F E AT U R E
PROFILES
A Legacy
“One of the most important things I’ve ever done was
litigating the case of Mohonk vs. Town of Gardiner,” he
said. The issue in that case was whether a nature preserve
could qualify for a real property tax exemption.
Looking back on those careers, William Ginsberg counts
among his most significant accomplishments the report
he wrote on hazardous waste and Love Canal, his role
in preserving open space, and his two years as New York
City’s Commissioner of Parks, Recreation and Cultural
Affairs under Mayor John Lindsay.
But as passionate as he is about open space and the
environment, Ginsberg has found his greatest fulfillment
at Hofstra. Ginsberg came to Hofstra in 1974, creating
the first course in environmental law ever taught at the
school. “There were no environmental law textbooks
when I started,” remembers Ginsberg. “There were few
federal statutes and little case law.”
But above them all, he says, “The most important thing
I’ve done is teach.”
of Good Works
William Ginsberg, 73, retired at the end of the spring
2003 semester. But his retirement will be anything but
sedentary. He will continue as Professor Emeritus, possibly teaching international environmental law at Hofstra
and accepting invitations to teach at other universities.
He will also, he says, lecture, write and continue to
represent conservation organizations. “I take credit for
having been involved in the preservation of 30,000 acres
in New York state,” he says. “I know that’s miniscule,
but I’m going to keep at it.”
Ginsberg, in fact, participated in writing New York
state’s conservation easement statute and was honored
recently by the Catskill Center for Conservation and
Development where he is president emeritus and
member of the board. He is also general counsel to the
Peconic Land Trust and the Mohonk Preserve, and
provides legal assistance to other land trusts in New
York state. In addition, he is a member of National
Advisory Board of the Trust for Public Land. His pro
bono legal work for the organization has resulted in
the preservation of thousands of acres as open land.
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Hofstra Law Report
A Time to Keep Silent
“I took the position that open space was educational,”
he remembered. “I had teachers testify that they brought
botany, biology and geology classes to Mohonk. We lost
at trial and in the appellate division, but there was a
unanimous reversal in the Court of Appeals.”
Ever since, that is the most frequently cited precedent
in cases involving real property tax exemption and
nature preserves, he says. If not for that ruling, many
preservation organizations could not have existed
because they would not have been able to raise enough
money to manage the land and pay taxes.
Nearly 30 years later, after the field of environmental
law had exploded with both statutes and cases, he still
taught without a textbook, providing his students,
instead, with his own compilation of materials, updated
whenever there was any significant change in law.
“Teaching has been my most satisfying career because
I have seen my students come back five, 10 or 15 years
later, and tell me I helped them, stimulated them, got
them on to a good career path,” he said. He also spoke
warmly of his relationship with his colleagues and deans
at the law school as something rare and congenial “that
I couldn’t have had in any other way.”
The feeling is mutual.
“He has been the pre-eminent voice of reason, civility
and good sense in faculty meetings, and everyone thinks
that,” said Eric Freedman, professor of constitutional law,
who has known Ginsberg since 1988. “He is one of the
inventors of the field of environmental law – the field
grew up around him – and it will take several people to
fill his place if we intend to have the breadth of environmental law courses that he has taught.”
Susan Tiefenbrun, who taught at Hofstra Law School
before moving to the Thomas Jefferson School of Law in
San Diego, calls Ginsberg “one of the rare teachers who
earns the love, admiration and affection of all, and I
mean all, his students.” Tiefenbrun helped set up and
direct the Hofstra Nice International Law Summer
Program, where Ginsberg has taught transnational
environmental law since 1993. She says his “rare gift,”
the quality that makes him universally loved by his
students, “is his ability to communicate his knowledge
with generosity of soul, simplicity and clarity, never
making anyone feel small or ignorant.”
She and Freedman also describe Ginsberg as a man with
a zest for life, captivated by theater, music, good food
and the adventure of living. “Even a lung operation
doesn’t stop him from climbing hills to see a beautiful
church, a field of lavender or a Provencal village,” says
Tiefenbrun.
Hofstra University President Stuart Rabinowitz, who served as Dean of the law school before becoming president,
sees Ginsberg as the “perfect example of an activist, professor, great scholar and teacher who is also at the cutting
edge of his field in the real world, a combination that has
made him unique. He’s also just a genuinely nice man.”
Ginsberg grew up in Flushing, Queens, an area of New
York City, which, during his childhood, still had significant open space. He received a bachelor’s degree from
Antioch College and a Juris Doctor from Yale. He then
became a partner at a Manhattan law firm, and in 1968
joined the Lindsay Administration as
Parks Commissioner.
That work increased his interest in the
environment, an interest that has
expressed itself through his passion for
nature and for hiking and climbing.
His attitude toward nature, says Ginsberg,
has been influenced by Native American
philosophy, “to walk gently on the
earth.” But, he says, “My class is always
shocked when I say that we all pollute.
I drive a car. I eat, etc., etc. The question
is, how can we control pollution in a
way that will leave a world for our children and grandchildren that has some
of the beauty, values and sustainability that we enjoy
during our lifetime?”
BILL GINSBERG
BY FRANCES CERRA WHITTELSEY
William Ginsberg has had
three careers so far, first in
private law practice, then
in state and local government
and, for the past 29 years, in
academia as the Rivkin, Radler
Distinguished Professor of
Environmental Law at Hofstra
University.
A lot of what needs doing, he concluded, is unpopular,
but if you believe “the pendulum swing” of public opinion, he says, then there is cause for optimism. ❦
Left: Professor William Ginsberg holding a book of photographs by fellow
naturalist Ansel Adams and above, photographed at Hofstra in January ‘04.
www.hofstra.edu/law
Spring 2004
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