Susan Estrich (born December 16, 1952) is an American lawyer, professor, author, political operative, and political commentator. She is known for serving as the campaign manager for
Michael Dukakis
Michael Stanley Dukakis (; born November 3, 1933) is an American retired lawyer and politician who served as governor of Massachusetts from 1975 to 1979 and again from 1983 to 1991. He is the longest-serving governor in Massachusetts history a ...
in 1988 (being the first woman to manage the presidential campaign of a major party nominee since
Belle Moskowitz managed
Al Smith's campaign in 1928) and for serving in 2016 as legal counsel to the former Fox News chairman
Roger Ailes
Roger Eugene Ailes (May 15, 1940 – May 18, 2017) was an American television executive and media consultant. He was the chairman and CEO of Fox News, Fox Television Stations and 20th Television. Ailes was a media consultant for Republica ...
.
Early life and education
Estrich was born in
Lynn, Massachusetts
Lynn is the eighth-largest municipality in Massachusetts and the largest city in Essex County. Situated on the Atlantic Ocean, north of the Boston city line at Suffolk Downs, Lynn is part of Greater Boston's urban inner core. Settled by E ...
, the second of three children of Helen Roslyn Freedberg, a medical office manager, and Irving Abraham Estrich, an attorney.
She grew up in
Marblehead on the
Massachusetts
Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ...
North Shore, where she attended the Dr Samuel C Eveleth School.
Estrich graduated ''
Phi Beta Kappa
The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States, and the most prestigious, due in part to its long history and academic selectivity. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal ...
'' from
Wellesley College in 1974, and received her
J.D. degree from
Harvard Law School in 1977.
In 1976, Estrich was elected the first female president/editor-in-chief of the ''
Harvard Law Review'', where she ran against
Merrick Garland
Merrick Brian Garland (born November 13, 1952) is an American lawyer and jurist serving since March 2021 as the 86th United States attorney general. He previously served as a U.S. circuit judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of ...
. In 1983, Estrich was elected to the
Common Cause National Governing Board.
Career
Estrich served as a law clerk for Judge
J. Skelly Wright of the
U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia
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 co ...
and Justice
John Paul Stevens of the
U.S. 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 1978–1979. In 1988, she was the campaign manager for
Michael Dukakis
Michael Stanley Dukakis (; born November 3, 1933) is an American retired lawyer and politician who served as governor of Massachusetts from 1975 to 1979 and again from 1983 to 1991. He is the longest-serving governor in Massachusetts history a ...
' presidential run, even though she had never before managed a political campaign. She was the first female campaign manager of a major presidential campaign, and the first female campaign manager of the modern era.
Estrich appears frequently on
Fox News
The Fox News Channel, abbreviated FNC, commonly known as Fox News, and stylized in all caps, is an American multinational conservative cable news television channel based in New York City. It is owned by Fox News Media, which itself is owne ...
as a legal and political analyst, and also substituted for
Alan Colmes
Alan Samuel Colmes (September 24, 1950 – February 23, 2017) was an American radio and television host, liberal political commentator for the Fox News Channel, and blogger. He was the host of ''The Alan Colmes Show'', a nationally syndica ...
on the debate show ''
Hannity & Colmes
''Hannity & Colmes'' was a live television show on Fox News in the United States, hosted by Sean Hannity and Alan Colmes, who respectively presented a conservative and liberal perspective. The series premiered on October 7, 1996, and the final epi ...
''. She has served on the Board of Editorial Contributors for ''
USA Today
''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virgi ...
''. She writes a nationally syndicated print column distributed through
Creators Syndicate
Creators Syndicate (also known as Creators) is an American independent distributor of comic strips and syndicated columns to daily newspapers, websites, and other digital outlets. When founded in 1987, Creators Syndicate became one of the few suc ...
.
She is currently a law professor at the
University of Southern California School of Law
The USC Gould School of Law, located in Los Angeles, California, is the law school of the University of Southern California. The oldest law school in the Southwestern United States, USC Law traces its beginnings to 1896 and became affiliated wit ...
and a political science professor at its
affiliated undergraduate school. Before joining the USC faculty in 1989, she was Professor of Law at
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...
, where she was one of the youngest woman in the school's history to receive
tenure
Tenure is a category of academic appointment existing in some countries. A tenured post is an indefinite academic appointment that can be terminated only for cause or under extraordinary circumstances, such as financial exigency or program disco ...
. On January 10, 2008, Estrich joined
Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, LLP, a law firm based in Los Angeles, where she chaired their Public Strategy in High Profile Litigation: Media Relations practice area.
In several of Estrich's books, including ''Sex & Power'' and ''The Case for Hillary Clinton'', she discusses her experience as a survivor of rape. Her book ''Real Rape'' talks about the history of rape law in the United States. In 2004, Estrich challenged ''
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...
'' editorial page editor
Michael Kinsley
Michael E. Kinsley (born March 9, 1951) is an American political journalist and commentator. Primarily active in print media as both a writer and editor, he also became known to television audiences as a co-host on ''Crossfire''.
