William Kunstler - Early Life

Early Life

The son of a physician, Kunstler was born to a Jewish family in New York City and attended DeWitt Clinton High School. He was educated at Yale College, graduating Phi Beta Kappa in 1941, and Columbia University Law School from which he graduated in 1948. While in school, Kunstler was an avid poet, and represented Yale in the Glascock Prize competition at Mount Holyoke College.

Kunstler served in the U.S. Army during World War II in the Pacific theater, attaining the rank of Major, and received the Bronze Star. While in the army, he was noted for his theatric portrayals in the Fort Monmouth Dramatic Association.

After his discharge from the Army he attended law school, was admitted to the bar in New York in 1948 and began practicing law. Kunstler went through R.H. Macy's executive training program in the late 1940s and practiced family and small business law in the 1950s before entering civil rights litigation in the 1960s. He was an associate professor of law at New York Law School (1950–1951).

Kunstler won honorable mention for the National Legal Aid Association's press award in 1957 for his series of radio broadcasts on WNEW: "The Law on Trial." At WNEW, Kunstler also conducted interviews on controversial topics, such as the Alger Hiss case, on a program called "Counterpoint."

Kunstler attended Brant Lake Camp, in Brant Lake, New York in the Adirondacks, where he was an exceptional camper-athlete.