Early life of Eliot Spitzer

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Eliot Spitzer was born in the Bronx, the son of Anne (née Goldhaber), a former teacher, and Bernard Spitzer, a real estate mogul.[1][2] His grandparents were Jewish immigrants from Austria.[1]

Spitzer is the youngest of three children. Older brother Daniel Spitzer is a neurosurgeon in New York's Westchester County and his sister Emily Spitzer is executive director of the District of Columbia Bar Foundation. Spitzer was raised in the affluent Riverdale section of The Bronx in New York City. His family was not particularly religious and Spitzer did not have a bar mitzvah.[3] He is a graduate of Horace Mann School. After scoring 1590 on the SAT exam,[3] Spitzer attended Princeton University and majored in the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. At Princeton, he was elected chairman of the undergraduate student government, and graduated in 1981. He scored a perfect score on the LSAT,[4] and went on to Harvard Law School, where he met and married Silda Wall. They married on October 17, 1987 and together they have three daughters: Alyssa (b. December 12, 1989), Sarabeth (b. July 23, 1992), and Jenna (b. May 23, 1994).[5] Spitzer was an editor of the Harvard Law Review. One of Spitzer's classmates at Harvard Law School was Jim Cramer, host of CNBC's Mad Money, on which Spitzer has appeared or called in on three occasions.

[edit] Professional career

Upon receiving his Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree, Spitzer clerked for Judge Robert W. Sweet in Manhattan, then joined the law firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison. He stayed there for less than two years before leaving to join the Manhattan district attorney's office.

Spitzer joined the staff of Manhattan District Attorney Robert M. Morgenthau, where he became chief of the labor-racketeering unit, spending six years pursuing organized crime. His biggest case came in 1992, when Spitzer led the investigation that ended the Gambino organized crime family's control of Manhattan's trucking and garment industries.

Spitzer devised a plan to set up his own sweatshop in the city's garment district, turning out shirts, pants and sweaters, and hiring 30 laborers. The shop manager eventually got close to the Gambinos, and officials were able to plant a bug in their office. The Gambinos, rather than being charged with extortion, which was hard to prove, were charged with antitrust violations. Thomas and Joseph Gambino and two other defendants took the deal and avoided jail by pleading guilty, paying $12 million in fines and agreeing to stay out of the business.[6]

Spitzer left the District Attorney's office in 1992 to work at the law firm of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, where he stayed until 1994. From 1994 to 1998 he worked at the law firm Constantine and Partners on a number of consumer rights and antitrust cases.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ a b Gilded Path to Political Stardom, With Detours.
  2. ^ The Ancestors of Eliot Spitzer.
  3. ^ a b Hakim, Danny. "A Gilded Path to Political Stardom, With Detours", New York Times, October 12, 2006. Abstract retrieved January 1, 2007.
  4. ^ Healy, Patrick."An Ill-Timed Candidate Believes His Time Is Now", New York Times, October 18, 2006. Retrieved January 1, 2007.
  5. ^ Pristin, Terry (December 18, 1998). Man in the News; A Centrist With a Passion for Ideas: Eliot Laurence Spitzer. New York Times. Retrieved on 2008-03-10.
  6. ^ Ignatius, Adi. "Wall Street's Top Cop", Time, December 30, 2002. Retrieved on 2006-11-04. 
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Eliot Spitzer
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Early life
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Silda Wall Spitzer (spouse) · Bernard Spitzer (father)