Trustee Emeritus Ralph K. Winter Jr., Longtime Second Circuit Judge, Dies at 85

Ralph K. Winter Jr., former Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and a member of the Brooklyn Law School Board of Trustees for 27 years, died on Dec. 8, 2020. He was 85.

Winter served as a Trustee from 1986 to 2013, a time of significant growth for the Law School, including expansion of the main campus building at 250 Joralemon Street and construction of Feil Hall, the school’s first residence hall. He played an instrumental role in the search that led to the appointment of Joan Wexler as dean in 1994. He also contributed to the intellectual life of the Law School by speaking at academic symposia and events.

Winter was appointed to the Second Circuit in 1981 by President Ronald Reagan. From 1997 to 2000, he served as chief judge of the Second Circuit, attaining senior status in 2000. In 2017, he received the Edward J. Devitt Distinguished Service to Justice Award, the highest honor awarded by the federal judiciary.

Born in Waterbury, Conn., in 1935, Winter received his bachelor’s degree from Yale College in 1957 and his law degree from Yale Law School in 1960. Immediately after law school, he clerked for Chief Judge Caleb M. Wright of the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware. He then moved on to clerk for a newly appointed judge on the Second Circuit, Thurgood Marshall. Marshall would later become the first Black justice on the U.S. Supreme Court, as well as Winter’s lifelong mentor.

Winter was the William K. Townsend Professor of Law at Yale Law School, where he taught for 20 years, focusing on securities regulation, antitrust law, labor law, and evidence. His scholarship on regulatory competition and public-sector unions remains influential.

During his tenure at Yale, Winter joined the legal team representing the plaintiff in the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case Buckley v. Valeo, alongside future faculty member Joel Gora and former U.S. Senator Eugene McCarthy. Winter successfully argued the case before the Court, leading to a decision that set the structure of modern campaign finance law for decades.

“It was a great honor, privilege, and treat as an ACLU lawyer to have worked with then Professor Ralph Winter,” said Gora. “Professor Winter led off our argument before the Supreme Court, and the rest is history. It was my good fortune to have remained close with Judge Winter in the years since, and through his long affiliation with Brooklyn Law School. He was a great teacher, a great judge, and a great person. We will all miss him dearly.”

Winter served as a mentor for generations of young lawyers. His former law clerks include Professor Brian Lee, as well as Jodi Golinsky ’98, Kelly Gilmore ’07, Shannon Haley ’08, Megan Overgaard ’09, Rachel Green ’10, Stanton Gallegos ’11, Shawna MacLeod ’12, and Kiran Sheffrin ’13.

“Judge Winter’s generosity of spirit, devotion to the rule of law, intellectual rigor, sense of duty, and commitment to that undefinable but indispensable quality, sound judgment—all leavened with his irrepressible sense of humor—were an inspiration,” said Lee. “His legacy lives on in enduring contributions to legal scholarship and jurisprudence, and in the indelible mark he left on those who had the privilege of working for—and learning from—him.”

Winter was predeceased by his wife of 50 years, Kate, in 2012. He is survived by his son Andrew, his daughter-in-law Kimberly, and his granddaughter Kiersten.