Author Melvin I. Urofsky comes to Spertus to discuss his moving portrait of Louis D. Brandeis, one of the towering figures of the 20th century. He explores Brandeis’ work as a successful lawyer pioneering how law would be practiced in the new era, as a reformer who represented public causes and proposed the idea of pro bono work, as advocate who transformed the moribund American Zionist movement into a political powerhouse, and as a Supreme Court justice who championed the right to privacy and the modern jurisprudence for free speech.

Melvin I. Urofsky is Professor of Law and Public Policy at Virginia Commonwealth University. A prodigious author and lecturer, he writes widely on constitutional history and has been the editor for the past 17 years of the Journal of Supreme Court History. His newest work, Louis D. Brandeis: A Life, was published by Pantheon in September 2009.

Recorded Monday, December 14, 2009 at Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies.