Peter Lenard Zimroth (January 11, 1943 – November 8, 2021) was an American attorney whose career included service as a legal academic, public official and private practitioner. As New York City Corporation Counsel from 1987 to 1989, he unsuccessfully defended the constitutional purview of the

New York City Board of Estimate The New York City Board of Estimate was a governmental body in New York City responsible for numerous areas of municipal policy and decisions, including the city budget, land-use, contracts, franchises, and water rates. Under the amendments effec ...

in protracted litigation, culminating in its disestablishment under the

Equal Protection Clause The Equal Protection Clause is part of the first section of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The clause, which took effect in 1868, provides "''nor shall any State ... deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal ...

(pursuant to ''

Reynolds v. Sims ''Reynolds v. Sims'', 377 U.S. 533 (1964), was a landmark United States Supreme Court case in which the Court ruled that the electoral districts of state legislative chambers must be roughly equal in population. Along with ''Baker v. Carr'' (196 ...

'') in 1989. In 2013, he became the court-appointed monitor of the

New York City Police Department The New York City Police Department (NYPD), officially the City of New York Police Department, established on May 23, 1845, is the primary municipal law enforcement agency within the City of New York, the largest and one of the oldest in ...

stop-and-frisk Frisking (also called a patdown or pat down) is a search of a person's outer clothing wherein a person runs their hands along the outer garments of another to detect any concealed weapons or objects. U.S. Law In the United States, a law enforce ...

policies and practices.

Career

Peter Lenard Zimroth was born on January 11, 1943, in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

, New York, the son of Sol and Ruth (née Sadowsky) Zimroth. Raised in the

Bensonhurst Bensonhurst is a residential neighborhood in the southwestern section of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The neighborhood is bordered on the northwest by 14th Avenue, on the northeast by 60th Street, on the southeast by Avenue P and 22nd ...

and

Sheepshead Bay Sheepshead, Sheephead, or Sheep's Head, may refer to: Fish * ''Archosargus probatocephalus'', a medium-sized saltwater fish of the Atlantic Ocean * Freshwater drum, ''Aplodinotus grunniens'', a medium-sized freshwater fish of North and Central Am ...

sections of

, he graduated from Abraham Lincoln High School,

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

and

Yale Law School Yale Law School (Yale Law or YLS) is the law school of Yale University, a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. It was established in 1824 and has been ranked as the best law school in the United States by ''U ...

, where he was editor-in-chief of the ''

Yale Law Journal The ''Yale Law Journal'' (YLJ), known also as the ''Yale Law Review'', is a student-run law review affiliated with the Yale Law School. Published continuously since 1891, it is the most widely known of the eight law reviews published by students ...

''. After receiving his law degree in 1966, he served as a

law clerk A law clerk or a judicial clerk is a person, generally someone who provides direct counsel and assistance to a lawyer or judge by researching issues and drafting legal opinions for cases before the court. Judicial clerks often play significant ...

to Chief Judge

David L. Bazelon David Lionel Bazelon (September 3, 1909 – February 19, 1993) was a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Education and career Bazelon was born in Superior, Wisconsin, the son of ...

of the

United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (in case citations, D.C. Cir.) is one of the thirteen United States Courts of Appeals. It has the smallest geographical jurisdiction of any of the U.S. federal appellate cou ...

and then for Justice

Abe Fortas Abraham Fortas (June 19, 1910 – April 5, 1982) was an American lawyer and jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1965 to 1969. Born and raised in Memphis, Tennessee, Fortas graduated from Rhod ...

of the

United States Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...

. In 1970, he joined the faculty of the

New York University School of Law New York University School of Law (NYU Law) is the law school of New York University, a private research university in New York City. Established in 1835, it is the oldest law school in New York City and the oldest surviving law school in New ...

. The next year, he represented police detective and whistleblower David Durk during his testimony before the

Knapp Commission The Commission to Investigate Alleged Police Corruption (known informally as the Knapp Commission, after its chairman Whitman Knapp) was a five-member panel initially formed in April 1970 by Mayor John V. Lindsay to investigate corruption withi ...

. Zimroth later served as an Assistant United States Attorney for the

Southern District of New York The United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (in case citations, S.D.N.Y.) is a federal trial court whose geographic jurisdiction encompasses eight counties of New York State. Two of these are in New York City: New Y ...

and as the Chief Assistant District Attorney of

New York County Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

under longtime District Attorney

Robert Morgenthau Robert Morris Morgenthau ( ; July 31, 1919July 21, 2019) was an American lawyer. From 1975 until his retirement in 2009, he was the District Attorney for New York County (the borough of Manhattan), having previously served as United States Attorn ...

. Following a period of private practice, he served as the New York City Corporation Counsel during the mayoralty of

Ed Koch Edward Irving Koch ( ; December 12, 1924February 1, 2013) was an American politician, lawyer, political commentator, film critic, and television personality. He served in the United States House of Representatives from 1969 to 1977 and was may ...

. He argued three cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, including '' Payton v. New York'' and ''

Board of Estimate of City of New York v. Morris ''Board of Estimate of City of New York v. Morris'', 489 U.S. 688 (1989), was a case argued before the United States Supreme Court regarding the structure of the New York City Board of Estimate. Background Under the charter of the City of Greater ...

''. After leaving the municipal government, Zimroth became a partner at

Arnold & Porter Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer LLP is an American multinational law firm. A white-shoe firm, Arnold & Porter is among the largest law firms in the world, by both revenue and by its number of lawyers. History Arnold & Porter was founded in 1946 ...

in 1990. Following his retirement from the firm in 2015, he rejoined New York University's law faculty as a Distinguished Scholar in Residence. On August 12, 2013, U.S. District Court Judge

Shira Scheindlin Shira A. Scheindlin (; born 1946) is an American attorney and jurist who served as a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. Early life and education Scheindlin was born in Washing ...

appointed Zimroth to oversee court-ordered reforms to the NYPD’s policies and training related to

, one of the remedies opinions in the multi-faceted ''

Floyd v. City of New York Floyd, et al. v. City of New York, et al., 959 F. Supp. 2d 540 ( S.D.N.Y. 2013), is a set of cases addressing the class action lawsuit filed against the City of New York, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and named and u ...

'' decision.

Awards

In 2014, the

Interfaith Center of New York The Interfaith Center of New York (ICNY) is a secular educational non-profit organization founded in 1997 by the Very Reverend James Parks Morton. ICNY programs work to connect religious leaders and their communities with civil organizations and ...

gave Zimroth the James Parks Morton Interfaith Award.

Personal life

Zimroth was married to actress

Estelle Parsons Estelle Margaret Parsons (born November 20, 1927) is an American actress, singer and stage director. After studying law, Parsons became a singer before deciding to pursue a career in acting. She worked for the television program ''Today'' and ...

from January 1983 until his death. The couple had been together for ten years when they chose to marry to honour the pending adoption of their child, son Abraham (born 1983).

References

External links

Arnold & Porter profile of Peter Zimroth
(August 14, 2013)
NYPD Monitor’s Website About Us pageNYU Law School profile of Peter Zimroth Oyez profile of Peter Zimroth
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zimroth, Peter 1943 births 2021 deaths 20th-century American lawyers Columbia College (New York) alumni Yale Law School alumni People from Brooklyn People from Manhattan Law clerks of the Supreme Court of the United States Arnold & Porter people Abraham Lincoln High School (Brooklyn) alumni 21st-century American lawyers Lawyers from New York City

Career

Awards

Personal life

See also

References

External links