Early life and e ...
for under-representing women on the editorial page. Estrich was outspoken during the
2008 presidential race, particularly on the subject of women in politics in light of the candidacies of
Hillary Clinton
Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, diplomat, and former lawyer who served as the 67th United States Secretary of State for President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, as a United States sen ...
and
Sarah Palin. Estrich supported Clinton in the
Democratic primaries, and was strongly critical of Palin.
Estrich and the former
American Civil Liberties Union
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is a nonprofit organization founded in 1920 "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States". T ...
president in Massachusetts, Harvey A. Silverglate, joined attorneys representing two alleged
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
al-Qaeda funders, Emadeddin Z. Muntasser and Muhammed Mubayyid who were indicted on May 11, 2005, for lying about the true nature of their organization and their charitable, tax-exempt activities. In their October 5, 2006, motion for dismissal, attorneys Estrich, Malick Ghachem, Norman Zalkind and Elizabeth Lunt, argued that the defendants lawfully exercised their religious freedom and obligation to give "
zakat
Zakat ( ar, زكاة; , "that which purifies", also Zakat al-mal , "zakat on wealth", or Zakah) is a form of almsgiving, often collected by the Muslim Ummah. It is considered in Islam as a religious obligation, and by Quranic ranking, is ...
" (Islamic charity). Their motion cites Chapter 9, verse 60, of the
Koran
The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation from God. It is organized in 114 chapters (pl.: , si ...
, which describes "those entitled to receive zakat."
In July 2016, Estrich was retained as legal counsel to the former
Fox News
The Fox News Channel, abbreviated FNC, commonly known as Fox News, and stylized in all caps, is an American multinational conservative cable news television channel based in New York City. It is owned by Fox News Media, which itself is owne ...
chairman
Roger Ailes
Roger Eugene Ailes (May 15, 1940 – May 18, 2017) was an American television executive and media consultant. He was the chairman and CEO of Fox News, Fox Television Stations and 20th Television. Ailes was a media consultant for Republica ...
— whom she met on the
George H. W. Bush campaign trail in 1988 and whom she considered a close friend. Ailes lost his job after a number of women who worked for Fox News accused him of sexual harassment. Her attacks against
Gabe Sherman
Gabriel Sherman is an American author. In 2014, he wrote a biography about Fox News Channel president Roger Ailes called '' The Loudest Voice in the Room: How the Brilliant, Bombastic Roger Ailes Built Fox News – and Divided a Country'', which ...
, the
New York reporter who broke the scandal, were negatively viewed by some who felt the representation to be inconsistent with Estrich's pro-feminist philosophy.
In October 2018, Estrich joined
Boies Schiller Flexner LLP
Boies Schiller Flexner LLP is a national law firm based in New York City. The firm was founded by David Boies and Jonathan D. Schiller, in 1997, who, in 1999, were joined by Donald L. Flexner, former partner with Crowell & Moring, then forming B ...
as a partner in its Los Angeles office. In 2022, she represented
Leon Black
Leon David Black (born July 31, 1951) is an American investor and the co-founder and former-CEO of the private equity firm Apollo Global Management. Black also served as the chairman of The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City from Ju ...
, a billionaire investor and associate of
Jeffrey Epstein
Jeffrey Edward Epstein ( ; January 20, 1953August 10, 2019) was an American sex offender and financier. Epstein, who was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York City, began his professional life by teaching at the Dalton School in Manhattan, des ...
, who was accused of raping a woman in 2002 whom Epstein had introduced him to. Estrich was quoted claiming that the accusation was "categorically false" and "part of a scheme to extort money from Mr. Black".
Personal life
In 1986, Estrich married screenwriter, professor and former speechwriter
Marty Kaplan
Martin Kaplan (born August 21, 1950) is an American professor. He teaches at the USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism and is the founding director of the Norman Lear Center for the study of the impact of entertainment on society ...
, with whom she has a daughter, Isabel, and a son, James. They have since divorced. She is
Jewish
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
, having celebrated becoming a
Bat Mitzvah at Temple Israel in
Swampscott, Massachusetts, and has written about her religion in her column.
In popular culture
Estrich is portrayed by
Allison Janney
Allison Brooks Janney (born November 19, 1959) is an American actress. In a career spanning three decades, she is known for her performances across multiple genres of screen and stage. Janney has received various accolades, including an Academ ...
in the film ''
Bombshell'' (2019).
Bibliography
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See also
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References
External links
Susan Estrichat University of Southern California, Gould School of Law
Susan Estrich Columns Arcamax
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Estrich, Susan
1952 births
Living people
American women lawyers
American feminists
American lawyers
American legal scholars
American legal writers
American political commentators
American political writers
Jewish American writers
Jewish feminists
Massachusetts Democrats
USC Gould School of Law faculty
Wellesley College alumni
Harvard Law School alumni
Law clerks of the Supreme Court of the United States
People from Marblehead, Massachusetts
Harvard Law School faculty
Sexual abuse victim advocates
Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan people
Women legal scholars
American women academics
Boies Schiller Flexner people
21st-century American Jews
21st-century American women