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Arthur Goldberg - ambassador, justice, cabinet member - was born in Chicago a century agoBy Stephen Anderson The centennial of the birth in Chicago of Arthur Joseph Goldberg, who served for three years on the U.S. Supreme Court, will arrive quietly on Friday, Aug. 8. No civic observance has been announced (see Hearsay). Goldberg received an ISBA Award of Merit in 1979 for outstanding contributions in the field of law that included service as U.S. labor secretary and two ambassadorships. In 1984, he was honored by the Illinois Bar Foundation as an Honorary Fellow and recipient of the inaugural Fellows Award for Distinguished Service to Law and Society. The youngest of 11 children of Russian immigrants, Goldberg worked a variety of odd jobs as a teenager after his father’s death. He wrapped fish, sold shoes and hawked coffee during Cubs games at Wrigley Field. At age 18, he began to study law at the Northwestern University School of Law and was selected by Dean John Henry Wigmore to assist with the third edition of a treatise on evidence. Goldberg graduated magna cum laude in 1929 with a bachelor of laws degree. Although considered too young to apply for admission, he was admitted after litigation of the issue. He received a juris scientiae doctorate, summa cum laude, in 1930. Goldberg practiced with Kamfner, Horowitz, Halligan & Daniels from 1929 until 1931, when he joined Pritzker & Pritzker. He opened his own labor law practice in 1933. After Army service during World War II and promotion to the rank of major, Goldberg formed the partnership of Goldberg & Devoe. In 1947, he became senior partner in Goldberg, Devoe, Shadur & Mikva. Appointed general counsel to the Congress of Industrial Organizations and United Steelworkers of America in 1948, he relocated to Washington, D.C., and was senior partner in Goldberg, Feller & Bredhoff from 1952 to 1961. He served as Secretary of Labor in the Kennedy administration until his confirmation in 1962 for the Supreme Court seat vacated by Felix Frankfurter. Three years later, President Johnson asked Goldberg to leave the court and become ambassador to the United Nations during the Vietnam War after the death of Adlai Stevenson. He served from July 26, 1965, to April 23, 1968. Goldberg was a partner in the New York City firm of Paul, Weiss, Goldberg, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison when he ran unsuccessfully for governor of the state in 1970. He returned to private practice in Washington in 1971. Recalled to public service by President Carter in 1977, he was U.S. ambassador to the Belgrade Conference on Human Rights, earning the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1978. Goldberg died Jan. 19, 1990, at age 81 after a heart attack, and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery near the grave of former chief justice Earl Warren. The Jewish Council on Urban Affairs in Chicago presents an Arthur Goldberg Social Justice Award. The most recent presentation was made June 24 to Lee I. Miller of DLA Piper.
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