalityAmerican
Alma materHunter College
New York University Law School
Occupation(s)Attorney, author, teacher
Years active1963-present
ChildrenCassandra
Elizabeth "Liz"

Martin Garbus (born August 8, 1934) is an American attorney.

Education

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Garbus graduated from the Bronx High School of Science in 1951, earned his B.A. from Hunter College in 1955, and received his J.D. from NYU School of Law. While studying, he worked as a taxi driver in New York and on the Ford assembly line in Tarrytown. He later pursued graduate studies in economics at Columbia University, English at The New School, and law at NYU. He was admitted to the bars in New York and six additional states, several federal appellate courts, and the U.S. Supreme Court Bar by 1963. He also serves on the advisory board of the Center for Law, Brain & Behavior at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital.[1]

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Garbus began his legal career after earning his J.D. and serving two years in the U.S. Army by clerking for noted attorneys Emile Zola Berman and Ephraim London.[citation needed] In 1966, he became co‑director of Columbia’s Center on Social Policy and Law while teaching there.[citation needed] He then served as director‑counsel of the Roger Baldwin Foundation of the ACLU, overseeing offices across several southern states and building legal strategies for the landmark O’Connor v. Donaldson case.[citation needed] He also served as Legal Director and Associate Director of the national ACLU, led the Lawyers Committee to Defend Civil Rights, ran for office in 1974, and founded the Frankfurt Garbus law firm in 1977. He subsequently taught as an adjunct at Yale Law School and lectured at Harvard and Stanford. As a Fulbright scholar in 2005–2006, he taught at Tsinghua and Renmin Law Schools in Beijing and aided in drafting China’s copyright and IP laws while representing dissidents in related rule‑of‑law seminars.[2]

Notable cases

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Garbus' clients include Nelson Mandela, Andrei Sakharov, Václav Havel, Samuel Beckett, Al Pacino, Daniel Ellsberg, Philip Roth, Michael Moore, Sean Connery, Michael Caine, Michael York, Lauren Bacall, Agnes Martin, Pace Gallery, Estate of Mark Rothko, Robert Mapplethorpe, Cincinnati Museum of Fine Art, Robert Redford, Spike Lee, Sally Mann, Allen Ginsberg, Kathy Boudin, Garry Marshall, Marilyn Monroe, Igor Stravinsky, Nora Ephron, Salman Rushdie, Simon & Schuster, Random House, Bertelsmann, Penguin Books, Putnam,[3] Grove Press, The Sundance Film Festival, Alger Hiss, Ecuadorian plaintiffs, Estate of John Cheever, Julie Taymor, Justices in India, Knopf, Leonard Weinglass, Michael Bloomberg, Michael York, Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, Philip Roth, Rwanda, Sean Connery, Sonny Mehta, Sophia Loren to clients, Steven Donziger, Susan Sontag, Viking Penguin, and William Kunstler.[4]

In January 2021, Garbus called on the New York State Bar Association and one of the Appellate Divisions of the New York Supreme Court to disbar Rudy Giuliani following the 2021 United States Capitol attack where in a prior "Save America" rally, Giuliani encouraged "trial by combat."[5][6]

Public speaking

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Garbus has participated in lectures and debates before the American Bar Association, the Bar Associations of New York, Washington and Los Angeles on a variety of topics including trial practice, jury selection, copyright and the Supreme Court. Garbus debated former Independent Prosecutor Kenneth Starr at venues across the country. He served as a commentator for NBC, ABC, CBS, PBS, Charlie Rose, CNN, Fox News, Court TV, CCTV in China and the BBC, Time and Newsweek. Garbus has written numerous pieces for The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, The New York Review of Books, The Nation, and Huffington Post.[7]

Garbus' career is set forth in the award-winning HBO documentary Shouting Fire: Stories from the Edge of Free Speech.[8]

International work

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Garbus has worked for the governments of the former Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Rwanda, and China as a consultant on constitutional, media and communications law. Recently in 2002, the government of China hired Garbus to help address the problems posed by digital piracy. He represented dissidents Václav Havel, Nelson Mandela, and Andrei Sakharov. In 2004, he was appointed advisor to the Chinese team responsible for the creation of China's intellectual property laws.[9][10]

Personal life

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Garbus has two daughters. Cassandra Garbus is an author and teacher. Liz Garbus, a director and producer of documentaries, is married to producer Dan Cogan.

Awards and recognition

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  • PEN USA First Amendment Award of Honor (2007)
  • New York University Law Alumni Achievement Award (2004)
  • Hunter College Law Alumni Achievement Award (2005)
  • Hunter College Hall of Fame (2005)
  • Marquis Who's Who in America (2017 and prior years)
  • Marquis Who's Who in American Law (2017 and prior years)
  • Civil Liberties Union Award (2007)
  • Senator William Fulbright Award for Global Leadership in International Law (2012)
  • James Joyce Award from the University of Dublin for Excellence in Law (2014)
  • Trinity College Award for Defending First Amendment Cases (2014)

Bibliography

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  • Ready for the Defense (Farrar Straus & Giroux, 1971; Avon softcover, 1972, and Carroll & Graf reprint, 1995)
  • Traitors and Heroes (Athenaeum, 1987; Random House softcover, 1988)
  • Tough Talk: How I Fought For Writers, Comics, Bigots, and the American Way, introduction by David Halberstam (Random House-Times Books, 1998, Times Books softcover, 1999)
  • Courting Disaster: The Supreme Court and the Unmaking of America Law (Times Books, New York, 2002; Times Books softcover, 2003)
  • The Next 25 Years: How the Supreme Court Will Make You Forget the Meaning of Words Like Privacy, Equality and Freedom (Seven Stories Press 2007)
  • North of Havana: The Untold Story of Dirty Politics, Secret Diplomacy, and the Trial of the Cuban Five (The New Press; Illustrated edition, 2019)
  • The Candy Store, to be published 2025

Appearances in films

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References

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  1. ^ "Martin Garbus". The Free Speech Center. Retrieved June 19, 2025.
  2. ^ Connolly, Kim (April 11, 2022). "Martin Garbus website". www.martin-garbus.com.
  3. ^ Shprintz, Janet (December 17, 2002). "Verdict is for Garbus to move on". Variety. Retrieved July 30, 2017.
  4. ^ "Biography Overview | Martin Garbus, Trial Lawyer". Retrieved October 27, 2020.
  5. ^ "Rudy Giuliani calls for 'trial by combat' to settle election in rant at wild DC rally". The Independent. January 6, 2021. Retrieved January 9, 2021.
  6. ^ @lizgarbus (January 8, 2021). "Register" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  7. ^ Pressler, Jessica (June 19, 2009). "123 Minutes With Liz and Martin Garbus -- New York Magazine - Nymag". New York Magazine. Retrieved June 19, 2025.
  8. ^ Genzlinger, Neil (June 28, 2009). "Some Speech Is More Free Than Others". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved June 19, 2025.
  9. ^ Garbus, Martin (November 17, 1994). "Opinion | Jurists Without Borders". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved June 19, 2025.
  10. ^ "China: A Consistent Commitment To The Rule Of Intellectual Property And Corporate Law - Part II, Corporate Counsel Business Journal". June 2006.
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